Who Was Nikola Tesla?

One of the greatest electrical inventors who ever lived, Nicola Tesla, is unknown to many Americans.  His technological achievements transformed America from a nation of isolated communities to one connected by power grids where information was readily available.  It was the technology developed by Tesla that united the U.S and eventually the world.

Tesla's life was like a movie.  A brilliant and charismatic immigrant who was a true visionary.  He received 700 patents for his many inventions.  In the end, Tesla was regarded as an eccentric scientist.  He was ridiculed by is contemporaries.  When he died, most of Tesla's technical papers mysteriously disappeared, and many have never been found.  In the end, he would up a penniless and forgotten man.

Today, however, Tesla is mentioned in the same breath as Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, and George Westinghouse.  He anticipated the development of radio and television broadcasting, robotics, computers, faxes and even the Strategic Defense Initiative.  He developed the polyphase AC system of power transmission, which drives every home and industry in the country.  He invented the Tesla coil to create high-frequency electricity, and with it neon and florescent lighting, radio transmission, remote control and hundred of other devices that are essential parts of our daily life.

Oh, there's one more thing.  He was a Serb by origin, an immigrant to America that transformed the world then, and continues to do so today.   Elon Musk, who appropriately used Nicola  Tesla's name for his company, is also an immigrant, a visionary, and a modern day thinker who will make a difference in America and the world, for decades to come.  What a contribution immigrants have made to our country.