Childhood

Nikola Tesla was born in a Croatian village in 1856.  He had three sisters and one brother, Dane.  Dane was a genius and their parents were very proud of him and knew he was destined for great things.  He suffered from the same episodes of flashing lights and visions as Tesla had, which is probably the reason why they were both such great visionaries.  Dane died when Tesla was seven years old, causing Tesla great distress.  There is some confusion as to how he died, I have read many different versions of the story.  Some say it was a horse riding accident and he died a few days later, others say Tesla pushed him down the stairs and that is the reason he lived his life denying himself any pleasures and studying sometimes more than 20 hours a day, because he felt guilty for taking his genius brother away from his parents and the world.

He always had an inventive spirit, one of his inventions as a child was a propeller driven by sixteen May bugs glued four beside one another on wooden blades.  The genius said of his invention “These creatures were remarkably efficient, for once they were started they had no sense to stop and continued whirling for hours and hours….All went well until a strange boy came to the place….That urchin ate May-bugs alive and enjoyed them… That disgusting sight terminated my endeavors in this promising field and I have never since been able to touch a May-bug or any other insect for that matter.”  When he was 9 years old he told his uncle that he would one day go to America and harness the power of Niagra Falls, which he did many years later.

He Loved The World So Much He Gave His Brain

Tesla had a deep respect and love for nature.  He hated seeing resources being wasted, which is why he came up with the AC current.  He saw DC as wasteful and inefficient and was laughed at for many years when he said he could make an alternating current that would be superior to DC.  He eventually did win the war over Edison and direct current, if he hadn’t we would have huge wires everywhere and electricity could only be used to light our houses.  So Tesla’s invention of AC is one reason why he is the “father of the modern age”.

He wanted to find mechanical ways of doing away with physical labor so people could spend more time in creative endeavors, making the world a better place.  Today we have so many conveniences which gives us a lot more free-time than people over 100 years ago had.   I truly believe that it would deeply sadden Telsa to see most kids today wasting that time.  I believe that if we had more people like Tesla today we could have starships going to different planets in this century.  Yes, I know I am crazy but it would be cool, right?

A lot of people are driven by the love for money.  Telsa was the opposite, he didn’t care much for money which actually cost him in the end, and cost us also.  He could have been the first billionaire if he didn’t sell his royalties worth 12 million for 216,000 to Westinghouse.  If he didn’t have to borrow money from people like J.P. Morgan, he would have been able to finish his tower for wireless power transmission.  Consequently, we would have had free power anywhere we went.  Maybe we would all be driving Tesla Roadsters.  But Tesla was a threat to people like Morgan because they were business men and could not dream of giving something like unlimited energy for free.  So he was dismissed as eccentric.

Tesla was a man ahead of his time and was laughed at for his seemingly crazy ideas.  Today we know he was truly a genius and in my opinion Tesla was greater than Einstein.  If  Tesla was not seen as a mad scientist in his later years our world would be an even greater place because he would have been given the money he needed to finish his works.   He was working hard to make our world a better place but he was forgotten.  He died alone on January 7, 1943, he was 86.