Nichola Tesla is said to have been born during a lightning storm in 1856—a circumstance befitting an inventor who would explore the earth’s vast power and magnetism while attempting to develop wireless communication and wireless transmission of electricity.
Though Guglielmo Marconi has long been credited with having developed radio, Tesla filed patents for wireless communication seven years earlier. Having developed several other technological firsts, Tesla advanced a vision for a world not so different from the one we live in today—one with wireless devices enabling personal and mass communication, remote-controlled boats, cars and planes, and responsive lighting systems.
A Croation immigrant, Tesla arrived in New York City in 1884 with an idea for a motor containing a rotating magnetic field that would enable it to run on alternating current.
Around that time, the world was transitioning from gas lighting to electric lightbulbs powered by direct current. But DC could not transmit substantial amounts of electricity over long distances, which restricted use.
The idea for an induction motor took root in Tesla’s mind, after a professor at the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria, dismissed his suggestion to eliminate the brushes from a DC-powered gramme machine.
Years later, while strolling with a colleague, the idea flashed in Tesla’s mind for a spatially shifting electromagnetic field that would produce the torque for an induction motor.
Tesla secured a job with the Continental Edison Co. in Paris, engineering incandescent lighting plants being installed in Europe. The work made him aware of America’s progress developing electric power systems, which inspired him to secure another job designing dynamos at Edison Machine Works in New Jersey.
Though he met with Thomas Edison, the famous American inventor/entrepreneur was installing DC systems and ignored Tesla’s ideas for an AC motor.
Tesla soon left the company to join another started by friends to develop an industrial arc light, but his preoccupation with the induction motor put him at odds with them as well. He spent a couple of years digging ditches and doing odd jobs to survive.
Despite the setback, Tesla obtained two patents for arc lamps, which enabled him to establish a laboratory in New York City. There, he developed the induction motor and an entire AC system consisting of a generator, transformer, transmission layout, motor and lights.
Tesla’s succession of patents, including one for the induction motor in 1888, attracted the attention of the electrical industry. The New York Chapter of American Institute of Electrical Engineers invited him to demonstrate his new system. His paper, “A New System of Alternate Current Motors and Transformers,” established the bedrock of electrical power systems throughout the world.
But it would take more than Tesla’s genius to overcome resistance to AC. In what became known as “the current wars,” Edison launched an intense publicity campaign to convince the public of AC’s dangers, even going so far as to publicly electrocute a horse.
Fortunately, another American inventor and entrepreneur, George Westinghouse, saw the value of Tesla’s inventions, bought the patent rights to his motor for $1 million, and secured Tesla’s services.
AC made an impressive debut at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago after Westinghouse secured the low bid for electricity and lighting. Tesla’s power system showcased the advantages and practicality of polyphase AC generation, transmission and distribution.
Not long after the fair, AC gained dominance over DC when Tesla’s AC system was selected to harness the power of Niagara Falls, a world first for large-scale electrical power generation.
Despite having solved the problem of long-range electrical transmission through wires, Tesla continued to pursue development of wireless power transmission and wireless communication. To study the properties of lightning discharges in relation to those applications, he set up a laboratory in 1899 near Colorado Springs, Colo.
Tesla’s vision for a wireless telegraph aroused the interest of banker J.P. Morgan, who paid $150,000 for construction of a transatlantic wireless station on Long Island.
Wardenclyffe
The station and laboratory, which Tesla named Wardenclyffe, was equipped with an AC power generating system and 187-foot tower topped by a 55-ton half dome of metal.
More funds were needed for Tesla’s experiments. Unfortunately, Morgan withdrew support after Marconi transmitted Morse Code wirelessly across the Atlantic in December 1901.
Wardenclyffe sat vacant for decades, but in 2013, local schoolteachers and history buffs commenced an effort to transform the last of Tesla’s labs into a science center and museum. The building made the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. The location schedules regular events and has become a pilgrimage site for Tesla enthusiasts.
About The Author
DeGrane is a Chicago-based freelance writer. She has covered electrical contracting, renewable energy, senior living and other industries with articles published in the Chicago Tribune, New York Times and trade publications. Reach her at [email protected].