He invented a few things that you might be familiar with. Radio. The Fluorescent Light. The system of power generation and distribution (the power grid) that we use in the world today. Quite a few more too.
Nice biography at the Tesla Science Center built on the grounds of one of his labs.
Tesla’s Life of Discovery
By the time Nikola Tesla was six years old, he had already started experimenting and inventing. His keen interest in nature and the way things work, combined with intelligence and curiosity, led to childhood inventions such as a motor powered by June bugs, air piston gun, and frog catching device. In elementary school he built water turbines and dreamed of using Niagara Falls to generate power, a dream that he saw come to life in 1896. As a young man, Tesla excelled in his studies of math, physics, engineering, and science. At one of his first jobs at the Budapest Telephone Exchange, Tesla improved the equipment and developed an amplifier; soon after, while working at another job installing lights in Paris, Tesla made improvements to Edison’s dynamos and created an automatic regulator.
Upon reaching America in 1884 at the age of 28, Tesla continued developing his concepts and applied for his first patent in 1888. He continued inventing and by the time of his death in 1943, Nikola Tesla held almost 300 patents. Tesla’s lifelong dedication to harnessing the forces of nature for the benefit of humanity is a legacy that continues to benefit the world today.
One of my major personal heroes.
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