⚡ Nikola Tesla

Born in a Storm

Nikola Tesla was born at midnight during a lightning storm on 10 July 1856, in a Serbian village in modern-day Croatia. The midwife called the lightning a bad omen; his mother replied, 'No — he will be a child of light.' Young Nikola had a photographic memory, spoke eight languages, and could visualise entire machines in his head — building and testing them in pure imagination before touching a single tool.

The War of Currents

Tesla arrived in America in 1884 with four cents in his pocket and a letter introducing him to Thomas Edison. They soon clashed: Edison championed DC (direct current) electricity; Tesla knew AC (alternating current) could travel far cheaply. Backed by George Westinghouse, Tesla's AC system won the contract to light the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and then to harness Niagara Falls — the 'War of Currents' was over. The plug points in your wall today are Tesla's victory.

A Mind From the Future

Tesla invented the induction motor (the heart of today's electric cars), pioneered radio (the US Supreme Court upheld his priority in 1943), demonstrated remote control with a toy boat in 1898 — spectators suspected magic or a trained monkey — and dreamed of wireless power for the whole planet. The 'tesla' is now the scientific unit of magnetic fields, and the electric car company borrowed his name.

The Tragic End

Tesla was a brilliant inventor but a poor businessman — he tore up a royalty contract worth millions to save his friend Westinghouse's company. He died alone and poor in a New York hotel room in 1943, feeding pigeons his last companions. The world later realised its debt: rarely has one mind given so much and kept so little.

What We Can Learn

• Visualise deeply — Tesla built machines in his mind before reality.
• Being right matters more than being loud: AC quietly powers the planet.
• Genius needs guardianship — learn the business side, or be robbed by it.