Nicola Who?
1888 AD
1888 1888
104.47W38.48N
SCI

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
	One of the least known but most fascinating of American inventors was a young immigrant from Yugoslavia named Nicola Tesla.
	Probably Tesla's most important invention was the alternating current (AC) motor, which he patented in 1888.  He designed it after seeing the wasteful sparking of direct current (DC) motors.  Today virtually all electric motors are descendents of Tesla's design, from the fan in your computer to the giant motors of industry.
	But Tesla had a hard time persuading people to use AC, since Tesla's one-time employer Thomas Edison favored DC and said AC was dangerous.
	His most dramatic achievement was the Tesla coil.  As part of experiments in transmitting power through the air, Tesla built a coil near Colorado Springs, Colorado, that sent sparks 100 feet long into the sky from a metal ball atop a 200-foot-high tower.
	In his successful efforts to persuade people that alternating current was safe, he held dramatic demonstrations with his coils.  Though alternating current -- such as that from a wall socket, can be deadly -- the current from Tesla's coils had a very low amperage, so he could casually stand among the sparks and let a million volts of high-frequency current pass harmlessly through his body.