Tesla

Croatian-born inventor Nikola Tesla is often called the "forgotten scientist." Although he invented the alternating current (AC) motor and developed an AC electricity generation system, he never received historical credit for many of his achievements, unlike one of his first employers and eventual nemesis, inventor Thomas Edison. Tesla made the first sketches of his idea for a brushless AC motor while he was a student at the University of Prague in 1882.

His interest in electricity generation led him to Paris where he was employed by the Continental Edison Company later that year to repair Edison's direct current (DC) power plants. Two years later, Tesla immigrated to New York City and acquired a job as an engineer at Thomas Edison's headquarters in Manhattan. Edison was impressed with Tesla's work ethic and ingenuity. He challenged the young scientist to develop an improved design for his DC generators for $50,000. Tesla experimented for months, finally presenting Edison with the solution he needed. Edison reneged on the deal, telling Tesla that he didn't understand American humor.

Tesla soon left Edison in order to begin his own electric light company. Tesla filed and was granted more than 30 patents for his inventions in 1887 and 1888. He soon had financial backing for his ideas from one of Edison’s main competitors, Westinghouse. In the 1890s, Tesla experimented with x-rays, developed a high-voltage electrical transformer called the Tesla coil, and demonstrated the propagation of radio waves two years before the "Father of Radio" Guglielmo Marconi. He was also the first to harness the mammoth potential energy of Niagara Falls. He worked with General Electric to install AC generators with turbines driven by the falling waters of the Niagara River, creating the first modern power plant.

Although a brilliant scientist, Tesla was not an astute businessman. He created his own obscurity by relinquishing royalty rights for his inventions to major corporations for the purpose of raising funds for future projects.