Nikola Tesla : The Biography of an Extraordinary Man part- II

Nikola Tesla

An extraordinary man

___________

The Path of Alternating current

After an unsuccessful attempt to start his own Tesla Electric Light Company and a stint digging ditches for $2 a day, Tesla found backers to support his research into a alternating current. In 1887 and 1888 he was granted more than 30 patents for his inventions and invited to address the American institute of Electrical Engineers on his work.

His lecture caught the attention of George Westinghouse, the inventor who had launched the first AC power system near Boston and was Edison's major competitor in the "Battle of The Current". 

Westinghouse and Tesla

Westinghouse hired tesla, licensed the patents for his AC motor and gave him his own lab. In 1890 Edison arranged for a convicted New York murderer to be put to death in an AC powered electric chair a stunt designed to show how dangerous the Westinghouse standard could be. Buoyed by Westinghouse's royalties, Tesla struck out on his own again. But Westinghouse was soon forced by his backers to renegotiate their contract, with Tesla relinquishing his royalty rights.

In the 1890s Tesla invented electric oscillators, meters, improved lights and the high voltage transformer known as the Tesla coil. He also experimented with X-rays, gave short-range demonstrations of radio communication two years before Guglielmo Marconi and piloted a radio controlled boat around a pool in Madison square garden. 

Together, Tesla and Westinghouse lit the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and partner with General Electric to install AC generators at Niagara Falls, creating the first modern power station.

Nikola Tesla's Legacy

In 1895 Tesla's New York lab burned, destroying years worth of notes and equipment. Tesla relocated to Colorado Springs for two years, returning to New York in 1900. He secured backing from financier J.P Morgan and began building a global communications network centered on a giant tower at Wardenclyff, on long Island. But funds ran out and Morgan balked at Tesla's grandiose schemes.

Tesla lived his last decades in a New York hotel, working on new inventions even a his energy and mental health faded. His obsession with the number three and fastidious washing were dismissed as the eccentricities of genius.

 He spent his final years feeding—and, he claimed, communicating with—the city’s pigeons.Tesla died in his room on January 7, 1943. Later that year the U.S. Supreme Court voided four of Marconi’s key patents, belatedly acknowledging Tesla’s innovations in radio. The AC system he championed and improved remains the global standard for power transmission.

                                       

Hope you have got some new information through my blog , if you have any quary or suggestions feel free to contact us on Gmail ID : devasyatiwari2884@gmail.com and you can drop a comment also.