Nikola Tesla: Programme of Celebrations (1976) Page 28

1856 Nikola Tesla was born at Smiljan near Gospic in Lika.

10 July His parents were Milutin Tesla, an Orthodox priest, and Đuka née Mandić. He had three sisters, Milka, Angelina and Marica, and an elder brother who lost his life in an accident in 1863 at the age of 14.

1862 Tesla attended the elementary school at Smiljan where he completed the first class and showed the first signs of his inclination to invention by constructing a water wheel on the Vaganac brook.

1863 His parents moved to Gospić to get over the loss of their beloved son Dane. Nikola attended the elementary school in Gospić which he completed in 1866.

1856-1870 Attended the secondary school in Gospić; became an avid reader and distinguished himself by a great sense for engineering.

1870-1873 Continued his schooling at the Rakovac secondary school in Karlovac where he had an able teacher of physics Martin Sekulić, who published articles on physics in RAD, the proceedings of the Yugoslav Academy of Science and Arts. Sekulić’s s work on the explanation of polar light impressed Tesla who helped his teacher in the laboratory. Tesla then decided to study electrical engineering. In his school-leaving diploma he was specially recommended for the study of engineering.

1873-1875 Contracted cholera and recovered after a long illness lasting many months. At the time his father promised him to let him study engineering in Graz (Austria) although he would have liked his son to become a priest.

1875-1878 Studied at the “Joaneum” Polytechnical School in Graz. When Professor Poeschl demonstrated Gramme’s new machine (January, 1877), Tesla pointed out its failings and spoke of the need to design a machine without commutators. Set himself the task to invent a motor without commutators. Because of lack of funds he could not complete his studies in Graz.

1879 Tried to find a job in Maribor but failed and returned to Gospić. In April his father died.

1880 January Left for Prague to study at the Karlova University. Having no money, he read in the library and attended only some of the lectures.

1881 January Thanks to the connections of his uncle Paja Mandić and Ferenc Puškaš he obtained a job with the Hungarian Central Telegraph Office which was to build a telephone exchange in Budapest. This was the beginning of Tesla’s creative work. He introduced various improvements in the design of the exchange.

1882 February Discovery of the rotating magnetic field principle. During a walk with his friend Anatol Szigety in the Budapest Municipal Park (Varos liget) he provided an explanation for the rotating magnetic field. He wanted to make an experiment but met with no understanding. Ferenc Puškaš recommended him to his brother Tivadar in Paris who represented Edison’s Continental Company. In April Tesla left for Paris.

1882-1884 Working with the Compagnie Continentale Edison de Paris under director Charles Batchellor, Tesla travelled in France and Germany repairing electrical power-stations. In Strasbourg he repaired regulators for arc lighting. In the railway workshop he constructed his first motor and demonstrated its work in July 1883. Failing to secure funds for further work on the motor, he decided to leave for America.

1884 July Arriving in America began working in the Edison company in New York. Repaired dynamos on SS “Oregon” and improved the design of 24 types of dynamo. Being refused the expected bonus, he left Edison in January 1885.

1885 March Founded his own company, “Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing Company”, for the manufacture of arc lamps. Took out his first patents in the U.S., - for improvements in arc lamps and in special dynamos for supplying arc lamps with electricity. During the great economic crisis in the U.S. his company went bankrupt (1886) and he was left without employment.

1887 April Established contact with A. K. Brown of the Western Union Telegraph Co., obtained basic capital, and founded the “Tesla Electric Company”. Immediately set to work on prototypes of motors.