How Nikola Tesla Influenced the World Have you ever relaxed on the beach by sitting and listening to the radio? If yes, you were using a device created by the famous scientist Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla was a Croatian scientist of the late 1800s who worked closely with Thomas Edison and who, despite his lack of education, created over seven hundred different inventions over his lifetime. Tesla was born in the Croatian military frontier, currently known as Croatia, on July 10, 1858. Tesla attended engineering college at an Austrian polytechnic school. Although Tesla did not finish college and dropped out of two universities without completing a single year, he was still an avid reader and is thought to have had a photographic memory. In 1884 Tesla decided to move to America, planning to find more resources for his research. Nikola worked for Thomas Edison, and in return Edison wrote a letter of recommendation for Tesla, "I have known only two great men: one is you (Edison), the other is a young man." Although Tesla worked for Edison, he disagreed with him on many points. At one point Edison promised Tesla a payment of fifty thousand dollars (today just over a million dollars) for a repair on the Edison machines. Edison's promise for the money was fulfilled, so Tesla left Edison after this incident. After Tesla left Edison's company, he went on a quest to start his own company. Tesla was given an empty promise and had no money to maintain a fully functioning company, but beyond that point he still founded a company, "Tesla Electric & light Manufacturing" in 1886. People began to recognize Tesla and some rich men made donations to him for research. The name of a banker... in the center of the paper... ll, Donald. "Nikola Tesla's Investigation of High Frequency Phenomena and Radio Communication (Part 1)" Mind and Scape. 1972. April 4, 2011. “Nikola Tesla Biography” Answers. April 4, 2011.Sinit, Giovanni. "The Engineers Who Changed the World - Nikola Tesla - Part I". Bright center. Dec 28, 2008. April 7, 2011.Sinit, John. “The engineer who changed the world - Nikola Tesla - Part II”. Bright center. 28 Dec 2008. 7 April 2011.Kilkenny, Niall. “The Man Who Electrified the World!!”. Reformation.org. 2008. April 7 2011.