1856 — 1943 · Smiljan to New York Nikola
Tesla

"Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine." — Nikola Tesla, interview with Dragislav L. Petković, "A Visit to Nikola Tesla," Politika, April 1927

SCROLL TO EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE

Selected Patents & Discoveries

300 U.S. PATENTS FILED IN A LIFETIME
US 381,9681888

System of Electrical Distribution — Polyphase AC

The induction motor and polyphase system that made alternating current practical for industry, licensed by George Westinghouse and eventually adopted as the world's power standard.

Foundational
US 454,6221891

The Tesla Coil

A resonant transformer circuit capable of producing high-voltage, low-current, high-frequency currents — later foundational to radio transmission.

Signature Invention
US 645,5761897

System of Transmission of Electrical Energy

Core wireless transmission patent, later at the center of a 1943 Supreme Court decision affirming Tesla's priority over Marconi in radio's foundational claims.

Wireless
US 613,8091898

Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vessels

Demonstrated at Madison Square Garden: a radio-controlled boat, the first public demonstration of remote control and an early ancestor of robotics.

Remote Control
WARDENCLYFFE1901

The Wardenclyffe Tower Begins Construction

Funded by J. P. Morgan, intended as a global station for wireless telegraphy, telephony, and free transmission of power. Construction halted in 1906; the tower was demolished in 1917.

Unfinished Vision

From the Archive

PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTOGRAPHS
Portrait of Nikola Tesla, circa 1890, photographed by Napoleon Sarony
Nikola Tesla, c. 1890 · photograph by Napoleon Sarony · public domain
Nikola Tesla seated in his Colorado Springs laboratory beneath his magnifying transmitter, producing large electrical arcs
Colorado Springs laboratory, c. 1899 · double exposure by Dickenson V. Alley · public domain

Both photographs are in the public domain (pre-1928 US publication). They are hosted locally in this repo's images/ folder rather than linked from Wikimedia, so the site stays self-contained.

Long Island, New York

Wardenclyffe

On a quiet stretch of Long Island's north shore, Tesla began building what he believed would be the nervous system of a new civilization: a tower capable of transmitting signals — and eventually electrical power — around the globe without wires.

Funding collapsed before the vision could be tested at scale. In 1917, the tower was dismantled for scrap during wartime shortages, and Tesla's most ambitious project was reduced to a foundation in the grass.

Today, the site is preserved as the Tesla Science Center — a laboratory turned monument to an idea that arrived decades before its time.

187 ftTower Height
1901–06Construction Years
16Acres Preserved Today
"
My brain is only a receiver. In the universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength, and inspiration.
Nikola Tesla, as quoted in various interviews

Legacy

STILL POWERING THE GRID
AC

The Modern Power Grid

Tesla's polyphase alternating current system remains the basis for nearly all electricity generation and long-distance transmission in use today.

Hz

The Unit of Frequency

In 1960, the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic flux density the "tesla," honoring his work in electromagnetism.

RF

Radio's Contested Father

In 1943 — months after his death — the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Marconi's key radio patent, citing Tesla's earlier work.