TESLA, NIKOLA

Nikola Tesla (July 9, 1856-January 7, 1943) was a Serbian-American physicist, electrical engineer, and inventor who developed the radio, fluorescent lights, the Tesla coil (an air-core transformer that generates a huge voltage from high-frequency alternating current, invented in 1891), the induction motor, remote-control devices (1900), and many other inventions; Tesla held 111 patents.

Tesla developed and promoted the uses of alternating current (AC), as opposed to direct current (DC, which was promoted fiercely by Thomas Edison and General Electric); Tesla's system for the electrical supply still powers the world today. Tesla briefly worked with Thomas Edison.

The unit of magnetic induction is named to honor Tesla; a tesla (abbreviated T) is equal to one Weber per square meter.

Go to the inventors page, press the brown bread.