August 29, 2000

Eng 24 Nikola Tesla: The

Genius Who Lit the World

Organized by Prof. Jasmina Vujic and

Prof. Vojin Oklobdzija

Freshman Seminar, Fall 2000

University of California at Berkeley

“Were we to seize and eliminate from our industrial world the results of Mr. Tesla’s
work, the wheels of industry would cease to turn, our electric cars and trains would
stop, our towns would be dark, our mills would be dead and idle. Yes, so far reaching is
his work that it has become the warp and woof of industry. The name of Tesla ... marks
and epoch in the advance of electrical science. From that work has sprung a revolu-
tions.”

B. A. Behrend, engineer and colleague of Tesla, 1917

Nikola Tesla was one of the most accomplished inventor-scientists of the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries. He invented radio and created the polyphase alternating
current system of motors and generators that powers the world. Without his inventions
the widespread electrification that touched the majority of people on the planet would
not have been possible.
However, he is still not recognized for many of his fundamental inventions. Such is the
case of radio for which even the Supreme Court in 1943, determined Tesla as inventor.
Tesla's greatest contributions are A.C. power transmission and fundamentals of radio
and radio-control. Among the more than 700 of Tesla's other inventions/patents are the
rotating magnetic field principle, polyphase alternating-current system, induction motor,
wireless communication, fluorescent lights, and remote control. Tesla is one of only two
Americans to have a unit of electrical measurement named in his honor.
In this seminar we will review some of the most important of Tesla's inventions and
examine how they influenced the technological (and social) changes in the 20th century.

1
 Outline of the Seminar

Outline of the Seminar

The seminar is co-organized by Prof. Jasmina Vujic, Department of Nuclear Engineer-

ing, University of California at Berkeley, and Prof. Vojin Oklobdzija, Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California at Davis. In addition,
various guest speakers will be invited. There are no prerequisites required, and the sem-
inar will be open for engineering and non-engineering freshman students. Grading will
be P/NP.

The short outline of the course is presented below:

EARLY LIFE OF NIKOLA Tesla was convinced that his childhood experiences were decisive for his future work. In
TESLA his autobiography, Tesla explains his traits and qualities by heredity and attributed them
to the influence of his parents and ancestors. The circumstances of Tesla’s youth were
very hard. His father was a country priest in a very poor region of Lika, who straggled to
give his son an education, the cost of which was extremely high as compared with his
income. Tesla was torn between his strong desire and actual opportunities, and this left
an imprint on his whole life.(1,2,7)

TESLA’S FIRST EFFORTS IN Being born in poverty, Tesla often, as a young boy, had to invent his toys and tools. In
INVENTION his autobiography, Tesla talks about his frog-catching “apparatus”, his first “motor”
powered by May-bugs, his “pop-gun” made of hollow wooden tubes, and many oth-
ers.(1)

THE DISCOVERY OF THE Tesla's discovery of the rotating magnetic field produced by the interactions of two and
ROTATING MAGNETIC three phase alternating currents in a motor winding was one of his most significant
FIELD achievements, and formed the basis of his induction motor and polyphase system for the
generation and distribution of electricity. Large amounts of electrical power could be
generated and transmitted efficiently over long distances. To this day, the three-phase
form of Tesla's polyphase system is still used for the generation and transmission of
most electricity. Moreover, the conversion of electricity into mechanical power is made
possible by updated versions of Tesla's three-phase and split phase motors.(3)

THE DISCOVERY OF THE His experiments with high frequency and high potential alternating currents resulted in
TESLA COIL AND the development of the “Tesla coil” which is still used as a major component in numer-
TRANSFORMER ous electronic devices. This device is a transformer with an air core that has both its pri-
mary and secondary tuned in resonance. (3,7)

THE DISCOVERY OF NEON As part of other experiments with high frequencies Tesla also developed the precursors
AND FLUORESCENT LIGHTS of modern neon and florescent lights. He constructed these lights, elongated glass tubes
filled with gas and coated with phosphor, excited in his high voltage experiments. He
also discovered that high voltage current could be made harmless by using alternating
current scheme at very large frequencies.(3,7)

WAR OF THE CURRENTS 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

2 Eng 24 Nikola Tesla: The Genius Who Lit the World

 Outline of the Seminar

dynamos, transformers, and motors. The transaction precipitated a titanic power strug-
gle between Edison's direct-current systems and the Tesla-Westinghouse alternating-
current approach, which eventually won out. A similar media blitz is responsible for
Thomas Alva Edison becoming a familiar household name. In reality Mr. Edison did not
create or develop our system of alternating current electricity. History of “The War of
the Currents” shows how he fought its adoption bitterly, choosing instead to promote a
system of direct current that had already been invented by others. In short, Mr. Edison's
brief role in the electrical power industry was that of an entrepreneur who failed, rather
than an inventor. It was Nikola Tesla's discovery of the rotating magnetic field principle
in 1882 and patented in 1888 that gives us our modern day system of electrical power
distribution. (2,4,7)

