Nikola Tesla: The Forgotten Engineer
Michael Kedenburg, Brittany Lauda, and Victoria Silliman
Course: INTD 288 – History of Science with Drs. Cope, McLean, and Towsley
Abstract
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor best known, but often forgotten, for his design of the alternating current (AC) electrical power supply. From his humble beginnings in modern day Croatia,
Tesla rose to prominence as one of the premier engineers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, only to die penniless and forgotten in 1943. Tesla immigrated to the United States in 1884,
to work in the laboratory of Thomas Edison, one of the leading electrical engineers of the time. Often Tesla and Edison were at odds over their different designs for electrical power supply. This is the
background for what became known as the “War of the Currents” between Tesla and Edison, fighting for control over whose power supply design would prevail. With financial support from
entrepreneur George Westinghouse, Tesla patented his AC power supply design and established his own laboratory independent of Edison. Tesla’s eccentric ideas beyond electrical supply led to his exile
from the scientific and engineering community, causing him to be forgotten by time.
Personal Background
Tesla was born in an area on the Balkan Peninsula that was
part of the then Austro-Hungarian Empire. Tesla was a gifted
student and wanted to become an engineer; however, there
was pressure put on him by his very religious family to enter
the priesthood of the Orthodox Church. Eventually Tesla was
able to enter the Austrian Polytechnic School at Graz to study
engineering. There Tesla worked with electricity and direct
currents and became obsessed by the idea of an alternating
current. At 28, Tesla went to New York to meet his idol,
Thomas Edison, the greatest electrical engineer of the time,
and to work under his guidance on his alternating current
theory.
Historical Background
The United States was experiencing an age of
economic growth after their civil war. This period is
referred to as The Gilded Age. The period between
1870 and 1914 is often referred to as the Second
Industrial Revolution. Between 1860 and 1890 there
were over 500,000 patents issued for new inventions
in the United States, making it a world leader in
applied technology. This is the setting for the “War of
the Currents” between Edison and Tesla.
References
Alternating Current (AC)
Reverses direction and
polarity continuously
Cheaper and easier to
transform voltage
Reactive losses from back
and forth motion
Transmission over long
distances easier - ability to
step voltage up or down
War of the Currents
Edison’s direct current (DC) power supply dominated the electrical
landscape before Tesla’s rise to notoriety. While Tesla was employed
by Edison, he designed the first alternating current (AC) power supply.
Edison dismissed the feasibility of the AC power supply in order to
continue to profit from his DC power supply. Tesla left Edison’s
company to start his own laboratory, where he perfected the AC
power supply design. Edison began a negative media campaign to
discredit the AC system, and went as far as to publicly electrocute
animals to demonstrate the dangers of AC. Tesla’s cost-efficient AC
system beat out Edison’s expensive bid to provide power to the 1893
Chicago World’s Fair, launching him into the public eye.
Direct Current (DC)
One direction with fixed
polarity
More efficient therefore more
“usable” voltage
Does not lose power to
reactive losses
During “War of the Currents”
no viable way to transmit DC
over long distances
Jonnes, Jill. Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World. New York: Random House, 2003. Print.
McPherson, Stephanie S. War of the Currents: Thomas Edison Vs. Nikola Tesla. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2013. Print.
Uth, Robert, Phylis Geller, Stacy Keach, Elizabeth Noone, and Margaret Cheney. Tesla: Master of Lightning. Alexandria, Va.: PBS Home Video, 2007.
Fall From Notoriety
Tesla’s primary financial backer, George Westinghouse, fell
on financial hardship in the early 1890s, and asked Tesla to
waive his royalties on the AC power supply patents in order
to keep his company in business. Tesla agreed in order to
continue sharing AC power with the world rather than
turning a profit. Tesla, not profiting from the AC power
supply, began work on a wireless power supply. A fire at his
laboratory in 1895 destroyed all of his work on this power
supply and sent him into financial ruin. After this disaster,
Tesla had difficulty gaining support for his work in wireless
electricity transmission. This, in conjunction with his lavish
lifestyle, quickly destroyed what remained of his finances
until he died penniless on January 7th, 1943.