Nikola Tesla: The Genius Who Lit the World (Article)

NIkola Tesla symbolizes a unifying force and inspiration for all nations in the name of peace and science. He was a true visionary far ahead of his contemporaries in the field of scientific development. The year 1993 is proclaimed Nicola Tesla Year in Yugoslavia. New York State and four other states in the U.S.A. proclaimed July 10th, Tesla’s birthday, Nikola Tesla Day. The street sign “Nikola Tesla Corner” was recently placed on the corner of the 40th Street and the 6th Avenue in Manhattan. There is a large photo of Nikola Tesla in the Statue of Liberty Museum. A hydroelectric power plant that was recently built in Colorado Springs has Tesla’s name. The Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, has a daily science demonstration of the Tesla Coil creating million watts of electricity before the spectators’ eyes. Many books were written about the Siberian genius Nikola Tesla. Margaret Cheney’s recent book “Tesla, Man Out of Time” has contributed significantly to his fame. A documentary film “Nikola Tesla, the Genius Who Lit the World,” produced by the Tesla Memorial Society and the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia, is another tribute to the greatest Serbian genius.

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Lika, a region that became part of Yugoslavia in 1918.* His father Milutin Tesla was a Siberian Orthodox priest and his mother Djuka Mandic was a sister of a Serbian Orthodox bishop from Bosnia. Young Nikola Tesla came to the United States in 1884 with an introduction letter from Charles Batchelor to Thomas Edison: “I know two great men,” wrote Batchelor, “one is you and the other is this young man.”

Tesla died on January 7, 1943 in the Hotel New Yorker, on the 34th Street and the 8th Avenue in Manhattan, where he lived for ten years. He was cremated in Ferncliff Cemetery in Ardsley, New York. His ashes are in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia.

Tesla astonished the world by demonstrating the wonders of alternating current electricity at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Alternating current became standard power in the twentieth century. This accomplishment changed the world. He designed the first hydroelectric power plant in Niagara Falls in 1895. Tesla was a pioneer in many fields. He invented the “Tesla coil” and the alternating current induction motor (which is considered one of the greatest discoveries of all times). Among his discoveries are: fluorescent light, laser beam, wireless communication, wireless transmission of electrical energy, remote control, robotics, Tesla’s turbine, and vertical take-off aircraft. Tesla is the father of the radio and the modern electrical transmissions systems. He discovered rotating magnetic field. The international unit of magnetic flux density bears Tesla’s name. Every magnetic resonance imaging machine is calibrated in Tesla Units. Tesla registered over 700 patents worldwide. His vision included exploration of solar energy and the power of the sea. He foresaw interplanetary communications and satellites.

Ljubo Vujovic, MD is the secretary for New York and New Jersey of the Tesla Memorial Society.