Marlene Wagman-Geller

    Currently, Tesla denotes an electric, controversial car. However, in the nineteenth century the name recalled inventor Nikola Tesla.

     A contemporary of scientific greats Edison, Westinghouse, and Marconi, Nikola was an electrical engineer whose eccentric, enigmatic ideas transformed the world. He was born in Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1856, to father, Milutin, a priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church. While Milutin was an adherent of religion, Nikola was a devotee of science. As with Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, Nikola was convinced of his brilliance. The inventor memorized entire books, mastered eight languages, even greater accomplishments as he did so on only a few hours of sleep. The star student at the Polytechnic Institute at Graz, Austria, Nikola’s education ended after his gambling addiction resulted in the loss of his tuition. The situation brought on the first of his many nervous breakdowns. Nikola moved to Budapest where, while walking in a park, reciting poetry, a vision took hold of him. With a stick, he drew in the dirt a diagram of a motor that would run without fossil fuel. 

     In 1884, to meet Edison, a penniless Nikola arrived on the docks of New York City. Their collaboration collapsed after an acrimonious dispute over $50,000. Embittered, Nikola said of his former employer, “He had no hobby, cared for no sort of amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene.” In contrast, Nikola dressed in formalwear and once fired a secretary for being overweight. The six-foot two, pencil thin scientist with the exotic accent attracted women, but never married. He felt celebrity sparked creativity while intimacy invited germs. 

      Nikola was one of the inventors of the radio, took out the first patent for a speedometer, and fashioned what would be recognized years later as a robot. He also proposed the development of torpedoes before the advent of World War I, weapons the navy later launched from submarines. At the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, Nikola illuminated more light bulbs than existed in the fair’s host city of Chicago. An offbeat celebrity, Mark Twain visited Nikola’s laboratory, Albert Einstein sent him a birthday card, and Tesla graced the 1931 cover of Time Magazine.  

     Oddness increased with age; while dining at the Palm Room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Nikola polished the already gleaming silverware, always using eighteen napkins. Other idiosyncrasies were a love of numbers divisible by three, and a fascination with time travel. His bizarreness prompted his financial backers to pull the plug on investments. Nikola spent his final years in the New Yorker Hotel, (Westinghouse picked up the rent). His closest companions were the pigeons at a nearby park.

     The resurrection of Nikola occurred when Martin Eberhard was at the Blue Bayou, a Disneyland restaurant nestled near the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction with his future wife, Carolyn. Over dinner they decided to call their future company Tesla after the eccentric genius who had originated the concept of the electric car.

     As it transpired, the man who truly got Tesla off and running was the South African-born Elon Musk who made his first million by co-founding Pay Pal. Nikola shared the Serbian’s genius as well as his quirkiness. Elon has plans to colonize Mars and named his sixth son X AE A-12 Musk. 

          Steve Jobs saluted outside-the-box-thinkers such as Nikola, “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels…because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” Jobs’ words were from Apple’s famous 1997 ad, “Think Different.”