FACTS ABOUT NICOLA TESLA

1. He was born during a lightning storm in Serbia. When the midwife proclaimed this was a dark omen, his mother responded:  “No, he will be a child of light.”
2. After witnessing the death of his older brother, he started having visions.
3. He had obsessive compulsive disorder. He was obsessed with the number 3.  He hated jewelry, round objects, and touching hair.  He refused to talk to women who were wearing pearls.  He was a germophobe.  He always used 18 napkins to clean up at dinner and wore white gloves for every meal.
4. He could memorize entire books.
5. He invented a high frequency oscillator which shook his neighborhood. It was called the “earthquake machine”.  He invited his friend Mark Twain to the site, claiming it would claim Twain’s constipation.  After standing on the platform, Twain ran for the bathroom.
6. He lived in a series of hotels in NYC.
7. Tesla is known as the Father of Alternating Current. He worked for Edison, but he ended up leaving to work on his own.  He joined George Westinghouse in developing alternating current, as opposed to Edison’s direct current.  The competition became known as the War of the Currents.  Westinghouse won when Edison recommended using alternating current in electric chairs, thinking it would convince the public that alternating current was dangerous.  It backfired and now all homes use alternating current.
8. He convinced J.P. Morgan to finance his experiments with wireless transmissions.  He was actually interested in transmitting wireless electricity.  He built an 186 foot tower called Wardenclyffe.  When Guglielmo Marconi invented wireless telegraphy, Morgan stopped financing Tesla.  
9. He had over 300 patents. He was influential in the development of florescent lighting, the x-ray machine, radio, television, cell phones, and the remote control.
10. He died poor.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/78127/10-electrifying-facts-about-nikola-tesla

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