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Tesla immigrating to the United States of America
Nikola Tesla's truly revolutionary change in literally all households started when he immigrated to New York City. He arrived ecstatic to work for Thomas Edison. When Tesla meets with Edison he introduces the idea of the alternating current and although it is ill received by Edison, he makes an offer of $50,000 if it is produced. Successful, Tesla confronts Edison in regards to the payment and is denied due to no agreement. Tesla ends his employment with Edison and creates his own company. -
Meeting of Tesla and Westinghouse
The meeting between Westinghouse and Tesla was a perfect partnership. Tesla wanted to advance his invention of the alternating current and bring about even more inventions, whereas Westinghouse wanted to beat his fellow businessman Edison. Westinghouse knew that Tesla's invention would be a success and it would be a way to defeat Edison who had a much less reliable direct current system. A deal was struck and would pave the way to a war of the currents between Edison and Westinghouse. -
War of Currents - Chicago World's Fair
One of the two major "battles" of the War of Currents was being able to light the Chicago World's Fair! Taking note of Tesla's successes in the alternating current, Edison started a major smearing campaign. It was a vicious campaign where he attempted to discredit Tesla by electrocuting animals such as cats, dogs, a circus elephant, and more. This was done just to prove a point that alternating current was dangerous and that direct current is safer. In the aftermath Tesla ended up winning. -
War of Currents - Worlds First Major Hydroelectric Power Plant
After the Chicago World's Fair the goal was set on obtaining the bid for the Niagara Falls. The pressure and power of one of the wealthiest men in America still could not stop Tesla and Westinghouse from being able to win the bid. Soon after the grand opening of the power plant in November of 1896 electricity and light spread throughout homes all over america. This was truly a huge achievement on the part of Tesla and Westinghouse. -
Free energy - Wardenclyffe
Tesla's dream and passion was to built a tower which could harness the free energy of the earth and wireless transmit it throughout the entire globe. This was an uphill battle for Tesla as it required a vast amount of money to built and even the unconventional partnership with JP Morgan could not save this project. At last the US federal government had it demolished due to rumors of the Germans using it for radio transmission. Tesla himself denounced it later "The world was not prepared for it"* -
The fall of a genius, Nikola Tesla
The fall of Tesla is one that is extremely depressing in my research. The climax was the demolition of his Wardenclyffe tower in Long Island where he admits to having a mental breakdown and moving to Chicago. He suffered unfortunate events such as the death of the perfect partnership with Westinghouse, demolition of the Wardenclyffe tower, and litigation with Marconi. It was only after his death where the patents given to Marconi finally overturned and given back to Tesla. Too little too late.
