Nikola Tesla and His Works - On the Occassion of the Eightieth Anniversary Page 6

Tesla left the University of Graz and went to Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he studied mathematical and physical sciences at the local university and completed his education.

III Tesla’s Work in Europe

Tesla began his technical career in Budapest in 1881. At that time, telephone installations, modeled after America, were being implemented in many European cities. The director of the company assigned to carry out this task in Budapest was a friend of Tesla’s family. It was a convenient opportunity for Tesla to familiarize himself with city’s telephony, which, like all innovations in electrical engineering, greatly interested him. Working in this company, Tesla immediately demonstrated his inventive abilities. He made several improvements to the telephone exchange and perfected the telephone apparatus in terms of voice amplification. In recognition of these useful modifications, the company’s organizer, Puskás, offered him a position in Paris after completing the job in Budapest, which Tesla gladly accepted.

After experiments in Graz with a direct current motor (1878), Tesla could not forget the sparks that occurred at the motor’s collector during operation. He continuously pondered whether a simpler motor could be built without a collector, thus avoiding these inconveniences. After four years of contemplation on this matter, in 1882, Tesla made the discovery of the rotating magnetic field and conceived a clear image of a new electric motor based on this phenomenon.

In his autobiography, Tesla describes the day he made this discovery: “The solution had been in my mind subconsciously for a long time, but I was unable to express it in the right form. One afternoon, which I vividly remember, I was walking with my friend in the city park and reciting verses. At that time, I knew entire works by heart. One of them was Goethe’s Faust. The setting sun reminded me of that glorious passage:

“The glow retreats; done is the day of toil;

It yonder hastes, new fields of life exploring;

Ah, that no wing can lift me from the soil,

Upon its track to follow, follow soaring!

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A glorious dream! though now the glories fade.

Alas! the wings that lift the mind no aid

Of wings to lift the body can bequeath me.

(Faust, verses 1072–1075 and 1089–1091).

When I uttered these inspired words, the idea flashed to me like lightning, and instantly the truth was revealed. With a stick