Tesla, Nikola

Nikola Tesla (July, 10, 1856 – January 7, 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

Nikola Tesla graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in Graz (1878) and the University of Prague (1880). He worked as an engineer in Budapest and Paris.

In 1884 he came to New York, organized a laboratory and soon invented a two-phase alternating current generator. Tesla developed several designs of multi-phase generators, electric motors and transformers, as well as systems for the transmission and distribution of multi-phase currents. Later such a system was applied at the Niagara Falls hydroelectric power station.

In 1888 Tesla discovered the phenomenon of a rotating magnetic field, on its basis he built electric generators of high and microwave frequencies.

In 1891 he designed a resonant transformer (Tesla transformer), which makes it possible to obtain high-frequency voltage fluctuations with an amplitude of up to 106 V, and he was the first to point out the physiological effect of high-frequency currents.

Nikola Tesla investigated the possibility of wireless transmission of signals and energy over long distances, in 1899 he publicly demonstrated lamps and motors operating on high-frequency current without wires.

General Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor.