MASTER OF LIGHTNING

Nicola Tesla 1856-1943

Tesla was born in what is today Croatia and where as a young man he studied both

mechanical and electrical engineering. Later, in Budapest, he saw the possibilities of

alternating current. In 1884 he went to New York with a letter of introduction to

Edison who was championing direct current systems. Tesla worked for Edison for a

time but fell out with him when Edison refused to honour a promise of payment to

Tesla for improving the Edison generator. With the backing of investors, he designed

a system of alternating current motors and transformers which attracted the backing

of George Westinghouse. And so was launched the battle of the currents, AC versus

DC, Tesla versus Edison. The battle was won by Tesla who became known as “The

Father of Alternating Current.”

Tesla went on to carry out extraordinary experiments with high frequency and high

voltage systems and radio waves. The former involved generating high voltage

discharges of around one million volts in his laboratory, at considerable risk to

himself and which earned him the title of “Master of Lightning.”

(Tesla: Master of Lightning, Margaret Cheney & Robert Uth, 2001)

Tesla’s Colorado Springs Laboratory in 1899

(Text extract and photographs from Cheney & Uth)

Tesla experimenting with his man-made lightning

An early lightning experiment with an estimated pressure of two million volts

An early coil configuration discharging