Tesla's Electrifying Life

Nikola Tesla is a household name at this point—his inventions still power today’s tech, museums were built in his honor, and he was a force to be reckoned with almost immediately. But no matter what you think you know about him, there are a lot of things behind the mastermind that might just cloud how you remember him. Join us as we go through some facts about his life.

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1. It Was a Dark and Stormy Night…

Family legend has it that Tesla was practically born from electricity. It’s said a rather powerful lightning storm took place the night of his birth on July 10, 1856. Though some claimed it was a bad omen, his mother allegedly believed it was a sign of good things to come. 

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2. Defying Expectations

Tesla’s mind was a powerful thing right from the start, exceeding expectations in school and at home. He had a particular interest in language and physics, and his photographic memory helped him solve complex calculations. He was so smart, in fact, that his high school teachers thought he was cheating—but he was simply a step above the rest. He finished four terms in three and graduated in 1873. 

Napoleon Sarony on Wikimedia

3. He Nearly Lost His Life as a Teenager

Graduation is a time for opportunities, but Tesla’s road was nearly cut short after he contracted cholera in 1873. He spent a whopping nine months in bed and nearly lost his life. However, the experience would be a blessing in disguise as his father promised to send him to the best engineering school if Tesla pulled through, which he eventually did. 

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4. Well-Read Mountain Man

Tesla fled the following year to the village of Tomingaj near Gračac. The decision not only helped him evade conscription but also allowed the chance to live in nature. For the next year, he roamed the mountains with nothing more than hunter’s garb and a handful of books. 

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5. He Failed School and Dropped Off the Map 

1875 wasn’t the most prosperous year for Tesla, despite enrolling in the Imperial-Royal Technical College in Graz. Though he excelled in school, he left after three years and historians still struggle to pinpoint why. Whatever the reason, Tesla’s own family didn’t even hear from him after he left and wouldn’t find him for at least a year afterward in 1879.  

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6. Engineering at Edison

After a brief stint in school, Tesla moved to Budapest in 1881 to work under Tivadar Puskás. He initially worked at the Budapest Telephone Exchange until Puskás found him work at the Continental Edison Company in 1882. It wouldn’t take long for Tesla to make waves at the company, soon being recognized for his brilliance and climbing the ranks to a traveling repairman.  

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7. An Exaggerated Fued 

In 1884, Tesla’s boss was asked to manage Edison Machine Works in NYC. He took the wunderkind with him and it was here that Tesla worked for Thomas Edison, founder of the company, for about six months. Stories of their feud are greatly exaggerated—historians believe the two only met a handful of times and even had a cordial relationship until Tesla left the company in 1885 over monetary disputes.

Louis Bachrach, Bachrach Studios, restored by Michel Vuijlsteke on Wikimedia

8. Ahead of His Time 

Despite the tumultuous end, Tesla didn’t need anyone else to soar. He started the Tesla Electric Company in April 1887 and spent the next several years working on inventions like AC induction motors, the Tesla coil, and his infamous wireless transmission tower, Wardenclyffe. By the end of his career, he’d have hundreds of patents to his name.

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9. Mark Twain’s Constipation

Tesla will always have a leg up on his competitors—no one else’s creations cured Mark Twain’s constipation. These two became fast friends in the late 1800s, growing so close that Twain felt comfortable enough to complain about his digestive issues. Tesla had the solution, a vibrating disk of his own creation that he thought would loosen Twain’s...problem. Twain got atop, the oscillating disk started to shake, and it reportedly only took a few minutes before Twain ran to the bathroom. 

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10. Messages From Mars

Constipation cures have their place in science, but people believed Tesla's inventions were otherworldly. In 1899, he picked up signals in his lab that some thought came from outer space, Tesla included. The story naturally picked up steam among reporters, though today’s historians say the signals were likely from another transmitter. 

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11. An Ugly Side to His Beliefs

Supposed contact with aliens wasn’t his only uncomfortable belief. In 2012, Smithsonian Magazine dug up evidence that Tesla supported eugenics. The findings came from a 1935 issue of Liberty magazine, which featured several of Tesla’s predictions for the future—one of them that eugenics would be “universally established” by 2100. He didn’t go into specifics, but did further his opinion with, “A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.” 

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12. Tesla Never Found Love

Tesla may have had some disturbing thoughts about marriage, but he never actually settled down himself. In fact, there isn’t any evidence to support he took a lover at all. He was completely devoted to his inventions, a sentiment he later admitted to reporters may have been too great a sacrifice. 

Bernard Gagnon on Wikimedia

13. He Was a Loner

Though he never bent a knee, he also shied away from making friends. Tesla bumped elbows with some pretty impressive people back in the day, but his social circle was rather small. Overall, he preferred to work in solitude and didn’t open the door for many others.

Napoleon Sarony on Wikimedia

14. A Fascination With Pigeons

Animals were fair game for friendship and Tesla was known for his strange obsession with pigeons. He’d feed them every day and even spent $2,000 rehabilitating an injured pigeon’s broken wing. That bird in particular wound up in his diary: “I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life.”

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15. He Was a Germophobe

It’s probably not a shock to learn that Tesla was a notorious germophobe. However, he wasn’t your everyday stickler—he reportedly disliked handshakes, hated touching people’s hair, and would only eat boiled food. The behaviors baffled people back then but historians now believe he exhibited symptoms of OCD.  

Berthold Probst on Wikimedia

16. Weird Secrets to Longevity

A 1935 interview in Physical Culture revealed some of Tesla’s strange secrets to longevity. Among them was abstinence, walking ten miles a day, and not drinking coffee. His worst one was the “waterless bath”; he told the magazine of his plans to somehow invent a contraption that would make “electric baths safe.” 

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17. He Outlived Many People

Though it doesn't seem like it, he lived a lot longer than people think. Tesla passed away in 1943 at the age of 86. It’s impressive even by today’s standards, but in the 1900s that age was practically unheard of. 

Henry Kellner on Wikimedia

18. He Won Many Awards, But Never the Prize

Tesla received several accolades before his passing, namely the Elliot Cresson Medal, the AIEE Edison Medal, and the John Scott Medal. However, there was one prize he never received—the Nobel Prize. Despite the 1915 rumors that Edison and Tesla would receive the Nobel Prize in Physics, it actually went to Henry and Lawrence Bragg.  

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19. Gone But Not Forgotten

Even if Tesla never won the Nobel Prize, his name lives on forever. There’s a magnetic field named after him, a Nikola Tesla Day Festival, and several monuments throughout Canada and the United States. He also has several awards named after him. 

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20. His Legacy Continues

It’s hard to imagine a world without Nikola Tesla’s inventions. From radios and televisions to X-rays and remote controls, his name touches nearly every piece of modern technology—and his inventions paved the way for some serious breakthroughs after his passing. 

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