A Comparison Of Nikola Tesla And Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison is one name that comes to mind when the word 'electricity' is heard, although few realize there is yet another name that should come to mind instead: Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla made numerous key innovations in the creation, distribution, and usages of electricity. He is best known for his work with AC (alternating current) electricity. In his lifetime he was granted over 100 patents for his inventions. Some of his creations are being used in the electronics around you, from the cell phone in your pocket to the guided missiles protecting your country. Tesla was born into the world on July 9, 1856, in Smiljan, Croatia. When Nikola Tesla was seven years old, in the year 1863, his brother Daniel died in an accident. The shock disturbed

Edison hired Tesla almost immediately. Tesla became an engineer in his lab. Edison respected Tesla highly, but he did not share his views about AC power, as Edison was a strong supporter of DC power. Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison did not get along very well. It may have been due to the fact that they were the complete opposite from one another. Edison enjoyed the process of inventing things by hand in a trial and error way, as opposed to Tesla, who favored thinking through new ideas in his mind before acting upon them. Tesla described the type of person Edison was by stating, “If Thomas Edison had to find a needle in a haystack, he would examine each straw instead of finding a smarter way.” While Nikola was working for Edison, Edison told Tesla that he would pay a sum of $50,000 if Tesla presented him an enhanced model for his DC power dynamos. Tesla worked and experimented for months and presented a new design to Edison for his dynamos and requested the $50,000 amount promised. Edison responded with the quote, “Tesla, you don’t understand our American humor.” Tesla quit his job under Edison soon after that. It had only been one year since Tesla was hired by Edison

During 1889, he demonstrated a remote control boat he invented in a pool inside Madison Square Garden. In 1899, Tesla produced artificial lightning in a lab. (Staff, 6). Later in 1900, Tesla found a man named J.P Morgan to fund construction for a global communications network of Tesla’s design. The communications network would be centered with an extremely large tower, located in Wardenclyffe, on Long Island. Tesla’s funds ran out and the project was never finished. J. P. Morgan turned down all of Tesla’s requests for more money. (Staff, 6). Nikola Tesla died at the age of 87 on January 7, 1943. Later in the same year, the Supreme Court overturned the patents of Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian inventor, for radio related equipment which gave Nikola Tesla credit for inventing radio communication and the radio (Prigo, 4).

OPINION

I think that Nikola Tesla was one of the greatest pioneers in electricity. Without many of the things he invented, we would not have cell phones, the radio, or television, to name a few. Everyone uses AC electricity to power all types of devices every day, at all hours of the day. In short, everyone’s lives, across the world, wouldn’t be even close to the same as it is now if Nikola Tesla never