12 IMMIGRANTS WHO MADE by Tristan Poehlmann AMERICAN SCIENCE GREAT STORY LIBRARY
1 Nikola Tesla Lights Up the World what is now Croatia Tesla’s family was Serbian His father was a priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church His mother invented clever household tools Tesla studied math and physics in school He learned engineering In 1884 he immigrated to the United States He began working for Thomas Edison But Tesla disagreed with Edison’s ideas Edison used direct current DC electricity Tesla had an idea he believed would be more efficient In 1887 Tesla started his own company He developed a system to generate alternating current AC electricity In 1893 Tesla demonstrated his system at the Chicago World’s Fair The crowd was impressed The invention brought him money and respect Tesla was hired to design a new power plant It would generate power from The world runs on electricity because of Nikola Tesla He invented the power system we use today He also thought up wireless communication Tesla was born in 1856 He lived in the mountains of 4
Tesla reading while his equipment produces alternating currents June 1901 Niagara Falls He designed a system that worked perfectly It produced enough electricity to light New York City THE MAD SCIENTIST People often found Tesla’s habits odd His meals had to be boiled He washed his hands constantly He was very afraid of germs But he loved to feed the pigeons in New York City parks He even took hurt pigeons home He nursed them back to health Tesla’s ideas were ahead of his time He believed the world could be connected wirelessly He predicted many things about the future 112 Number of US patents held by Nikola Tesla Tesla emigrated from Croatia in 1884 for a job He was an electrical engineer and inventor The power system he developed is still used today 5
