Who is Nikola Tesla - the man who invented the twentieth century

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Tesla was as ahead of our time as Leonardo Da Vinci was of his. Whilst much of his work was adopted and adapted during his life, much of it is still only theory, rather like Da Vinci's tanks and helicopters were.
Tesla demonstrated a radio controlled boat, years before marconi even thought about using it for broadcasting audio!
Many of his patents showed he had developed and understood the theory of things that were not developed for years, to the extent that his work was not even credited in the development until years afterwards. Very few are aware that his work included the invention of Radar, which was not put into practical use for several decades afterwards.

Tesla went to America to work for Edison, and their relationship quickly soured as Edison refused to budge from his adherence to Direct Current, whilst Tesla became frustrated, along with a number of other issues, he soon left. He formed his own company but quickly fell out with his backers as they could not see the value of alternating current. between this time and gaining another sponsor he worked on streetgangs as a laborer to pay for rent, food and finance his projects.

He persuaded George Westinghouse of the validity and potential of Polyphase (alternating) Current and received funds to develop this.AC proved to be very successful surmounting many of the problems of Direct Current, which threatened directly the work, patents and profits of Edison.

Edison was not disposed to lose all his patent royalties to a former employee. Edison (or, reportedly, one of his employees) employed the tactics of misusing Tesla's patents to construct the first electric chair for the state of New York in order to promote the idea that alternating currents were deadly.

At the 1893 World's Fair Exposition, in Chicago, Illinois, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' first voyage to America, the world got the first large scale demonstration of AC power. General Electric Company (backed by Edison and J.P. Morgan) proposed to power the electric fair with direct current at the cost of one million dollars. Westinghouse proposed, armed with Tesla's AC system, to illuminate the exposition for half as much. Tesla's high-frequency high-voltage lighting produced more efficient light with less heat. A two-phase induction motor was driven by current from the main generators to power the system. Edison tried to prevent the use of his light bulbs with Tesla's system. GE banned the use of Edison's lamps in Westinghouse's exhibits. Still, Westinghouse's proposal was chosen over the inferior DC system to power the fair.

In his work with the rotary magnetic fields, Tesla devised the system for transmission of power over long distances. He partnered with George Westinghouse to commercialize this system. Westinghouse had previously bought the rights to Tesla's polyphase patents and other patents for AC transformers. Experts announced proposals to harness the Niagara Falls for generating electricity. Against General Electric and Edison's proposal, Tesla's AC system won the international Niagara Falls Commission contract. The commission was lead by Lord Kelvin and backed by entrepreneurs (such as J.P. Morgan, Lord Rothschild, and John Jacob Astor). Work began in 1893 on the Niagara Falls generation project and Tesla's technology was applied to generate electromagnetic energy from the falls.

Some doubted that the system would generate enough electricity to power industry in Buffalo. Tesla was sure it would work, saying that Niagara Falls had the ability to power the entire eastern U.S. On November 16, 1896, the first transmission of electrical power between two cities was sent from Niagara Falls to industries in Buffalo from the first commercial two-phase power plants (known as hydroelectric generators) at the Edward Dean Adams Station.

The hydroelectric generators were built by Westinghouse Electric Corporation from Tesla's AC system patent designs. Tesla's system designs alleviated the limitations of the previous DC methods. The nameplates on the generators bear Tesla's name. He also set the 60 hertz standard for North America. It took five years to complete the whole facility.

With the financial backing of Westinghouse, Tesla's AC replaced DC, enormously extending the range and improving the safety and efficiency of power distribution. Tesla's Niagara Falls system marked the end of Edison's plans for electrical transmission. Eventually, Edison's GE company converted, some would say reluctantly, to the AC system.

Although Tesla accepted an Edison Medal later in life and professed a high opinion of Edison as an inventor and engineer, he remained bitter. The day after Edison died, the New York Times contained extensive coverage of Edison's life, with the only negative opinion coming from Tesla who was quoted as saying, "He had no hobby, cared for no sort of amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene" and that, "His method was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to be covered to get anything at all unless blind chance intervened and, at first, I was almost a sorry witness of his doings, knowing that just a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90 percent of the labor. But he had a veritable contempt for book learning and mathematical knowledge, trusting himself entirely to his inventor's instinct and practical American sense." When Edison was a very old man and close to death, he said, in looking back, that the biggest mistake he had made was that he never respected Tesla or his work.

Edison will always be remembered for his lightbulb (yet he was refused the patent on it*), yet few could tell you what Tesla invented when he invented, designed and predicted so much that we take as essential and commonplace in the modern world.

*Many other inventors had worked on the development of an incandescent light bulb and some had even patented it before Edison. Edison's own inventions are often mistakenly credited as Edison's work alone, when in fact a number of employees actually worked under his direction. Many people refer to Edison's work as the first incandescent light bulb with high resistance, a small radiating area, and a commercially and uninhibitally but still useful lifetime. In other words his application for patent was presented as the only design suitable for use by large energy companies like the one he owned and ran. However, the US Patent Office ruled on October 8, 1883 that Edison's design was based on the prior work of William Sawyer and his application was thus invalid. Edison had already lost an earlier patent dispute, when a British court found that Joseph Swan received a patent in 1878 for the same bulb that Edison tried to claim as his own in the US in 1879.