Question

Nikola Tesla:
The Greatest Inventor of All?
BIOGRAPHYCopyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
NOTES
BACKGROUND
At the end of the nineteenth century, electricity was a new technology.
At this time, very few people had access to electric lighting, and most
people used coal, gas, and steam power for energy. Today, electricity
has become a common utility because of inventors like Nikola Tesla and
Thomas Edison.
N ikola Tesla was born in 1856 to a Serbian family in the
country that is now called Croatia. When Tesla was young,
he was able to do such complex math problems in his head that
his teachers thought he was cheating. He finished high school in
3 years instead of 4.
He started college, but didn’t finish. However, he learned
enough to go to work. He moved several times over the next
few years, each time getting a job as an electrician. At each place
where he worked, he designed and made improvements to the
equipment.
In 1884, he moved to New York City. He came with a letter
of recommendation to Thomas Edison from one of his bosses.
The letter is claimed to have said, “I know two great men and
you are one of them; the other is this young man.” Edison hired
Tesla, who began as an electrical engineer. He quickly became
very important to the company, solving some of its most difficult
problems. Tesla was able to use his mind to imagine how different
methods worked. Edison always made a lot of models and tried
them out, which took a lot longer.
In 1885, Tesla and Edison had a falling out. Tesla told Edison he
could improve some of Edison’s motors and generators. Edison
told him he would pay him $50,000 if he did. This was quite a lot
of money at that time. Tesla worked hard and spent months on
the task. When he succeeded, he asked Edison for the reward, but
Edison told him he had been joking. He said, “Tesla, you don’t
understand our American humor.” He offered Tesla a $10 raise on
his $18 weekly pay. Tesla quit the job.
Tesla started his own company in 1887, Tesla Electric Light
and Manufacturing. There he worked on making a system called
1
2
3
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5
Mark base words or indicate
another strategy that helped you
determine meaning.
engineer (ehn jih NEER) n.
MEANING:
generators (JEHN uhr ray
tuhrz) n.
MEANING:
Nikola Tesla: The Greatest Inventor of All? 489
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.NOTES
“alternating current” to produce electricity. Thomas Edison
thought his system, called “direct current,” was better and safer.
The two became rivals. They each gave talks about why his
particular method was better. They had public demonstrations to
show people how they created electricity. This rivalry was referred
to as the “War of the Currents.”
Another rival of Edison’s, George Westinghouse, had also been
trying to create an electrical system. He bought some of Tesla’s
inventions and paid him $2,000 a month to consult with him. Tesla
spent all his money on new inventions and ideas. He invented
the Tesla coil, which carried electricity without wires. You can
still see a Tesla coil at some museums today. Tesla invented or
helped develop a long list of devices, including X-ray machines,
radio, wireless remotes, fluorescent lights, and the system of
electricity that is still used today in our cities. He helped create a
power plant in Niagara Falls that provided power all the way to
New York City. He was given many awards and honorary degrees
from universities all over the world.
Sadly, Tesla died without a cent. People forgot about him,
and remembered Edison, whose companies still exist and have
his name, like Consolidated Edison, the electric company that
powers New York City. In the 1990s, people started to write about
Tesla, and now he is becoming better known again. The owner
of a new car company named it Tesla Motors because they make
electric cars. Their first car used Tesla’s design from 1882 for an
electric car.


write me a short constructed response

Answer 1

Nikola Tesla should be considered one of the greatest inventors because he developed technologies that shaped modern life. The passage explains that he created or helped develop the alternating-current (AC) system still used in cities, the Tesla coil, X-ray machines, radio, fluorescent lights, and helped build the Niagara Falls power plant that supplied New York City. Despite his achievements and awards, he died poor and was largely forgotten for decades, showing that his lack of fame during his life did not reflect the importance of his contributions.