Nikola Tesla se rodio u selu Smiljanu, kod Gospica u Lici, 1856. godine. Otac mu je bio vrlo inteligentan i odlican pravoslavni sveštenik Milutin Tesla, rodio se u selu Raducu u Lici, a umro je 1879. godine. Teslina majka Nikolina se rodila u Gracacu i potice iz stare sveštenicke porodice Mandica. Otac je umro još dok je Nikola studirao, dok je majka doživela svu slavu svoga sina, koju je postigao u Americi, Londonu, Parizu.
Nikola je išao u nemacku osnovnu školu u Smiljanu, završio ju je u Gospicu, kao i nižu realku a višu je dovršio u Rakovcu kod Karlovca. Kao mali, Nikola se najradije igrao sa drugarima, hvatao ptice, citao ali nikad nije bio besposlen. Drugovi su ga veoma voleli jer je bio dobar i plemenit. Kad bi mu ostale neke školske stvarcice delio bi ih siromašnijim dugovima, a kasnije, kad je porastao i kad se kartao sa drugovima, izbegavao bi da nosi kuci zaraðeni novac i davao bi ga drugima. Po okoncanju realke, Nikola je pauzirao dve godine jer su roditelji bili ožalošceni smrcu starijeg sina. Potom, i pored insistiranja roditelja da postane sveštenik, Nikola odlazi na studije tehnickih nauka u Grac i Prag. Poslednje godine studija, zbog smrti oca, izdržavao ga je ujak Petar Mandic.
 

Po završenim studijama, Nikola je stupio u službu poštanskog telefonskog društva i prikljucivao telefone po kucama. Zatim je jedno vreme radio i u Budimpešti, ali ubrzo odlazi u Pariz i radi u Edisonovoj kompaniji. Kada je izvršio neke izmene na Edisonovim dinamo-mašinama, Tesla odlazi u Ameriku i ulazi u Edisonovu laboratoriju. Sa Edisonom je radio godinu i po dana, i zatim pocinje rad u svojoj laboratoriji u Njujorku. Tesla se prvi put vratio u Evropu 1889. i posetio parisku izložbu sa ujakom Petrom, a drugi put 1892. kada je dobio poziv Engleske akademije nauka i Društva engleskih elektrickih inženjera da održi predavanja o svojim poslednjim radovima. Povod tome je bilo Teslino predavanje, održano 8. maja 1891., pred Društvom americkih elektrickih inženjera, i koje je izazvalo ogromnu pažnju. Nikola je u Londonu držao dva predavanja, 3. i 4. februara, a držao ih je u Faradejevoj laboratoriji, cime mu je ukazana velika pocast. Englezi su sa divljenjem posmatrali Tesline eksperimente, a "Times" je tom pirlikom objavio:

"...Ako je uopšte štagod bilo u stanju da izazove oduševljenje za elektricitetom, onda je to sigurno ucinilo veoma znacajno predavanje, koje je sinoc g.Tesla održao pred ucenim slušaocima Kraljevske akademije. Njegovi eksperimenti otvaraju ne samo novo i bogato polje za naucna ispitivanja, nego su izneli više ili manje jasan pregled nekoliko opštih fizickih koncepcija i izazvale osobiti razvoj naših misli i ideja.

Radovi g.Tesle nalaze se na onoj granici gde se svetlost, toplota, elektricitet, hemijski afinitet i ostale vrste energije sastaju i meðusobno mešaju. Kad covek razmišlja o njegovim važnim eksperimentima oseti kao da su stare demarkacione linije otpale i da izvesni novi i plodni opšti pogledi ne mogu biti daleko,  pogledi pomocu kojih mozemo poci na nove pronalazacke puteve. Onda se, tako reci nehotice pita: šta su to elektricna a šta dielektricna tela, šta su provodnici, a šta izolatori? Jer, g.Tesla sastavi struju izmeðu dva elektricna pola, pa onda izmedju njih stavi plocu od najboljeg izolatora, i ona ne samo da otežava i smeta prolasku struje, nego ga jos i olakšava. U drugim slicnim eksperimentima on pokazuje kako se struje visokog potencijala ne vladaju ni po kakvom pravilu koje vredi za obicne struje. Izgleda kao da nema dovoljno debelog izolatora, kao da nema vazdušnog sloja kroz koji ne bi mogla proci elektricna struja dovoljnog intenziteta. Zatim dolazi znacajno otkrice da ukoliko elektricitet raste, slabi njegovo dejstvo na covecije telo. Gospodin Tesla je stajao u elektrostatickom polju koje je bilo tako jako da bi upalilo sijalicu bez žica, i ništa nije osecao. Jednom rukom je držao kraj žice iz koje je pršteci sipao ljubicasti mlaz varnica, a u drugoj lampu ili sasvim praznu staklenu cev i tako propustio kroz sebe struju od nekih 50.000 Volti. Staklena cev je sijala u njegovoj ruci od tako jake struje, od koje bi, u obicnm prilikama, i jedan stoti deo bio dovoljan da ucini kraj njegovom životu..."
              

