Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) was a Serbian-American inventor and electrical engineer. Born in Smiljan, in what is now Croatia, he studied in Graz and worked in Budapest and Paris before emigrating to the United States in 1884, where he worked briefly for Thomas Edison. His induction motor and system of alternating current, licensed to George Westinghouse, became the basis of modern power distribution. He experimented with high-frequency currents, the Tesla coil, radio, remote control and wireless transmission of energy, and lectured to great acclaim in America and Europe. Later projects such as Wardenclyffe Tower failed, and he died in a New York hotel.