industrial world the results of Mr. Tesla 's work,
the wheels of industry would cease to turn, our
electric cars and trains would stop, our towns
would be dark, our mills would be dead and idle.
Yes, so far reaching is his work that it has become
the warp and woof of industry... His name marks
an epoch in the advance of electrical science.
From that work has sprung a revolution..." -B.A.
Behrend If you were to go to an encyclopedia and
tried to find out who invented the radio, X- rays,
and the tube amplifier, this is what you would find:
radio was invented by Marconi, X- rays by
Roentgen, and the tube amplifier by de Forest.
While you 're there, look to see who invented the
fluorescent bulb, neon lights, the speedometer, the
basics of radar, and the microwave oven. I don 't
know who the encyclopedias say invented those
things, but I bet it won 't give any mention of a man
by the name of Nikola Tesla. In fact, I bet they
won 't give much mention of Tesla for any of the
many things he invented. We can thank Thomas
Edison for this. Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljian,
Croatia at precisely midnight on July 9/10, 1856.
Not a lot is known about his early childhood. His
father was an orthodox priest, and his mother,
though unschooled, was highly intelligent. Tesla
had an extraordinary memory, and he spoke six
languages. He Spent four years studying math,
physics, and mechanics at the Polytechnic Institute
at Graz. Tesla first came to America in 1884,
when he was 28. He worked for Thomas Edison.
Edison, at the time, had just patented the lightbulb,
and needed a system to distribute the electricity.
One of Tesla 's gifts was an understanding of
electricity. Edison promised Tesla large amounts
of money if he could work out the kinks in
Edison 's DC system of electricity. In the end,
Tesla saved Edison over $100,000 (which would
be millions today), but Edison refused to live up to
his end of the
Bibliography: PAGE 1. http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/tesla/tesla.html 2. http://www.neuronet.pitt.edu/~bogdan/tesla