Nikola Tesla timeline

Nikola Tesla Is Born

Tesla was born to Serbian parents in the village of Smiljan, Austrian Empire near the town of Gospić, in the territory of modern-day Croatia. His... Read more

Tesla Enrolls At Austrian Polytechnic

At the Polytechnic school Tesla began his studies in mechanical and electrical engineering. One day a physics teacher showed Tesla's class a new... Read more

Nikola Tesla begins working for Continental Edison

In 1882 Tesla moved to Paris, to work as an engineer for the Continental Edison Company, designing improvements to electric equipment brought... Read more

Tesla Identifies Magnetic Induction Field Principle

In 1882, Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla identified the rotating magnetic induction field principle used in alternators and pioneered the use of this... Read more

Tesla arrives in the United States

On 6 June 1884, Tesla first arrived in the United States, in New York City with little besides a letter of recommendation from Charles Batchelor, a... Read more

Nikola Tesla quits working for Edison

Tesla claims he was offered US$50,000 (~ US$1.1 million in 2007, adjusted for inflation) if he redesigned Edison's inefficient motor and... Read more

Nikola Tesla forms Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing Company

The Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing was a company formed by Nikola Tesla in 1886. Located in Rahway, New Jersey, the company was formed after... Read more

War of Currents era begins

During the initial years of electricity distribution, Edison's direct current was the standard for the United States and Edison was not inclined to... Read more

Nikola Tesla begins experimenting with X-Rays

In April 1887, Tesla began investigating what would later be called X-rays using his own single terminal vacuum tubes (similar to his patent... Read more

Tesla Delivers Lecture: A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers

At an AIEE meeting on May 16, 1888, Nikola Tesla delivered a lecture entitled A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers,... Read more

Nikola Tesla Patents the Tesla Coil

A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, low current, high... Read more

Nikola Tesla becomes a citizen of the United States

On 30 July 1891, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States at the age of 35. Tesla established his 35 South Fifth Avenue laboratory in... Read more

Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse power the World's Columbian Exposition

The International Exposition was held in a building which was devoted to electrical exhibits. General Electric Company (backed by Thomas Edison and... Read more

Tesla moves to research facility in Colorado Springs

In 1899, Tesla decided to move and began research in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he would have room for his high-voltage, high-frequency... Read more

Construction begins on Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower

Nikola Tesla began planning the Wardenclyffe Tower facility ca. 1898, and in 1901, construction began on the land near Long Island Sound. Architect... Read more

Tesla Patents Bladeless Turbine

Tesla's patents state that the device was intended for the use of fluids as motive agents, as distinguished from the application of the same for... Read more

Tesla and Edison ignored by Nobel Prize committee

There was a tragic mistake during the 1915 Nobel Prize involving Nikola Tesla and Edison. The report of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1915, to be... Read more

Tesla Files Lawsuit Against Guglielmo Marconi

Tesla was embroiled in other problems at the time, but when Marconi won the Nobel Prize in 1909, Tesla was furious. He sued the Marconi Company for... Read more

The New York Times publicizes Nikola Tesla's particle Beam research

The term teleforce refers to Nikola Tesla's macroscopic charged particle beam projector. The device was based upon a large Van de Graaff generator... Read more

Nikola Tesla Dies

Tesla died of heart failure alone in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel, on 7 January 1943. Despite having sold his AC electricity patents, Tesla... Read more

'Tesla' Defined As a Unit of Measure

The tesla (symbol T) is the SI derived unit of magnetic field B (which is also known as "magnetic flux density" and "magnetic induction"). One... Read more