Science

Nikola Tesla

Arrived in New York nearly penniless; his AC patents electrified the world — he died poor.

Born: 1856 · Smiljan, Austrian Empire (now Croatia)
Roots: Serbian; son of an Orthodox priest
Family: Middle class; Orthodox-priest father; inventive mother who devised household tools.
Education: Graz Polytechnic (left without a degree)
Started with: ~4 cents; By his account, what remained in his pocket when he landed in New York in 1884.
Affiliations & societies: None documented.; Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.

The pathway

1884 · age 28
Lands in New York
With a letter of introduction to Thomas Edison; quits within a year over a disputed bonus.
1886 · age 30
Digging ditches
After his first company ousts him, he works manual jobs for a year.
1888 · age 32
AC patents licensed$60K + royalties
Westinghouse licenses his induction-motor and transformer patents.
1893 · age 37
Chicago World's Fair
Westinghouse and Tesla's AC system lights the exposition; AC wins the currents war.
1901 · age 45
Wardenclyffe tower$150K
J.P. Morgan funds a transatlantic wireless project.
1906 · age 50
Funding collapses
Morgan declines further investment; the tower is never completed.
1943 · age 86
Dies in a hotel room
Alone and in debt at the Hotel New Yorker.

Sources

Compiled from these references and contemporaneous press reporting. Figures are approximate; verify before relying on them.