Sunday, April 6, 2014
Engineering college, a job and a close call with death
Tesla started at the University of Gratz at the age of 19 to study electrical engineering. Tesla enjoyed his studies so much he completed 9 examinations which was double what was required. He managed this while getting 4 hours of rest each night. This greatly worried Tesla's parents considering his brush with death not even a year before with his parents concerns in mind Tesla limited his studies for the upcoming term. In this upcoming term he would only take physics, mechanics and mathmatics courses. This is where tesla met the greatest motivator he had ever found for creating the alternating current engine, Professor Poeschl. Poeschl encouraged Tesla's mechanical abilities and encouraged him to present his alternaing current engines to the class while picking out all the flaws on his last prototype before he left college Poeschl said "tesla will accomplish many great things but never this alternating current engine". That last statement became Tesla's greatest motivation to date to build this alternating current engine. right after finishing engineering college Tesla had to get a job since his father had recently passed away and his mother was in need of money. Tesla then accepted a good paying position at a technical establishment in Maribor, he stayed for a year until he had saved enough money to pay his way through the University of Prague to continue his engineering studies. Tesla then moved to Budapest where he worked his way up to being in charge of all repairs and new designs of the telephone company. Unfortunately his 4 hours of rest a night and only 2 hours of actual sleep a night finally caught up to a now 25 year old Tesla. He then started to have syptoms like an acute sensitivity to all of the sense organs,uncontollable twitching and a very unstable/unpredictable pulse that led doctors to believe he was on his deathbed. These symptoms continued for 5 months but Tesla held on becauase he wanted to complete the alternating current engine his college professor said he couldn't.
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It is extraordinarily interesting how driven people can get, and how that determination can extend so far as to nearly kill them, as with Nikola Tesla. His symptoms sound like those exhibited by someone on withdraw from a drug, perhaps his lack of sleep lead to a decline in synaptic function.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great he found someone to motivate himself! He was a true hardworking, intelligent man!
ReplyDeleteTesla was such an extraordinary man. His ability to focus on a specific task and work so hard on it amazes me. I've got to say, i'm a little bit jealous that you get to read such a detailed account of his life.
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