Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist1. He was born on July 10, 1856, in Smiljan, Austrian Empire (now Croatia), and died on January 7, 1943, in New York City, United States1.

Tesla is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system1. He first studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree, and then gained practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry1. In 1884, he emigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen.

With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices1. His AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed1.

Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wirelessly controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited1. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures1.

Perhaps because of his nearly fatal illness as a teenager, he feared germs and practiced very strict hygiene, likely a barrier to the development of interpersonal relationships.

Tesla was undoubtedly a very introverted person, turned into his carefully hidden, subjective world. He was also known to be compulsively tidy and often arranged things in threes. He never married, claiming that his celibacy played an important role in his creativity