 Na pocetku ovog predavanja Tesla je pomenuo izvesnog profesora Kruksa, koji ga je još kao ðaka oduševio i dao pravac njegovom radu. Meðutim, po završetku predavanja, Tesli je prišao jedan od najuvaženijih clanova Akademije, cestitao mu i rekao da nije trebalo da pominje profesora Kruksa, vec da jednostavno kaže: "Ja sam Nikola Tesla, rodom sam Srbin, i evo do kakvih sam rezultata došao u svojim istraživanjima..."

Sutradan, na drugom predavanju, desilo se da je doslo do kvara na mašinama koje su obezbeðivale struju za eksperimente, ali je Tesla po instrumentima primetio da ce struje biti još par minuta. Pošto je tad ponavljao pricu sa prethodnog predavanja, rekao je da nece da zamara slušaoce eksperimentima koje su vec videli i prešao na nove, za koje struju nije dobijao sa mašine na kojoj je došlo do kvara, vec iz gradske mreže za osvetljenje. Po završetku predavanja, Tesli je ponovo prišao onaj isti Lord i rekao mu: "Sinoc sam vas savetovao kako je trebalo predavati, a sad vidim da moram kod vas doci, da me naucite kako se predavanja drže."

Tesla je potom dobio i pozive od Francuskog društva za fiziku i Meðunarodnog elektrickog društva da doðe u Pariz i tu održi nekoliko predavanja. Odazvao se pozivu i postigao veliki uspeh, kao i u Londonu. Nikola je potom morao u domovinu jer mu je majka bila na samrti. Kada je sahranio majku, bio je kratko vreme u Beogradu, a potom se vratio u Ameriku i poceo da se sprema za svetsku izložbu u Cikagu. Inace, Tesla je bio omiljen u društvu zbog svoje duhovitosti i dovitljivosti. U svaki razgovor je znao da ubaci poneki stih ili misao, jer je raspolagao izuzetno velikom kolicinom znanja. Svoja osecanja prema domovini Tesla je izneo u govoru na banketu, koji je u Beogradu prireðen u njegovu cast:
"U meni može biti nešto, što može biti i obmana, kao sto cešce biva kod mlaðih ljudi, ali ako budem sretan da ostvarim bar neke od svojih ideala, to ce biti dobrocinstvo za celo covecanstvo. Ako se te moje nade ispune, najslaða misao bice mi ta, da je to delo jednoga Srbina."
Nikola Tesla je umro u Njujorku, 1943. godine, a urna sa njegovim pepelom cuva se u Muzeju Nikole Tesle u Beogradu.

Born July 9/10, 1856, Smiljan, died Jan. 7, 1943, New York City, Serbian-American inventor and researcher who discovered the rotating magnetic field, the basis of most alternating-current machinery. He emigrated to the United States in 1884 and sold the patent rights to his system of alternating-current dynamos, transformers, and motors to George Westinghouse the following year. In 1891 he invented the Tesla coil, an induction coil widely used in radio technology.

Tesla was from a family of Serbian origin. His father was an Orthodox priest; his mother was unschooled but highly intelligent. A dreamer with a poetic touch, as he matured Tesla added to these earlier qualities those of self-discipline and a desire for precision.