NIAGARA FALLS In October 1893 the Niagara Falls Commission awarded Westinghouse a contract to
build the powerhouse at the Falls, to be outfitted with the first two of ten generators that
Tesla has designed. Those dynamos of 5000 horsepower were the largest ever built thus
far. General Electric (who by that time took over Edison, Thompson-Houston, and other
companies), licensing certain of Tesla’s patents, was awarded a contract to build 22
miles of transmission lines to Buffalo. Tesla’s polyphase system would be used through-
out the project. The first three Niagara AC generators went on line November 16, 1896.
“The evolution of electric power, from the discovery of Faradey in 1831 to the initial
great installation of the Tesla polyphase system in 1896, is undoubtedly the most tre-
mendous event in all engineering history (Charles E. Scott, 1943) (7)

THE GREAT RADIO Marchese Guglielmo Marconi was the first to send a message across the ocean and, as a
CONTROVERSY result of his business interests later, he is partly responsible for 'developing' radio...but
he did NOT invent it. Tesla did. Most people are unaware of what happened June 21,
1943: The United States Supreme Court made a landmark decision that essentially set-
tled the long dispute between Marchese Guglielmo Marconi and Nikola Tesla. The
court's decision, Case No. 369, identified as "Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of
America vs. United States," rendered invalid Marconi's basic patent No. 763,772 dated
June 28, 1904. Tesla's patent No. 645,576 of March 20, 1900, and its subdivision patent
for apparatus No. 649,621 dated May 15, 1900, had priority. (2,4)

REMOTE CONTROL AND In the development of receivers and transmitters Tesla applied them in remote ship con-
AUTOMATION trol, and he was granted a patent in 1898 for “The Method of and Apparatus for Control-
ling Mechanism of Moving Vessels or Vehicles “. At the first Electrical Exhibition in
Madison Square Garden in 1898, Tesla operated a three-foot model boat demonstrating
both radio control and robotry in one incredible presentation. This invention made Tesla
an originator of remote control. (1,2,4, 7)

THE GREAT SMITHSONIAN The Smithsonian Book of Invention is a prodigious 3/4 inch thick book of America's
CONTROVERSY greatest inventors and their inventions. Tesla's name does not appear anywhere in that
publication. One wonders how such an august institution with all the learned historians
in their employ could possibly ignore Tesla's contributions in their chapter depicting the
evolution of electric power and radio. Further evidence of history gone amuck is seen in
the Smithsonian's publication, "The Beginning of the Electrical Age." The curator
meticulously traces the history of electricity from Volta to Edison, naming 43 significant
contributors, yet Nikola Tesla's name is missing. Instead, the curator shows pictures of

Eng 24 Nikola Tesla: The Genius Who Lit the World 3

 Nikola Tesla: Short Biography

the Niagara Falls Power project, and readers are carefully guided into believing that this
was the work of Edison. Yet it was Tesla's polyphase AC system that the power commis-
sion adopted and licenses had to be issued to use Tesla's patents. Money for this publica-
tion came from the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation. (5,6)

REFERENCES (1) Nikola Tesla, “My Inventions,” Skolska Knjiga, Zagreb, 1990.

(2) Margaret Cheney, “Tesla, Man Out of Time,” New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981.

(3) Encyclopedia Americana, Vol 26, Grolier Inc: Connecticut, pp. 527-528, 1997.

(4) Marc J. Seifer, “Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius,”
New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, 1996.

(5) John Wagner, personal communication

(6) Z. Herskovits, “To the Smithsonian or Bust: The Scientific Legacy of Nikola Tesla,”
Yale Scientific Magazine, Volume 71, Issue 4 (1999)

(7) Margaret Cheney and Robert Uth, “Tesla: Master of Lightning,” Barnes&Noble,
1999.

Nikola Tesla: Short Biography

(b. July 9/10, 1856, Smiljan, Lika, Austro-Hungary--d. 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, transform-
ers, 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, Aus-
tria, 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 prin-
ciple 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

4 Eng 24 Nikola Tesla: The Genius Who Lit the World

Nikola Tesla: Short Biography

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 strug-
gle 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 shadow graphs
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 station-
ary 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 labora-
tory, 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. Pier-
pont 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 com-
munication and to furnish facilities for sending pictures, messages, weather warnings,
and stock reports. The project was abandoned because of a financial panic, labour trou-
bles, 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.

Eng 24 Nikola Tesla: The Genius Who Lit the World 5

 Bibliography

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 imprac-
tical 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 kilome-
tres).

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 out-
standing intellects of the world who paved the way for many of the technological devel-
opments of modern times." (I.W.H.)

