Nikola Tesla was son of a Serbian orthodox priest and his mother was a crafty woman who created her own household tools. He was a very bright individual, finishing his high school education in three years instead of the regular four. He attended the Realschule, Karlstadt in 1873, the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria and the University of Prague. Excelling in both mathematics and physics, he intended to specialize in one of those subjects, but was intrigued by the area of electricity. He studied electral engineering at worked as an engineer in the early stages of his adult life. One of his most important jobs was as an engineer for the Continental Edison Company in Paris, France. Charles Batchelor, an associate of Thomas Edison, was manager of the Continental Edison Company and wrote Tesla a letter of recommendation for Edison. On June 6, 1884, Tesla arrived to the U.S. in New York City with his letter of recommendation. Edison hired him to work for his company but he undervalued Tesla. When Tesla was not compensated for improvements that he had made on Edison's generators, he quit. Edison was too proud of his DC current system to give Tesla a chance with his AC current system. In 1885, George Westinghouse, founder of the Westinghouse Electric Company, bought patent rights to Tesla's Polyphase AC System. Tesla would then establish a laboratory in 1887. Although he does not profit from many of his inventions, he does create many inventions that were successful and ahead of his time. Two of his most important inventions were the polyphase AC system and the radio control device.

There are some unique characteristics about Nikola Tesla that make him successful. He is very imaginative and is described as a "visionary genius." His inventions would come into his head through visions and he would be able to describe every detail of the device from memory. He was not very practical though and was not able to profit as much as others did with his inventions. He was very ambitious. He never gave up his dreams of creating the AC motor and harnessing the power of niagara falls to produce electricity. As a result, he is highly respected for proving that AC current was indeed better that DC current.



by Rafael Reynoso
sources:
http://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm
http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jul/tesla.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla#Biography
Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes