Nikola Tesla was an amazing electrical and electromagnetic engineer who had created many inventions that were unimaginable to his time. Tesla was thought of as a mad man, but was truly a genius with a passion for inventing.

Nikola Tesla was born on July 9, 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia. During his childhood, as the fourth of five children, Tesla was often stricken with illness. As a child, Tesla had a peculiar affliction from blinding flashes of light that were usually followed by hallucinations, which occurred randomly. By his teen years, he was able to block out these images except for times of strong emotion. After Tesla’s high school graduation, he had a close call with death when he was bedridden for almost nine months due to cholera. In another obscure illness that temporarily paralyzed him and caused his physical senses to be even more acute, he had supposedly received photographic memory.

Nikola Tesla attended the Graz University of Technology in Austria, where he acquired his baccalaureate in electrical engineering. Leaving his family for an unknown reason, Tesla traveled to Budapest, Hungary where he worked for the national telegraph company, where many believe Tesla to have invented the first loudspeaker. Nikola Tesla had always invented things as a child, but had never realized that he would be inventing for a living until after his college years.

One of Tesla’s first patented inventions was the AC or (Alternating Current) Motor; this rivaled the previous DC or (Direct Current) Motor. In 1884, Nikola Tesla immigrated into the US; here he worked as an assistant for Thomas Edison, the inventor of the AC Motor. He was given the job of redesigning Edison’s inefficient DC Motors and generators. This is where Tesla had invented the AC polyphase motor. While working with Edison, Tesla was introduced to high-voltage electricity and electrical engineering, where many of his future ideas were born.

During Nikola Tesla’s career, he had patented over 300 inventions. These inventions included the radio, the electric lamp, the magnetic motor, electrical magnetic motors, the Dynamo regulator, electrical machines, and the thermo magnetic motor, along with many varieties of light bulbs which includes the incandescent light. Tesla had also made patents on his wireless inventions, these inventions wirelessly sent information over a long distance without the need of electrical conductors. He was noted for being the first person to have invented and patented the radio, by the Supreme Court after his death.

Nikola Tesla was thought to have possibly invented a radio-wave-scalar weapon, also known as the death ray. This death ray was said to be capable of destroying 10,000 airplanes at up to a 300 mile radius. This proposed defensive system had an electrical field surrounding it. Any airplane or enemy forces that disrupted this field would be shot with a highly intensified bolt of electricity. Unfortunately, almost all of the papers Tesla had written on this subject were some how lost or possibly even stolen.

Tesla tried to build his thoughts into reality, at one point he had decided to try flying by jumping off the top of a building with an open umbrella; he ended up injured for six weeks.

Tesla also loved nature and its wonders; he was fascinated with mountains, storms and nature. He loved animals, especially pigeons, sometimes taking them into his hotel rooms with him. With his knowledge and love for nature, he was able to put these thoughts into his work as an adult.

Nikola Tesla was never very good at having relationships even though he was very socially involved. This is usually because he tends to put his science before his partner. He had always discouraged any type of physical contact. At one point in time, a female acquaintance tried to kiss him, but Tesla ran away in pain. Tesla also had a strange desire for designing fashionable clothes. He often remarked on clothing women were wearing, even going so far as to say they should go home and change. Tesla had many phobias such as being afraid of hair, germs, round objects, and also had a need for hygiene. He had also done things in threes along with only staying in hotel rooms with numbers divisible by three.

Nikola Tesla did not have many specific set goals for his career, usually he created them for his curiosity. But Tesla had always one main goal of building a flying machine. Many people believe he successfully did build a flying machine and that the military is using them as spies. I believe Tesla was not able to successfully build a flying machine even though he had created many of the much needed components necessary to build the complete functioning prototype. The apex of Tesla’s knowledge of electrical engineering was his plan to build a flying machine.

Nikola Tesla is thought to have died of heart failure on Jan. 7th 1943 at the age of 86 in his New York apartment, 3327. Nikola Tesla was an amazing inventor and a mechanical and technological engineer who had created and patented hundreds. Tesla was a genius that was way ahead of his time. He has impacted the world greatly with his genius knowledge about electricity and its capabilities, without him many of the devices we use today would not be possible.