Reproduced with permission from Britannica Online. Copyright (c) 1996 by Encyclo-
paedia Britannica, Inc.

Bibliography

1. CHENEY, MARGARET. Tesla, man out of time, Prentice Hall, Inc., 1981; Barnes & Noble Books, 1993.

2. NIKOLA TESLA MUSEUM Nikola Tesla: Colorado Springs Notes (1899-1900), G. S. G. & Associates, Inc. / Janu-
ary 1978

3. NIKOLA TESLA MUSEUM Tribute to Nikola Tesla. Presented in articles, letters, documents. Beograd, Nikola Tesla
Museum, 1961.

4. O'NEILL, JOHN JOSEPH, Prodigal genius; the life of Nikola Tesla, I. Washburn, Inc., 1944.

5. GLEN JIM, ED The complete patents of Nikola Tesla / edited by Jim Glenn, Barnes & Noble Books,
1994.

6. TESLA, NIKOLA, The fantastic inventions of Nikola Tesla / by Nikola Tesla & David H. Childress. Stelle,
Ill. : Adventures Unlimiteds, Series title: Lost science series, 1993.

6 Eng 24 Nikola Tesla: The Genius Who Lit the World

 Bibliography

7. TESLA, NIKOLA, My inventions: the autobiography of Nikola Tesla / edited, with an introduction, by Ben
Johnston. 1st Hart Bros. ed. Williston, Vt. : Hart Bros., 1982.

8. TESLA, NIKOLA, Nikola Tesla on his work with alternating currents and their application to wireless
telegraphy, telephony, and transmission of power : an extended interview / Leland I.
Anderson, editor. Denver, Colo. : Sun Pub. : Breckinridge, Colo. : Distributed exclu-
sively in the USA by Twenty First Century Books, 1992.

9. VIDEORECORDING The Mechanical universe and beyond. Part 37-38. Electromagnetic induction ; Alternat-
ing currents / a co-production of the California Institute of Technology and the Corpora-
tion for Community College Television. Santa Barbara, Calif. : Intellimation
[distributor], c1987.1 videodisc (60 min.) : sd., col. ; 12 in.Laserdisc. UCB Media Ctr
VIDEO/D 97

10. VUJOVIC, IWONA Tesla Bibliography, 1896-1920, Publ. Tesla Project, 1998.

11. HULL, RICHARD L.. The Tesla Coil Builder’s Guide to the Colorado Springs Notes of Nikola Tesla, Pub-
lisher: Twenty First Century Books, 1999.

12. STEWART, DANIEL B. Tesla: The Modern Sorcerer, Publisher: Frog, Limited, 1999.

13. SEIFER, MARC J. Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla, Publisher: Carol Publishing Group, 1998.

14. CHENEY, MARGARET. Tesla, Publisher: Doubleday, 1998.

15. TESLA, NIKOLA. Nikola Tesla - Lecture Before the New York Academy of Sciences, April 6, 1897; The
Streams of Lenard & Roentgen: a Novel Apparatus for Their Production, Publisher:
Twenty First Century Books, 1994.

16. ANDERSON, L. Nikola Tesla: Guided Weapons and Computer Technology,"Twenty First Century Books,
1998.

17. CHENEY, MARGARET Tesla: Master of Lightning, Barnes&Noble, 1999.

AND ROBERT UTH

18. MARTIN, THOMAS C. The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla, Barnes&Noble, 1995.

19. TESLA, NIKOLA Nikola Tesla: Lectures, Patents, Articles, Editors: V. Popovic, R. Horvat and N. Nikolic,
Published by Nikola Tesla Museum, 1956.

20. HUNT, INEZ AND W. Lightning in his hand; the life story of Nikola Tesla, by Inez Hunt and Wanetta W.
WANETTA Draper. Denver, Sage Books, 1964.

Eng 24 Nikola Tesla: The Genius Who Lit the World 7

 Short Biographies of The Seminar Organizers

Short Biographies of The Seminar Organizers

JASMINA L. VUJIC
Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering
University of California, Department of Nuclear Engineering
Berkeley, CA 94707E-mail: vujic@nuc.berkeley.edu

Areas of Expertise
Reactor physics. Advanced nuclear reactor analysis and design. Development of modern
numerical methods in radiation transport (collision probability, method of characteris-
tics, Monte Carlo). Optimization techniques for vector and parallel processing. Shield-
ing, radiation protection, and helath physics. Medical application of radiation in cancer
diagnostic and therapy, BNCT.

Education
Ph.D. (1990) Nuclear Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
MS (1987) Nuclear Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
MS (1984) Engineering Physics, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
BSEE (1977) Electrical and Nuclear Engineering, University of Belgrade,
Yugoslavia.

