In 1893, an international exposition (World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago) had a building totally devoted to electrical exhibits. This is where Tesla and Westinghouse made AC energy's big debut by using it to illuminate the Exposition. Tesla exhibited both his fluorescent lamps and single node bulbs, but most importantly Tesla showed his AC motors to the world, and started the Current Wars.
Both Westinghouse and Edison went nearly bankrupt because of the current wars, but in the end Tesla and his AC current won over Edison's DC current. Before Tesla invented it, there was no way to operate a motor on the AC system, which made AC impractical for use. However, when Tesla introduced the induction motor to the market it made AC's advantage of long distance transmission practical for daily use. Both Edison and Westinghouse spent a great deal of money to shoot down the other's system of energy. Eventually both Edison and Westinghouse were driven to the point of bankruptcy, so in 1897, Tesla released Westinghouse from contract, releasing him from the royalties that he had to pay on Tesla's patents, so that he would not slip into bankruptcy.
When Tesla was forty-one years old he filled out the first patent on his basic radio system. Tesla thought that the military would be interested in this “remote control” idea, and in 1897 he demonstrated for them a radio controlled boat, it is unknown what the military thought of it. But nonetheless, Tesla had invented something new, but of a different nature, he had invented the Art of Telautomatics, which combined the technology of radio control and fused it with robotics. Tesla said that his remote boat was “…the first of a race of robots, mechanical men which will do laborious work of the human race.”
Two years later, Tesla decided to move to Colorado Springs, so that he could have more room for his experiments, which was using higher voltages, and higher frequencies. Tesla told reporters that he was conducting wireless telegraphy experiments between Pikes Peak and Paris, in his diary he explained the experiments he was conducting at the time, experiments concerning the ionosphere, trying to prove that the earth itself was a conductor. In his experiments he was able to produce artificial lightning, and these findings helped him prove the earth as a good conductor, in later experiments he formed a theory that the earth had a resonant frequency of 8 Hertz, and in the 1950's, scientist proved that Tesla was correct. Sadly, in 1900 Tesla's lab in Colorado Springs was torn down and it's contents sold to pay off Tesla's debt.
In 1900, Tesla began planning the Wardenclyffe Tower which was called a “million-dollar folly” by many of the newspapers of the time. In 1902 his tower was torn down for scrap during World War One. (At this time Marconi was given Tesla's credit for the invention of radio.) When the war started Tesla had several oversea groups, but lost them as the war progressed, putting him into even deeper debt. About this time Tesla started to show classic symptoms of OCD, he became obsessed with the number three, prompting people to think him “mad.” Even though Tesla was showing signs of “insanity,” in 1917 he was awarded the AIEE's highest honor, the Edison Medal.
On Tesla's seventy-fifth birthday, he was given an extraordinary honor; his picture was placed on the front page of Time Magazine. The caption on the cover gave recognition to his contribution to electrical power generation. In 1928 Tesla received the very last patent of his career, in 1928 he was given a patent for a device that was the forerunner to VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) aircraft. Sometime between January 5-8, 1943 Tesla died of heart failure, alone, in Room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel at the age of 86. Despite selling his patents on AC energy, Tesla died a poor man. Later that year, Tesla was given one final honor, an honor that Tesla had fought years for, U.S. Patent 645, 576 was re-awarded to Tesla, upholding Nikola Tesla as the true inventor of radio as we now know it.
Sadly, as soon as the FBI heard of Nikola's death, they instructed the Alien Property Custodian office to seize all of his property. His belongings were taken, his safe broken into, and his family denied his personal effects. Eventually his nephew was able to obtain some of his items, and placed them in a local museum. On January 12, 1943 Tesla was cremated and his remains placed in the Nikola Tesla Museum, where they reside to this day.
