Tesla, Nikola. An American electrical inventor. Born in Smiljan, Austria-Hungary, in 1857. Studied engineering in Gratz and, in 1884, came to the United States; for several years was employed at Edison's laboratory, near Orange, NJ. Tesla then opened a laboratory of his own. In 1888, he completed his discovery of the rotating magnetic field by the invention of the rotary field-motor, the multi-phase system of which was used in the 50,000 horsepower plant built to transmit the water power of Niagara Falls to Buffalo and other cities. Tesla invented many methods and appliances for the use of electricity, among them the production of efficient light from lamps without filaments, and the production and transmission of power and information without wires. In November, 1898, Tesla announced the discovery of a method of transmitting electrical energy without wires. Working along the same line, William Marconi invented his wireless telegraphy. In 1901, Tesla discovered that the capacity of the electrical conductor is variable. Tesla received Nobel prize for physics, 1915.

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