Professional Experience
1998-Present Associate Professor, Department of Nuclear Engineering and (1995-
present) the Joint UCB/UCSF Bioengineering Graduate Group, Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley, USA.
1992 -1998 Assistant Professor, Department of Nuclear Engineering, University
of California, Berkeley.
1999-Present Director, the Davis-Etcheverry Computing Facility at UC Berkeley,
which provides computing resources to students and faculty of four
engineering departments (ME, NE, CE, and IEOR).
1992-Present Director, Advanced Nuclear Engineering Computing Laboratory, Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley, USA.
1989 -1992 Research Staff, Reactor Analysis Division, Argonne National Labora-
tory, USA.
1985 - 1989 Research Assistant, Department of Nuclear Engineering, University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
1977 - 1985 Researcher/Lecturer at the Nuclear Sciences Institute, Vinca, Bel-
grade, Yugoslavia.

Professional Achievements and Awards

Jasmina Vujic is an internationally recognized expert in the advanced method develop-
ment for reactor analysis and design, as well as for medical applications. Her general
geometry collision probability code GTRAN2 has been licensed to General Electric and
Toshiba. Also, the GTRAN2 code was chosen by the Department of Energy as the com-
putational methodology for assembly design of the MHTGR core for tritium produc-
tion. A new version of the code, MAGGENTA has been incorporated into the MAGG-
SCALE package, and is being used by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She has also
developed CHAR, a general geometry method of characteristics code.
Dr. Vujic is a member of the American Nuclear Society and has held various executive

8 Eng 24 Nikola Tesla: The Genius Who Lit the World

Short Biographies of The Seminar Organizers

positions in several divisions of ANS. She was a member of many Scientific and Techni-
cal Program Committees for domestic and international conferences. She also organized
several special sessions, and was a session chairman at numerous domestic and interna-
tional conferences. Since 1992, Dr. Vujic has given over 60 invited presentations/lec-
tures in the U.S. and abroad (China, Japan, S. Korea, Yugoslavia, Brazil, Mexico,
Germany). She is a reviewer for Nuclear Technology, Nuclear Engineering and Design,
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Journal of Computational Phys-
ics, and DOE.

Dr. Vujic has received many awards including: the 1996 Prytanean Faculty Award at
University of California at Berkeley; the Best Paper Award, at the 1991 ANS Winter
Meeting in San Francisco, CA; the 1991 Argonne National Laboratory Annual Excep-
tional Performance Award; the Best Program Award at the Int. Topl. Mtg. on Advances
in Mathematics, Computations, and Reactor Physics, Pittsburgh, PA, in 1991; the 1989
Distinguished Achievement Award for outstanding work in Nuclear Engineering, Col-
lege of Engineering, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, and the Exceptional
Teaching Award, Nuclear Sciences Institute, Belgrade, Yugoslavia (1982). She is holder
of one patent and author of about 150 publications, including over 30 research papers
published in leading archival journals, as well as several awarded papers. She has been
consultant for General Electric, and Transware.

PROF. VOJIN G. OKLOBDZIJA, FELLOW IEEE

Prof. Oklobdzija has been with the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of California Davis since July 1991. Previously he spent 8 years as a research
staff member of the IBM T.J.Watson Research Center in New York where he made con-
tributions to development of RISC and super-scalar RISC architecture and processors.
He holds a patent on the IBM RS/6000 ("PowerPC") architecture which is widely used
and it is on it's way of becoming a "standard" architecture of the future. He was also one
of the initiators of the super-computer project at IBM resulting in SP-2 parallel machine.
From 1988-90 he taught courses in computer architecture, computer arithmetic and
computer design at the University of California Berkeley while on sabbatical from IBM.
He obtained his Ph.D and MSc in Computer Science from the University of California,
Los Angeles in 1982 and 1978 respectively where he came as a Fulbright scholar in
1976. He obtained Dipl. Ing. (MScEE) degree in Electronics and Telecommunication
from the Electrical Engineering Department, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1971
and stayed on the faculty until 1976. His industrial experience includes positions at the
Microelectronics Center of XEROX Corporation, consulting positions at Sun Microsys-
tems Laboratories, AT&T Bell Laboratories and various others.

His interest is in: High-Performance Computer System Architecture and Design, VLSI
and Fast Circuits, Efficient Implementations of Algorithms and Computation. His work
on fast ALU scheme has been widely referenced and used. He has been elected Fellow
of IEEE for his contributions in super-scalar RISC architecture and he holds four U.S.A
and four European patents in the area of circuits and computer design and has published
in the areas of: circuits and technology, computer arithmetic and computer architecture.
He has over 80 technical publications and three book chapters. He has given over 80
invited talks in the USA, Europe, Latin America, Australia and Japan.

Eng 24 Nikola Tesla: The Genius Who Lit the World 9