Training for an engineering career, he attended the Technical University at Graz, Austria, and the University of Prague. At Graz he first saw the Gramme dynamo, which operated as a generator and, when reversed, became an electric motor, and he conceived a way to use alternating current to advantage. Later, at Budapest, he visualized the principle of the rotating magnetic field and developed plans for an induction motor that would become his first step toward the successful utilization of alternating current. In 1882 Tesla went to work in Paris for the Continental Edison Company, and, while on assignment to Strassburg in 1883, he constructed, in after-work hours, his first induction motor. Tesla sailed for America in 1884, arriving in New York, with four cents in his pocket, a few of his own poems, and calculations for a flying machine. He first found employment with Thomas Edison, but the two inventors were far apart in background and methods, and their separation was inevitable.

In May 1885, George Westinghouse, head of the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh, bought the patent rights to Tesla's polyphase system of alternating-current dynamos, transformers, and motors. The transaction precipitated a titanic power struggle between Edison's direct-current systems and the Tesla-Westinghouse alternating-current approach, which eventually won out.

Tesla soon established his own laboratory, where his inventive mind could be given free rein. He experimented with shadowgraphs similar to those that later were to be used by Wilhelm Röntgen when he discovered X-rays in 1895. Tesla's countless experiments included work on a carbon button lamp, on the power of electrical resonance, and on various types of lighting.

Tesla gave exhibitions in his laboratory in which he lighted lamps without wires by allowing electricity to flow through his body, to allay fears of alternating current. He was often invited to lecture at home and abroad. The Tesla coil, which he invented in 1891, is widely used today in radio and television sets and other electronic equipment. That year also marked the date of Tesla's United States citizenship.

Westinghouse used Tesla's system to light the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. His success was a factor in winning him the contract to install the first power machinery at Niagara Falls, which bore Tesla's name and patent numbers. The project carried power to Buffalo by 1896.

In 1898 Tesla announced his invention of a teleautomatic boat guided by remote control. When skepticism was voiced, Tesla proved his claims for it before a crowd in Madison Square Garden.

In Colorado Springs, Colo., where he stayed from May 1899 until early 1900, Tesla made what he regarded as his most important discovery-- terrestrial stationary waves. By this discovery he proved that the Earth could be used as a conductor and would be as responsive as a tuning fork to electrical vibrations of a certain frequency. He also lighted 200 lamps without wires from a distance of 25 miles (40 kilometres) and created man-made lightning, producing flashes measuring 135 feet (41 metres). At one time he was certain he had received signals from another planet in his Colorado laboratory, a claim that was met with derision in some scientific journals.

Returning to New York in 1900, Tesla began construction on Long Island of a wireless world broadcasting tower, with $150,000 capital from the American financier J. Pierpont Morgan. Tesla claimed he secured the loan by assigning 51 percent of his patent rights of telephony and telegraphy to Morgan. He expected to provide worldwide communication and to furnish facilities for sending pictures, messages, weather warnings, and stock reports. The project was abandoned because of a financial panic, labour troubles, and Morgan's withdrawal of support. It was Tesla's greatest defeat.

Tesla's work then shifted to turbines and other projects. Because of a lack of funds, his ideas remained in his notebooks, which are still examined by engineers for unexploited clues. In 1915 he was severely disappointed when a report that he and Edison were to share the Nobel Prize proved erroneous. Tesla was the recipient of the Edison Medal in 1917, the highest honour that the American Institute of Electrical Engineers could bestow.

Tesla allowed himself only a few close friends. Among them were the writers Robert Underwood Johnson, Mark Twain, and Francis Marion Crawford. He was quite impractical in financial matters and an eccentric, driven by compulsions and a progressive germ phobia. But he had a way of intuitively sensing hidden scientific secrets and employing his inventive talent to prove his hypotheses. Tesla was a godsend to reporters who sought sensational copy but a problem to editors who were uncertain how seriously his futuristic prophecies should be regarded. Caustic criticism greeted his speculations concerning communication with other planets, his assertions that he could split the Earth like an apple, and his claim of having invented a death ray capable of destroying 10,000 airplanes at a distance of 250 miles (400 kilometres).

After Tesla's death the custodian of alien property impounded his trunks, which held his papers, his diplomas and other honours, his letters, and his laboratory notes. These were eventually inherited by Tesla's nephew, Sava Kosanovich, and later housed in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade. Hundreds filed into New York City's Cathedral of St. John the Divine for his funeral services, and a flood of messages acknowledged the loss of a great genius. Three Nobel Prize recipients addressed their tribute to "one of the outstanding intellects of the world who paved the way for many of the technological developments of modern times." (I.W.H.)