Speech Outline : Informational Speech : Nikola Tesla

When people think about famous people from the early 1900’s many may think about Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb and DC electricity, or Albert Einstein, founder of the Theory of Relativity, and the famous equation, E=mc2. Many have heard the name ‘Tesla’ as a car company which specializes in electric vehicles. This paper is not going to be on the car company, but rather the person who indirectly inspired its name, Nikola Tesla.

With his inventions and ideas, Nikola Tesla was able to change both the United States and the World. Through hard work and many sleepless nights, Tesla was able to create a cheaper yet efficient electricity supply system, which relied on Alternating Current (AC), that would become the main supply system in America over rival Thomas Edison’s then popular supply system, which relied on Direct Current energy (DC), in the 1890’s. Some of his inventions and ideas, such as the Tesla Coil, and the idea of wireless communication, gave way to the invention of many other modern inventions, such as the radio, X-ray, and the cell phone. If it weren’t for Tesla, we wouldn’t have had the superior technology we use today, or probably even Wi-fi. Nikola

After his son nearly died multiple times, Tesla’s father vowed to send him to the most prestigious engineering school if he recovered. In 1874, Tesla evaded being drafted into the Austrian Army by fleeing into the mountains around Tomingaj. He said that this contact with nature made him stronger and he read many book’s claiming that Mark Twain’s work had cured him of his previous illness. The following year Nikola Tesla enrolled at the Joaneum Polytechnic School in Graz which was one of only four schools for higher education in Austria. “Though the school offered a course of study in civil engineering, Tesla initially enrolled in mathematics and physics, with the intention of becoming a professor” (Carlson 34).

Tesla came to America planning to have success. When Tesla first arrived in the United States, he had a letter of introduction that was address to Albert Einstein. This letter would tell someone about him and his requests. After that Tesla would

Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia on July 9, 1856. He attended the Polytechnic School at Graz for four years and spent a year at the University of Prague (1879-1880). His first employment was in a government telegraph engineering office in Budapest, where he made his first invention, a telephone repeater, and conceived the idea of a rotating magnetic field. He subsequently worked in Paris and Strasbourg. HISTORICAL BACKROUND

It was there where his creativity became reality. His first invention was the telephone repeater, then he went on to developing an induction motor. Tesla’s next job would impact his future more than he realized. He took a job in Paris with the Continental Edison Company repairing direct current (DC) power plants. Two years later, he was sailing to America to work for Thomas Edison in New York at Edison’s Manhattan headquarters. The two inventers didn’t see eye to eye on methodology and their eventual separation was to be expected. Tesla became employed by George Westinghouse, who was a major competitor against Thomas Edison in the “Battle of the

Imagine a world with a power-plant every two miles, a massive amount of wiring and overall more expensive power. This was the world that Thomas Edison envisioned for the world when he wanted to introduce Direct Current into the United States, but many knew this was an inferior system in comparison to Alternating Current. Nikola Tesla was the man who made AC power possible in the United States, and efficient power possible. Nikola Tesla indeed changed the world with his influence as an inventor and discoveries in the field of electricity. Tesla indeed changed the world through his inventions and was also an extremely interesting human being.

When he raised enough funds, in 1881, Tesla moved to Budapest, Hungary, where he worked for the Budapest Telephone Exchange. It was there that he developed a design for the rotating magnetic field upon which many of his future inventions would be based. He continued improving his designs after he moved to France in 1882. In 1884, he immigrated to the United States, where he was immediately hired by Thomas Edison. Edison allegedly promised Tesla $50,000 ($1,244,675.65 today) to improve upon Edison’s DC (direct current) generators. Tesla did so, but Edison did not give him the money, saying, “‘when you become a full-fledged American, you will appreciate an American joke’” (Hourly History, 7) and instead offered him a raise. Tesla quit soon after.

Nikola Tesla is also known for: The Tesla coil, his revolutions in the AC current system, harnessing the power of Niagara Falls, lighting all the lights for the Chicago world fair in 1893 and several other contributions to science, some of them even in the field of medical engineering, which helped lead to the development of NMRI. Tesla did several things over his life time. Tesla revolutionized the transfer of power, he is responsible for the invention of the radio, he created the Tesla coil and Tesla also invested time in studying the possibility of the wireless transfer of power, in addition to several other accomplishments. Over the course of his life time he was granted over 110 patents. In fact, in “Nikola Tesla”, the author(s) states, “satellite dishes, cell phones, and Wi-Fi connections wouldn’t have surprised Nikola Tesla […] our wireless world is only half of what he imagined” (Cox; Beth; Matthews).

Tesla and Edison have similarly filed many patents and prototypes for their inventions. Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia to a Serbian priest. After studying math and physics at the

Nickola Tesla was born on July 10th 1856 in the town of Smiljan, Croatia. His parents where Milutin Tesla, and Djuka Mandic. His father Milutin Tesla was a Serbian Orthodox priest and a writer, and his mother was a stay at home mom. His fascination with electricity was spurred by his mother as she would event small household items while he was growing up. His father wanted him to go into the priesthood when he reached that age. But Tesla’s interests laid solely in science so that’s what he pursued against his father’s wishes. He studied science at Realschule, Karlstadt which was later named Johann-Rudolph-Glauber Realschule Karlstadt. He also studied at the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria and later moving to the University of Prague

In 1899, Tesla moved his operations to Colorado. There he could pursue his research into high-voltage high frequency power transmission. After 3 years, he left Colorado for New York, and the lab was dismantled and sold to pay debts.

By 17 he moved to Canada to avoid the mandatory military service and attended Queen’s University. He then moved on to study at University of Pennsylvania.

Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia at midnight between July 9th and 10th 1856. He was intelligent since his early childhood. He soon became interested in engineering and he studied it at the Technical University in Graz, Austria, from 1877 to 1880. Right after that he went to the University of Prague in 1880, but his father had died and he withdrew his studies from the University soon after. Tesla always dreamed of becoming an electrical engineer and to invent a new type of power transmission instead of Direct Current (DC). He mourned for his father for about a year, but he had to return to his work. In 1881 he went to Budapest to work as an engineer for a telephone company, but this isn't what he wanted to in life. Tesla's

Born July 10,1856 during a fierce thunderstorm in the village of smiljan, Austrian empire he was the fourth of five children. In 1870, Tesla moved to Karlovac, to attend school at the Higher Real Gymnasium, where he