Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla (1856 to 1943) was a Serbian-American engineer, futurist and inventor, known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current electricity supply system. Born and raised in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree, worked in telephony and at Continental Edison, and migrated to the United States in 1884, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1891. His AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, became the cornerstone of the polyphase system Westinghouse marketed. He also built a wirelessly controlled boat, one of the first wirelessly controlled vehicles, and pursued wireless lighting and power distribution through experiments in New York and Colorado Springs and the unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project. He died in New York City in 1943, and the SI unit of magnetic flux density, the tesla, was named in his honor in 1960.