Nikola Tesla, a visionary scientist known for his path-breaking innovations, generated ideas that transformed lives. He was well ahead of his contemporaries in the field of scientific development and also relished the role of a showman. Although he created multiple fortunes, Tesla died nearly penniless. The richest man in the world today, Elon Musk, paid his homage to ‘The Man who Invented 20th Century,’ by naming his labour of love after him.

Born on July 10, 1856, in Croatia, Tesla was the fourth child to Milutin Tesla, a Serbian Orthodox priest, and Djuka Mandic. As a student, Tesla showed remarkable abilities in solving mathematical problems. During his teen years, Tesla is believed to have fallen ill and recovered only when his father agreed not to push him to becoming a priest and agreed to send him to an engineering school instead.

Tesla trained as an engineer at the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria, and the University of Prague. While he intended to specialise in physics and mathematics, he was fascinated with electricity. After working in Paris for the Continental Edison Company, Tesla went to the US in 1884. It is believed he arrived in New York with four cents, a few of his own poems, and calculations for a flying machine. He worked with Thomas Edison, but the two inventors soon fell apart.

In 1915, a New York Times report had said Tesla and Edison would share the Nobel Prize for physics. However, neither scientist received the prize for reasons unknown. According to Tesla Society, it was rumoured that Tesla refused to share the prize with Edison.

Tesla died on January 7, 1943, in a room in Hotel New Yorker, where he had lived for the last 10 years of his life.

On his birth anniversary on July 10, here’s a look at the iconic innovations of this maverick scientist.

Tesla coil

One of Tesla’s most spectacular inventions was the Tesla coil, a system which comprised two parts — a primary and secondary coil. Both the parts had their own capacitor which stored electrical energy, like a battery. The Tesla coil was a transformer that produced sparks by creating high voltage at a low current. His work on the Tesla coil was the basis of the circuits used for the first radios, CNN quoted Larry Pileggi, professor at Carnegie Mellon University, as saying.

Alternating current

This was the technology that had sparked a war between Tesla and Edison. Edison, the developer of direct current, had employed Tesla and promised him $50,000 to fix the problems with DC power. Tesla wanted to switch to AC current. However, afraid of losing royalties, Edison attempted to discredit Tesla's AC power through a misinformation campaign that showed AC power to be dangerous, CNN reported, quoting the US Department of Energy.

To prove how dangerous AC power was, Edison publicly electrocuted stray animals. Tesla, on the other hand, countered the claim by publicly shocking himself with 250,000 volts using AC power to prove that it was safe.

Radio

Although history credits Guglielmo Marconi for inventing the radio, the Italian entrepreneur was able to send the first transatlantic radio transmission, using technology from 17 of Tesla's patents.

Tesla and Marconi had been embroiled in a patent war. In 1943, the US Supreme Court revoked Marconi's radio patents and gave it to Tesla and two other scientists, Oliver Lodge and John Stone.

Remote control

Thanks to Tesla, we are now able to switch channels with the help of a remote without getting off the couch.

Known as the ‘teleautomaton,’ Tesla had invented one of the world's earliest remote controls. He received a patent for his device in 1898 which he used to control a miniature boat from afar.

Tesla turbine

Tesla developed his own turbine-style engine taking inspiration from the piston engine in automobiles. Also called the boundary-layer turbine and cohesion-type turbine, Tesla’s turbine was bladeless and had discs rotating in a chamber to generate movement.

X-ray technology

One Tesla research that was curtailed by a fire that destroyed his New York lab in 1895 was on X-ray technology. Tesla experimented with radiation and was able to take a few X-ray images of the human body, which he called "shadowgraphs." His image of a foot with a shoe, taken in 1896, is believed to be America’s first X-ray. Tesla also warned of the harmful effects of X-rays.

Hydroelectric power

Tesla collaborated with George Westinghouse to set up the Adams Power Station, which was the world’s first hydroelectric power plant. This powerhouse realised how the Niagara Falls, America’s most spectacular natural wonders, could be harnessed.

For his innovations Tesla is often referred to as ‘The man who invented 20th century,’ Ivana Zoric, Curator at Serbia's Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, told CNN.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)