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Written by Ivan Marjanovic de Tonya
NIKOLA TESLA ? The Genius Who Harnessed Falls
This is a short, humble attempt to rediscover , one of the greatest inventors of 19th and 20th century. Furthermore, this is a humble tribute to a genius and his gift of light to III Millennium.
  
"tesla" - symbol for measuring
the electromagnetic induction
(1893) 39 years old Family Roots
Nikola Tesla, the grandfather of inventor and researcher from , served as a sergeant in Napoleon?s Illyrian army, in military frontier against the Turks. Following Napoleon?s defeat at in 1815, grandfather Nikola married , the daughter of a prominent officer. Following the collapse of Illyria, and since Serbs were able to own their land as a token for their military services, the grandfather moved to Gospi?, a near coastal town by the Adriatic Sea in what is today Croatia. From this marriage, the inventor?s father Milutin was born ? in his late teens he enrolled in an Austro-Hungarian military academy and dropped out and entered priesthood. Milutin Tesla married ?uka Mandi?, the oldest of eight children of . From this union four children were born, two boys and two girls. The inventor , the youngest of four children, was born in Smiljan, a small town not far away from Gospi?, on July 10, 1856. His entire spiritual life was devoted to his mother and to memories of his older brother Dane, who died by an accident while riding the same horse which some earlier day saved their father?s life by bringing their hurt father home during a heavy winter storm.
?s birthplace house, now museum in Smiljan and Tesla?s monument by Mile Blazevic (AP).
In his condensed autobiography, the inventor fondly describes his mother: ??My mother descended from one of the oldest families in the country and a line of inventors. Both her father and grandfather originated numerous implements for household, agricultural and other uses. She was truly a great woman, of rare skill, courage and fortitude, who braved the storms of life and passed through many a trying experience. When she was sixteen, a virulent pestilence swept the country. Her father was called away to administer the last sacraments to the dying and during his absence she went alone to the assistance of a neighboring family who were stricken by the dread disease. She bathed, clothed and laid out bodies, decorating them with flowers according to the custom of Christian burial.? Born to a Christian, Serbian Orthodox family and baptized in the rite in what is today , young himself survived cholera. We learn from his autobiography that his entire life was embodied with darkness. He always had his drapes down, except at times of storm lightings.
??In my boyhood I suffered from a peculiar affliction due to the appearance of images, often accompanied by strong flushes of light, which marred the sight of real objects and interfered with my thoughts and action. They were pictures of things and scenes, which I had really seen, never of those imagined? This I did constantly until I was seventeen, when my thoughts turned seriously to invention.?
Even as a young boy, Tesla was a loner, a boy too preoccupied with images of things he thought could work his way in improving daily lives or just for the fun of making fun of other village boys. He invented how to catch a large number of crows and frogs. By affixing blue bugs on a straw wheel, he would make them fly and endlessly turn the wheel. While still in grade school, he read a book about in his father?s library and thus imagined how a giant watermill-like wheel could turn ? current into energy and into electrical lighting.
 
by world famous Croatian sculptor , 1939
Tesla ? The Man Against Darkness
Tesla attended earliest schooling in Smiljan, Gospic and Karlovac, present day , then studied electrical engineering at the Austria Politechnic in (1875), where he studied the uses of alternating current and developed a telephone repeater (amplifier). In 1881 Tesla became the chief electrician at the American Telephone Company in and invented an audio speaker, which he later patented himself. Following employment in in , Tesla suffered a nervous breakdown. He suffered from hearing a constant fly buzzing and clock ticking. Reciting Goethe?s ?Foust? and Croatian and Serbian folk poems and ballads, and drawing AC creations (two circuits instead of customary one) with a stick in sand, helped him get out from breakdown. He moved to in 1882 to work as an engineer for the Continental Edison Company. Here, based on visualized rotating fields, he designed his first induction motor.
