The Sorrowful Life Story of Scientist Nikola Tesla

Westinghouse hired Tesla, licensed the patent for his AC motor, and gave him his lab. In 1890, Edison arranged for a New York murderer to be put to death in an AC-powered electric chair, a stunt designed to show how dangerous Westinghouse standards were.

Backed by Westinghouse royalties, Tesla struck back. But Westinghouse was forced by its supporters to renegotiate their contract, with Tesla relinquishing his royalty rights.

Later in the 1890s, Nikola Tesla invented the electric oscillator, meter, improved lamp, and high-voltage transformer known as the Tesla coil. 

He also experimented with X-rays, gave a demonstration of short-range radio communication two years before Guglielmo Marconi, and piloted a radio-controlled boat around the pool at Madison Square Garden. 

Tesla and Westinghouse organized the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and partnered with General Electric to install an AC generator at Niagara Falls, creating the first modern power plant.

Failure, Death, and Legacy of Nikola Tesla

In 1895, Tesla's laboratory in New York caught fire, destroying years of valuable records and equipment. Tesla moved to Colorado Springs for two years, returning to New York in 1900. 

He secured the backing of financier JP Morgan and began building a global communications network centered on a giant tower in Wardenclyffe, Long Island. But the funds ran out and Morgan strongly rejected Tesla's grandiose schemes.

Tesla spent his last decade in a small hotel in New York with no money, working on new inventions even as his energy and mental health faded.

He spent his last years feeding and communicating with city pigeons. Nikola Tesla had become a vegetarian and lived only on milk, bread, honey, and vegetable juices.

On January 7, 1943, aged 86, Tesla died alone in Room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel. His body was later discovered by maid Alice Monaghan after entering Tesla's room, ignoring the 'do not disturb sign posted on the door two days earlier.