Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla

One night, I was watching the History channel and it was talking about electricity and some guy named Nikola Tesla, which at that point, I had no idea who he was. I'm not "fascinated" with electricity but the facts on the show were intriguing.

When thinking back to the inventions of electrical currents, the name Nikola Tesla is not usually mentioned. Tesla was an extremely bright person. He invented many things, including the commonly used AC (alternating currents) Electricity. His AC electricity was more powerful than Edison's DC (direct-current) electricity. Tesla's version was used at the World Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893 by George Westinghouse.
<-The area lit by Tesla's AC electricity
I know that this does not seem like such a big deal but belive me, it is.
When Tesla came to the United States in 1884, he went to Thomas Edison with a letter from Charles Batchelor saying “I know two great men, one is you and the other is this young man." I had also learned that Edison had offered Tesla a large sum of money for building something, and when Tesla did, Edison said something to point of , "Do you not understand American humor."
One big question that you may be thinking is : What is the difference between AC and DC electricity?
Well... DC is electricity that is always moving in one direction. It will move from one area and then back to where it started. It can't be used for long distances because a tower would have to be placed about every 2 miles and it would be a real hassle.
AC electricity is constantly changing direction. It can change about 50 or 60 times per second. It moves a whole lot faster and can move a whole lot farther.
Tesla also had even greater plans. One plan was for a wireless broadcasting tower. It was funded by $150,000 from financier J. Pierpont Morgan. Due to Morgan stopping his funding, Tesla's tower was never finished and torn down. Tesla died on January 7th, 1943. His ideas are still on paper and kept securely in Siberia. He was a genius and, at the time of his death, had over 700 patents.