Following his mother?s death in 1882, which he had foreseen, Tesla returned to and in spring of 1884, at the time the Statue of Liberty was in final assembly, traveled by ship to . While traveling to at the age of 28, Tesla?s money and luggage were stolen and he arrived in with 10 cents in his pocket. He immediately repaired several Edison?s motors on two ships rusting by . When requesting $50,000, which promised for his work, , who called Tesla ?our Parisian?, replied: ?Tesla, you don?t understand our American humor.? Such was the beginning of Tesla?s destiny into long journey to fame and penniless life thereafter. In 1892, 1893, 1894 The Life And Inventions Of Thomas Alva Edison was published by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., written by W.K.L. Dickson and Antonia Dickson ? upon reading the book, this author realized that Tesla?s name was never mentioned ? Mr. Edison and his achievements countered those of Mr. Westinghouse, for whom Tesla worked thereafter (author).
In 1886, Tesla formed his own company, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing. Investors did not accept his alternating current motor, therefore destroying Tesla?s company. The following a couple of years Tesla worked as a laborer in streets of . Upon presenting his Tesla coil in 1888, he started working for in , thus perfecting the system that would allow his alternating current (AC) electricity to be transmitted over large distance.
In 1889, Tesla became a citizen and earned the first patents for his polyphase power system (the same year submitted plans for Niagara Power ? his DC could be transmitted to , about 20 miles away). Tesla designed the first hydroelectric power plant in ? Tesla?s Alternating current prevailed over ?s Direct Current. Tesla soon thereafter started experimenting with X-rays. In 1891, Tesla established his laboratory in and surprised the world with his lit vacuum tubes (wireless power transmission).
One of the greatest inventions of all times, the original Tesla Electric Motor - 1888, today the main power for industrial household appliances.
So, Tesla was on the way to his fame. He became friends with famed American author , who witnessed Tesla?s wireless lighting in person. The culmination of Tesla?s determination reached its peek in 1893 at the World?s Fair Exposition in . Both Edison and Westinghouse competed for electrification of the Chicago Columbia Exposition. proposed to power the electric fair with direct current at the cost of one million dollars; Tesla and Westinghouse proposed AC power by providing AC energy. Tesla?s high-frequency high-voltage lighting produced more efficient light with less heat. General Electric and Edison lost the bid and Tesla became the master of lighting at the Chicago Columbia Exposition. Tesla?s triumph was complete when he wirelessly lighted himself and a neon tube, thus displaying the first practical phosphorescent lamp (a precursor to today?s fluorescent lamps) in a dark room, in front of amazed spectators. According to scientific books, electrical engineers of today still wonder how he did it at the time. By the way, Westinghouse Co. now days produces the newest law-watts electronically started fluorescent lamps in India and is just about introducing them to traditional electric light fixtures in the USA (with ballasts and internet-wise electronic igniters ? author).
Tesla the Genius
In 1893, backed financially by J.P. Morgan, Lord Rotschild, and , Tesla and Westinghouse competed against General Electric and Edison?s DC power in transmitting electricity from to , and won. Westinghouse had previously bought the rights to Tesla?s polyphase patents and other patents for AC transformers. On November 16, 1896, after five years of voluminous work, the first transmission of electric power from to was sent from the first commercial two-phase power plants (today known as hydroelectric generators) at the . Even today, Tesla?s generators are colossal in appearance. The nameplates on the generators bear Tesla?s name. Tesla was the first to successfully convert mechanical energy of flowing water to electrical energy. Tesla also set the 60 hertz standard for .
Transmitting and Laboratory, 1901-1905, located in Wardencliffe, . Per Tesla?s own accounts, this was to be the first broadcasting system in the world ? Tesla wanted to transmit electricity from this tower to the whole globe without wires.
In 1895 fire destroyed Tesla?s laboratory. In 1899 and 1900, Tesla overcame this tragedy and built a new laboratory in in , mainly to test with high frequency electricity and to research wireless transmission of electric power. He brought to light just about all of his lost inventions, from his memory. He went on to invent Magnifying Transmitter, fifty-two feet in diameter, which generated millions of volts of electricity and which produced lightning bolts one-hundred-thirty feet long (41 meters). Tesla studied stars, light and sound traveling, and many of his experiments were noticed by military.
