Edison, Westinghouse, two names widely known yet shadow a name of equal importance and impact on the world, Nikola Tesla.

Born an ethnic Serb on July 10, 1856, Tesla would go on to be the most important contributor to commercial electricity, alternating current. His many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were based on the theories of electromagnetic technology discovered by Michael Faraday.

Thomas Edison began to supply direct current electricity to be used in industry but was faced with problems in long range transmission. Tesla working with George Westinghouse overcame this with the use of alternating current which could be transmitted very easily. The race was on to see which would emerge the winner. The electric chair made the difference. Edison not wanting to have ‘his’ electricity associated with the killing of humans and deemed unsafe, Westinghouse won out. Tesla, after being cheated out of $50,000 left Westinghouse to form his own company, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing. Edison had invented a light that used a carbon filament that when electricity was applied would heat up to the point of emitting light. Tesla invented a light that was filled with a gas that became excited when high voltage was applied and would give off light. Tesla’s light operated more efficiently and cool, it is the forerunner of the fluorescent light we know today.

Tesla worked on other projects we now know today such as the brushless induction motor which is an industry standard now. He worked on X-ray eight years before Wilhelm Rontgen, and was initially denied inventing the wireless radio (Marconi was later dismissed).

Tesla created the “Tesla Coil” that he hoped would transmit power wirelessly, and other far-fetched ideas such as the ‘earthquake machine’ that used harmonics to destroy things and the ‘death ray’ that focused electric energy to a point as much as 250 miles away destroying it.

After 10 years of living as a recluse, he died on January 7, 1943 at age 86 from heart thrombus, alone in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel. His papers were instantly seized by the U.S. Government and later given to the Tesla Museum in Serbia. It has long been questioned if all of his work was actually turned over because of National Security.

Today’s Note is a 100 Dinar from Serbia issued in 2003. The front features Tesla and the back shows Tesla and an induction motor. ENJOY!!!