As the Nikola Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity book slowly springs to life (and sometimes to a life of its own), it became necessary to put together a rolling timeline of major events from birth to death. Tesla’s life, of course, is interwoven with other key players in the development of alternating current, radio, wireless transmission, remote control guided weapons, and a few other exciting inventions to be named later. As the timeline develops I’ll add some of the peculiar oddities that Tesla engaged in, as well as non-inventor folks like Mark Twain and Robert Underwood Johnson, but for now the following hints at some of the key scientific events.
1856 Born
1861 Brother killed
1862 Family moves to Gospic
1870s Cholera
1875 Enters Graz for electrical engineering
1878 Leaves Graz w/o degree; breaks off relations with family
1881 Employed as assistant engineer in Marburg for 1 year; has nervous breakdown
1880 Attends University in Prague for summer term; father dies so leaves University
1880-1881 Moves to Budapest to work for Puskas in a telegraph company
1882 Moves to Paris to work for Continental Edison with Batchelor; conceived of induction motor and rotating magnetic fields patents
1884 Arrives in US w/letter of introduction from Batchelor to Edison
1885 Quits Edison feeling like cheated by him
1885 Digs ditches; works on polyphase system design; gets first patent
1886 Forms Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing company
1887 Constructed initial AC induction motor; began investigating what would later be called x-rays
1888 Demonstrates to IEEE; develops principles for Tesla coil; begins work with G. Westinghouse
1891 Early demonstration of wireless energy transmission
1891 Becomes naturalized American citizen
1891 Invents Tesla coil
1893 First wireless transmission; Columbian Exhibition (Chicago)
1895 Lab burns down
1896 Electrical generation from Niagara Falls using his AC system
1898 Moves into Waldorf-Astoria hotel
1899 Moves to Colorado Springs
1900 Returns to NYC
1901 Signs contract with J.P. Morgan; construction on Wardenclyffe begins
1906 Invents bladeless turbine
1917 Wardenclyffe demolished; awarded Edison Medal
1931 On cover of Time magazine for seventy-fifth birthday
1943 Dies on January 8 in Hotel New Yorker; government seizes estate
David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
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