Tesla?s most controversial project was a so-called facility he began constructing in 1901 on land near Long Island Sound. By 1903 the tower, which was supposed to harness natural lightning bolts and distribute the electricity throughout the entire world, did not rich the functional phase ? it became too expensive for completion.
 
Besides ?Egg of Columbus?, a device explaining the principles of the rotating magnetic field and his inducting motor, and Tesla Coil, Tesla accumulated 700-plus patents. In 1907, Tesla set Westinghouse free from payments on his patents over the induction motor for a nominal sum of money, therefore saving, with his act of generosity, the Westinghouse Company from bankruptcy. In 1912, Tesla refused to share the Nobel Prize award with . In 1916, Tesla filed for bankruptcy due to not being able to pay back taxes. His lawsuit against Marconi?s claims to radio drained his funds. But in 1935, many of Marconi?s patents relating to radio were declared invalid by the United States Court Claims and therefore awarded to Tesla. In 1917, the war demolished by the government and Tesla received the prestigious Edison Medal. Many of his inventions have been applied to military use.
Today, almost 75 years since the famous lawsuit, at the time the entire world is struggling to go ?green?, conserve the energy and save the Earth from pollutants and man?s destruction, an electromagnetic car ?T?, named after Tesla, is gaining grounds and is catching people off guard both by its looks and efficiency and by its high prices. Perhaps, as this electromagnetic automobile is perfected, one day we will drive energy-free and cost affordable to all ?T?, just as Tesla envisioned electrifying the entire world by a certain , free.
The New Yorkers checking out the electromagnetic ?Tesla?, possible the car of the future (The New York Times).
Post Scriptum
In 1931, on Tesla?s seventy-fifth birthday, Time magazine put Tesla on its cover. Tesla spoke seven languages: English, Serbian, Croatian, Hungarian, French, German, Italian. Tesla received the following degrees in undergraduate studies: Baccalaureate of Physics ? Austrian Polytechnic Institute (); Baccalaureate of Mathematics ? Austrian polytechnic Institute (); Baccalaureate of Mechanical Engineering ? Austrian Polytechnic Institute (); Baccalaureate of Electrical Engineering ? Austrian Polytechnic Institute (). Graduate studies: PhD in Physics ? of (). Tesla?s membership stretched to 11 prestigious Academies of Science throughout the world. Named after Tesla: Tesla ? a crater on the far side of the moon; 2244 Tesla ? a minor planet. Croatian Government pronounced year 2006 the year of . Tesla is often included among 30 most notable men that ever lived. , one of greatest inventors of all time, died a poor man in his room in hotel New Yorker of heart failure, between January 5 and the morning of January 8, 1943. He died after feeding pigeons at his hotel room window. His scientific papers mysteriously vanished thereafter.
 
Tesla, this at one time sickly looking young boy grew up to be almost seven feet tall. This towering man with steel-blue eyes deeply set behind his eyebrows caused some leading women in high societies to sigh in awe at his appearance, yet he never married. As a boy, Tesla was able to kill a frog with a single stone at a 20 feet distance. He was able to empty valets of his fellow students at universities in and ? in a perfect billiard game. Hotel employees would fret at his appearance at dinning tables ? Tesla never trusted the cleanliness of utensils, he always had to have a pile of napkins at his disposal (today we realized his reasoning: H1N1 - swine flu). Tesla was a man who could multiply everything by number 13. Tesla was a man with no fear even when faced with such a natural force as . In 1960, the International Commission for Electronics in Philadelphia decided that the measuring symbol for electromagnetic induction shall be called "tesla".
Today we remember Tesla, the great inventor, every time we turn the lights and anything on. A group of young man on public broadcast TV shows still amaze themselves while practicing Tesla?s ?tricks?, like lighting a bunch of fluorescent bulbs in man made darkness. After visiting in October of 2004, and after seeing the awesome , a replica of a work by Croatian sculptor , did this author realize Tesla?s contribution to the world. Visitors of all ages would stop with a glee in front of Tesla?s larger than life statue. Children would climb to his lap and sit atop the huge open book in his arms, while Tesla listened forever to nearby thunderously rushing to the world. We shall remember: Tesla, an inventor, a genius in his own right and a poet who memorized the entire Goethe?s ?Faust? and hundreds of Croatian and Serbian folk songs and ballads, a genius from Lika in forever changed the world - for better.
