William Barnette History 1865-Present ...

William Barnette
History 1865-Present
Matt Schaffer
Nikola Tesla
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Thomas Edison, Sir Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein are all household names, but very few people have heard of Nikola Tesla. Even fewer people know what he tried to accomplish for the good of humanity. Surprisingly enough, we all use Tesla’s inventions everyday without realizing it. Whenever a person turns on a light, they use Tesla’s invention of AC power. (Alternative Current) Most people credit Edison with the invention of the light bulb, but Tesla actually invented it, Edison just perfected it par-say. Edison took Tesla’s idea of the light bulb and converted it to the incandescent, single filament light bulbs that we use today. Ironically, even though Tesla and Edison were bitter enemies, in order for Edison’s light bulbs to work, they must be run off of AC power, instead of DC power which Edison invented.
Nikola Tesla was born in Lika, part of the then Austo-Hungarian Empire, which was in the region of Croatia. He was born in the small village of Smiljan, on July 10th, 1856, to Milutin Tesla and Djuka Mandic. His father, Milutin Tesla was a Serbian Orthodox Priest, and his mother, Djuka Mandic, was a stay at home wife. Tesla as a child began to develop a condition in which he could see things in his mind clearly, as if it were happening right in front of him. This was a great asset in the fact that he saw most of his inventions in full detail in his mind before he ever wrote them on paper, but this type of photographical brain was also a
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setback. Tesla suffered from insane visions and haunting, flashes of light, along with the often discordance from reality.
Nikola Tesla went to school at Realschule, in Karlstadt, and then went on to study at the Polytechnic Institute at Graz, Austria. He then furthered his education by graduating from the University of Prague. Originally planning to study physics and math, he soon found his calling in electricity and its currents.
Tesla, after graduating, took a job as an electrical engineer in Budapest, circa 1881, but he knew he had a higher calling. He then took a job working for his idol’s company, the Continental Edison Company, in Paris. Tesla idolized Thomas Edison, following his teachings and lectures from an early age. Tesla would eventually go on to work directly with Edison, but this friendship wouldn’t survive the AC/DC war.
Edison invented a system of electrical power called direct current; DC power. DC power had many problems within the system. For example, the DC electric current could only move through the conductor one way, meaning that a DC conductor station would need to be located every two miles. This differed from AC power greatly because AC power could change its direction of travel fifty to sixty times per second, making it a conductor of electricity for great distances.
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Tesla took a job working ...