Nikola Tesla - A Brief Biography

Nikola Tesla was born in 1857, at Smiljan, Lika, a region bordering on Austro-Hungary. His unquestionable genius was in part inherited from his mother, who took pleasure in constructing mechanical appliances, to be used in the household and for agricultural purposes. Having gone through the preparatory schools, he entered the polytechnic school at Gratz, where he began to prepare for the profession of teacher in mathematics and physics. It was here that he saw a gramme dynamo, and although the instructor in charge stated that the commutator and brushes were absolutely necessary adjuncts, he saw a means whereby these could be dispensed with.

After this he conducted some experiments and became so fascinated by the work that he decided to take up the course in engineering. Having finished this he began to study languages, in order to be more fully fitted for the profession. He has undoubtedly found that this was a wise move, as it has often smoothed the way in his many dealings with foreigners.

During all this time he was constantly at work on his rotating field principle, and it was in 1882, when in Paris, while in the employ of one of the large illuminating companies, that he began in earnest to adopt it to commercial apparatus.

Believing America to have more field for inventors, he made up his mind to come, and fortunately secured a position in Mr. Edison's laboratory, which was then situated on Goerck street, New York city, in a building formerly known as the Etna Iron Works. Here he endeared himself to all, both by the many instances of his genius and by his unostentatious manner.

But being influenced by the desire to advance his rotating field idea, he concluded it best to relinquish his position in the laboratory, although it was a very pleasant one. After joining a company for the manufacture and sale of arc-lighting apparatus, and this being successfully started, he began experiments with alternating currents and motors. In 1887 Mr. Tesla submitted to Prof. Anthony the results of his endeavors, and the ensuing test proved his motors. to have a very high efficiency, as high in fact as those operated by direct current. This result was contrary to the expectations of the scientific world, as the alternating current had as yet won for itself but little confidence. Encouraged by these results, Mr. Tesla read a paper before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in May, 1888, on high frequency and high potential currents, and exhibited his motors in operation, thereby demonstrating his first idea that a motor could be constructed without resorting to the use of complicated and expensive commutators and accessories.

Having opened up this new field in such a degree, he redoubled his efforts and obtained some very interesting results, which formed the basis of another lecture delivered by him in May, 1891, before the same Institute to which his first lecture was read. This decisively marked the beginning of a new era in the theory and practice of alternating currents. Three lectures followed, one in London, in 1892, and one in Philadelphia and St. Louis, respectively, in the subsequent year, each one being more advanced and treating of many beautiful things in the high-frequency and potential line.

The Tesla motor patents for the United States were secured by the Westinghouse company and have come largely into commercial use, and have proved to be very satisfactory from their simplicity. The Niagara Falls Power Company anticipate employing these motors, wound for the two-phase current, for the development of power in Buffalo and neighboring towns transmitted from Niagara.

In addition to Mr. Tesla's work in the foregoing subjects, he has been devoting himself recently to his "oscillator." Of late years the problem of generating electrical currents without passing from horizontal to rotary motion has been one of special interest to inventors. This had hitherto remained unsolved until Mr. Tesla brought out his oscillator, which is acknowledged to be a practical solution of the case in question. In this device the steam is let into a cylinder, the shaft of whose piston protrudes from one end in the early types, but, in the later forms, from both ends, sufficiently far to allow of field magnets being placed around it. This shaft is caused to vibrate very rapidly, producing currents in the surrounding coils, one hundred times a second being the number of vibrations obtained by an oscillator now used in Mr. Tesla's laboratory. The construction of the cylinder permits of using very high steam pressures, even as high as one thousand pounds to the square inch, and although there is no packing whatever, one is unable to hear or see the slightest trace of escaping steam. An unchanging frequency of vibration is established by means of an air spring, attached to the shaft, and should the pressure vary between wide limits, the number of vibrations per second remain unchanged, as any variation in pressure only causes a difference in amplitude, causing, however, a decrease in electrical power generated.

The capacity of these machines, then, depend, within reasonable limits, upon the steam pressure supplied, and as the cylinders may be made of very great strength, as stated above, a surprising amount of power may be produced from a machine occupying but comparatively little space.

Friction is conspicuous by its absence, there being but few bearings, thereby making the life of the apparatus one of unusual length, increasing efficiency and decreasing cost of maintenance as compared with the usual steam engine.

This mode of generation certainly bids fair to come into universal use, not only from the very nature of its simplicity and practicability, but from its high efficiency and cheapness.

Mr. Tesla is acknowledged to be one of the greatest living scientists, because of his ability in mathematics, physics and experimentation, his wonderful creative genius and his untiring application to his work.

The hope is sincerely felt by all that he may be spared to continue his labors which have been so favorably begun and have been productive of so much good.

ERNEST K. ADAMS.