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2/1/2016 Top 11 Thi ngs You D idn' t Know About N ikol a Tesl a | D epar tm ent of Ener gy

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Top 11 Things You Didn't Know About NikolaTesla

November 18, 2013 - 1:48pm
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Marissa Newhall

Director of Digital Strategy and Communications

TESLA VS. EDISON

Read the companion to this piece, Top 8 Things You Didn't Know About Thomas Alva Edison.

Are y ou on #TeamTesla or #TeamEdison? Use hashtags on s ocial media or vote on our website for your favorite inventor.

Submit questions for Tesla and Edison experts to answer during our live Google+ Hangouton Thursday, Nov. 21, at 12:30 p.m.

EST.

Nikola Tesla in or around 1890, when the inventor was in his mid-30s. | Photo is in the public domain. Image courtesy

of the Library of Congress.
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This week on Energy.gov, were revisiting the storied rivalry between two of historys most important energy-related

inventors and engineers: Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. Check back each day to learn more about their lives,

their inventions and how their contributions are still impacting the way we use energy today. Support your favorite

with the hashtags #teamedison and #teamtesla on social media, or cast your vote on our website. And be sure to

submit questions about the inventors for our live Google+ Hangout with Tesla and Edison experts, happening

Thursday, Nov. 21, at 12:30 p.m. EST.

11. Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in the Austrian Empire, now Croatia. He was the fourth of five children. After acheckered academic career in Europe, he worked as a telegraph drafter and electrician before moving to the United

States to work for Thomas Edison in 1884.

10. If you couldnt imagine life without your TV remote, thank Nikola Tesla for making it possible. Tesla invented,

predicted or contributed to development of hundreds of technologies that play big parts in our daily lives -- like the

remote control, neon and fluorescent lights, wireless transmission, computers, smartphones, laser beams, x-rays,

robotics and, of course, alternating current, the basis of our present-day electrical system.

9. Innovation runs in Teslas blood. Tesla once wrote: My mother was an inventor of the first order and would, Ibelieve, have achieved great things had she not been so remote from modern life and its multi fold opportunities. She

invented and constructed all kinds of tools and devices and wove the finest designs from thread which was spun by

her. He credited both his parents influence for his success.

8. Tesla lived in New York City for 60 years, and remnants of his time there still remain. The corner of 40th Street

and 6th Avenue in downtown Manhattan has been designated Nikola Tesla Corner -- with its own street sign --

because of its proximity to Teslas laboratory at 8 West 40th Street, where he worked in 1900 while building his now-

infamous Tesla Tower on Long Island. At nearby Bryant Park Place, a plaque commemorates the Engineers Club,

which awarded Tesla the Edison Medal on May 18, 1917. During his later years, Tesla fed pigeons in nearby BryantPark.

7. Tesla received his U.S. citizenship in 1891, the same year he invented the Tesla coil. Tesla coils are a type of

electrical circuit used to generate low-current, high-voltage electricity. Today, theyre widely used in radios,

televisions and other electronics, and can be used for wireless transmission. A coil at Teslas experimental station in

Colorado Springs, Colorado, created 30-foot sparks that could be seen from 10 miles away.

6. During the war of the currents, alternating current (AC) -- favored by Tesla -- battled for wide acceptance with direct

current (DC), favored by Edison. At stake was the basis for the entire nations electrical system. Edison launched a

campaign against AC, claiming it was dangerous and could kill people Tesla countered by publicly subjecting himsel

to 250,000-volt shocks to demonstrate ACs safety. Ultimately, alternating current won the fight.

5. Tesla designed the first hydroelectric power plant in Niagara Falls, New York, harnessing the power of the

waterfalls he had marveled at since childhood. Construction took three years and power first flowed to homes in

nearby Buffalo on Nov. 16, 1896. A statue of Tesla on Goat Island overlooks the falls today.

4. Teslas, a unit used to measure the strength of magnetic fields, are named after Tesla. Another namesake is
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Top 8 Things

You Didnt

Know About

Thomas Alva

Edison

From Tesla's

Lab to Los

Alamos:

Powerful

RELATED ARTICLES

Tesla Motors, the electric car start-up, in homage to Teslas role in the invention of the electric motor.

3. In 1901, Tesla received financial backing from J. Pierpont Morgan to build his Wardenclyffe laboratory in

Shoreham, Long Island. The facility included the Tesla Tower, a 185-foot high structure with a 65-foot copper dome

transmitter on the top. Teslas vision was to use the tower to transmit signals and free, unlimited wireless electricity

all over the world. Thanks to Tesla's early work, wireless transfer of energy is finally being realized today -- from

wireless chargers for electric toothbrushes and smartphones, to wireless electric vehicle charging, a technology

being researched at the Energy Departments National Labs.

2. Tesla was not a savvy businessman and suffered financially, despite his achievements. He lost financial backing

from Morgan, who felt he couldnt profit from Teslas wireless electricity concept, and sold his assets to make up for

dual foreclosures on Wardenclyffe. The property was later sold to a film processing company. In 1917, the U.S.

government demolished Teslas partially completed tower because it worried German spies would use it to intercept

communications during World War I.

1. His long-abandoned Long Island laboratory will soon become a museum. Earlier this year, a non-profit organization

raised enough money to purchase the long-abandoned Wardenclyffe. The group plans to restore the building and turnit into a Tesla museum and science education center.
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Magnets Come

Full Circle

Edison vs.Tesla: Toasting

a Rivalry That

Drove

Innovation

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top 11 things you didn't know about nikola tesla _ department of energy

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