Nikola Tesla - Early Years (1856-1885)

Early Years (1856-1885)

Nikola Tesla was born on 10 July 1856 to Serb parents in the village of Smiljan, Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia). His father, Milutin Tesla, was a priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Tesla's mother, Đuka Tesla (née Mandić), whose father was also a Serbian Orthodox priest, had a talent for making home craft tools and for memorizing many Serbian epic poems, even though she had never learned how to read. Tesla's progenitors were from Western Serbia, near Montenegro.

Nikola was the fourth of five children, an older brother, Dane, who was killed in a horse-riding accident when Nikola was five, and three sisters, Milka, Angelina and Marica. Some accounts claim that Tesla had caused the accident by frightening the horse.

In 1861, Nikola attended the "Lower" or "Primary" School in Smiljan, Austrian Empire, where he studied German, arithmetic, and religion.

In 1862, the Tesla family moved to Gospić, Austrian Empire, where Nikola's father worked as a pastor. Nikola completed "Lower" or "Primary" School, followed by the "Lower Real Gymnasium" or "Normal School."

In 1870, Tesla moved to Karlovac, Croatia to attend school at Higher Real Gymnasium, where he was profoundly influenced by a math teacher, Martin Sekulić. Tesla was able to perform integral calculus in his head, which prompted his teachers to believe that he was cheating. He finished a four-year term in just three years, graduating in 1873.

In 1873, after he graduated from Higher Real Gymnasium, Tesla returned to his hometown, Smiljan, Croatia. Shortly after he arrived, Tesla contracted cholera; he was bedridden for nine months and was near death multiple times. Nikola's father, in a moment of despair, promised to send him to the best engineering school if he recovered from the illness (his father had originally wanted him to enter the priesthood).

In 1874, Tesla evaded being drafted into the army in Smiljan by running away to Tomingaj, near Gračac. There, he explored the mountains in hunter's garb. Tesla claimed that this contact with nature made him stronger, both physically and mentally. He read many books while in Tomingaj, and later claimed that Mark Twain's works had helped him to miraculously recover from his earlier illness.

In 1875, Tesla enrolled at Austrian Polytechnic in Graz, Austria on a Military Border scholarship. During his first year Tesla never missed a lecture, earned the highest grades possible, passed nine exams (nearly twice as many required), started a Serbian culture club, and even received a letter of commendation from the dean of the technical faculty to his father, which stated, "Your son is a star of first rank." Tesla claimed that he worked from 3 A.M. to 11 P.M., no Sundays or holidays excepted. He was "mortified when father made light of hard won honors." After his father's death in 1879, Tesla found a package of letters from his professors to his father, warning that unless he were removed from the school, Tesla would be killed through overwork. During his second year, Tesla came into conflict with Professor Poeschl over the Gramme dynamo when Tesla suggested that commutators weren't necessary. At the end of his second year, Tesla lost his scholarship and became addicted to gambling. During his third year, Tesla gambled away his allowance and his tuition money, later gambling back his initial losses and returning the balance to his family. Tesla claimed that he "conquered passion then and there," but he was known to play billiards in the U.S.. When exam time came, Tesla was unprepared and asked for an extension to study, but was denied. He never graduated from the university and did not receive grades for the last semester.

In December 1878, Tesla left Graz and severed all relations with his family. He didn't want his parents to know that he had dropped out of school. His friends thought that he had drowned in the Mur River. Tesla went to Maribor (now in Slovenia), where he worked as a draftsman for 60 florins a month. He spent his spare time playing cards with local men on the streets. In March 1879, Milutin Tesla went to Maribor to beg his son to return home, but Nikola refused. Nikola suffered a nervous breakdown at around the same time.

On 24 March 1879, Tesla was returned to Gospić under police guard for not having a residence permit. On 17 April 1879, Milutin Tesla died at the age of 60 after contracting an unspecified illness. During that year, Nikola taught a large class of students in his old school, Higher Real Gymnasium, in Gospić.

In January 1880, two of Tesla's uncles put together enough money to help him leave Gospicc for Prague where he was to study. Unfortunately, Tesla arrived too late to matriculate at Charles-Ferdinand University because he arrived too tardy to enroll; he never studied Greek, a required subject; and he was illiterate in Czech, another required subject. Tesla did, however, attend lectures at the university, although, as an auditor, he did not receive grades for the courses.

In 1881, Tesla moved to Budapest to work under Ferenc Puskas at a telegraph company, the Budapest Telephone Exchange. Upon arrival, Tesla realized that the company, then under construction, was not functional, so he worked as a draftsman in the Central Telegraph Office, instead. Within a few months, the Budapest Telephone Exchange became functional and Tesla was allocated the chief electrician position. During his employment, Tesla made many improvements to the Central Station equipment and claimed to have perfected a telephone repeater or amplifier, which was never patented or publicly described.