m against the walls of the tub. Now, a little about that inventor, Nikola Tesla: NikolaTesla was born in Smijlan, Croatia in 1856. He had an extraordinary memory and spoke six languages. He spent four years at the Polytechnic Institute at Gratz studying math, physics, and mechanics. What made Tesla great, however, was his amazing understanding of electricity. Remember that this was a time when electricity was still in its infancy. The light bulb hadn't even been invented yet. When Tesla first came to the United States in 1884, he worked for Thomas Edison. Edison had just patented the light bulb, so he needed a system to distribute electricity. Edison had all sorts of problems with his DC system of electricity. He promised Tesla big bucks in bonuses if he could get the bugs out of the system. Tesla ended up saving Edison over $100,000 (millions of dollars by today's standards), but Edison refused to live up to his end of the bargain. Tesla quit and Edison spent the rest of his life trying to squash Tesla's genius (and the main reason Tesla is unknown today). Tesla devised a better system for electrical transmission, alternating current, or AC. AC offered great advantages over the DC system. By using Tesla's newly developed transformers, AC voltages could be stepped up and transmitted over long distances through thin wires. DC could not (requiring a large power plant every square mile while transmitting through very thick cables). Of course, a system of transmission would be incomplete without devices to run on them. So, he invented the motors. This was no simple achievement - scientists of the late 1800's were convinced that no motor could be devised for an alternating current system, making the use of AC a waste of time. After all, if the current reverses direction 60 times a second, the motor will rock back and forth and never get anywhere. "If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the dil...
