Nikola Tesla

On July 10, 1856, in Smiljan in the Austrian Empire, now Croatia, Nikola Tesla was born into a Serbian Orthodox family that valued learning and imagination. He studied engineering in Graz and Prague, then worked in European electrical firms before immigrating to the United States in 1884. Employment in New York brought him into the intense commercial contest over electric power systems.

Tesla developed alternating-current motors, transformers, and transmission ideas that underpinned the Westinghouse AC system in the late 1880s and 1890s. His work gained famous public visibility at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and in the harnessing of Niagara Falls for electric power. Although his later ventures often outran his finances, his patents transformed the practical distribution of electricity.

Tesla's inventions helped create the electrical infrastructure that powered twentieth-century cities, factories, and households. The victory of alternating current over direct current also shaped the later utility networks and engineering standards that governed modern electrification.