Nikola Tesla—Father of Our Energy Systems

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was an American-Croatian electrical engineer who studied at Graz and Prague. He emigrated to the USA in 1884, where he worked for Thomas Edison. After a period of time, apart from having differences of opinion, Edison did not pay him the promised remuneration, so he left the job and set up on his own. Soon, Tesla promoted alternating current (AC) and invented his AC induction motor, which eliminated commutator and sparking brushes needed for direct current (DC) motors favored by Edison. During the early years of electricity, there was one problem: DC was not easily converted to higher or lower voltages. Tesla believed that AC could be converted to different voltages relatively easily using a transformer. He also made substantial improvements in the field of AC power transmission and generation, realizing that it could be generated and transmitted far more effectively than the commonly used DC. He patented his inventions and set up a partnership with George Westinghouse. His interest then shifted to developing a high-frequency and high-voltage Tesla coil with an air-core transformer, and he achieved this in 1899. He even made a device that could transmit power without intervening wires by using the earth as a transmitting oscillator. He was increasingly interested in transmitting power over large distances.