Thanks to so many individuals who speak about Tesla?s scientific greatness and about his humility, and thanks to so many young and old people who, again, express their interest in life and works of one of the greatest men that ever lived, is returning to just about every household all over the world. Thanks to Tesla, the world is slowly gaining the ground against the darkness. Thanks to Tesla, people demand a better future and fall in love: by communicating with each other from the tip of their palm.
This author hereby especially commends the outstanding past and present work by Tesla Memorial Society of New York for being the leader in reinventing the life and works of .
As the III Millennium takes us all to the future, one thing is certain: Tesla tied the knot to the rainbow of hope, technical advance, universal brotherhood and human dignity around the world.
Thank you, - wherever the light is and wherever the light is to be. Thank you, dear Maestro, for being the citizen of the world. Thank you, Tesla, for the world that without you could not be. Thank you, Tesla, for loving and for being proud of your Serbian mother and of your Croatian homeland.
EQUINOX (For Nikola Tesla)
I greet the rushing river, as if greeting a woman crossing the equator in the Sun...
We are overtaken by the length of a longest day before the longest night.
She comes closer, with all her might, presing her bust against my body time after time: getting restless, discovering the rainbow in sight, I comfort my pounding heart. She then embraces my body like a Brazilian boa, kissing me in my fisherman's hat, as if making love to me in one breath.
Finally, as day and night make peace against our bodies, we part: her hair flattering before the deep plunge. Exhausted, and standing at the Goat's Island, from which Canada and the blue sky are hardly seen, I listen to sudden thundering of Niagara Falls:
oh, the magnificent falls, oh, Niagara, oh, my fellow men yearning for her love! Oh, Niagara love calls! Sudden rush of wind. Most loved in equinox. My lover, her breasts unvailed for last kiss. Plunging to death...
Niagara Falls, October 15, 2004
, Croatian and American poet and writer, Member of CFU, Sloboda 32, Member of Tesla Memorial Society of Executive Board November 7, 2009
Author at , , as a guest speaker on writing essays and poetry to students of Mrs.Jennifer Franey, Mrs.KayLynn Schulz and Ms. Becky Gemmel ? presenting his essay about Nikola Tesla, published in CFU Zajednicar - Pittsburgh, 2009. _______________________________________
Sources and photographs: Nikola Tesla, "My inventions: the autobiography of ", Heart Bros., 1982 , "Tesla, Man Out Of Time", 2001 Lisa Aldrich, " and The Taming Of Electricity", 2005 , Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse", 2004 Marc Seifer, "Wizard: The Life and Times of ", 2001 , Belgrade/AP Tesla Memorial Society of (author)
Following is a photo-panorama of , photographs by by , October, 2004. 
Author and his wife Danica at the American Niagara Falls, October 2004.
The American Falls.
The American Falls.
The plaque on the original arch of the hydroelectric plant at .
The inscription on Tesla?s monument at .  
The entrance to Canadian Niagara Hydroelectric Power Plant.
The Canadian Hydroelectric Power Plant. 
On Canadian side, in front of the Canadian Hydroelectric Power Plant.
The Canadian ().
To (By John (Jack) O?Neill)
Most glorious man of all ages Thou wert born to forecast greater days Where the wonders thy magic presages Shall altar our archaic ways.
Your coils with their juice oscillating Sent electrical surges through the earth Sent great energies reverberating From the center to the outermost girth.
Is thy mind a power omnipresent That fathoms the depths of all space That speaks to an adolescent The future triumphs of the race?
(John (Jack) O?Neal was one of the first Tesla?s biographers.) 
Tesla?s monument in front of the original arch of the Hydroelectric Power Plant.  
Author Ivan Marjanovic De Tonya in front of Tesla's monument at Niagara Falls, October 2004.
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