Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla (Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Тесла; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian American[3][4][5][6] inventor,electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modernalternating current (AC) electricity supply system.[7]
Tesla gained experience in telephony and electrical engineering before immigrating to the United States in 1884 to work forThomas Edison in New York City. He soon struck out on his own with financial backers, setting up laboratories and companies to develop a range of electrical devices. His patented AC induction motor and transformer were licensed byGeorge Westinghouse, who also hired Tesla for a short time as a consultant. His work in the formative years of electric power development was involved in a corporate alternating current/direct current "War of Currents" as well as various patent battles.
However, there was something else about him, a quirk, that less people knew. A quirk that led to his eventual end in career, in fact. This strange obsession involved pigeons. He loved pigeons and even fell in love with one later on.
Now you might think, "well, everyone has a favorite animal." But this was something more. Nikola Tesla would open the windows to his hotel room and let pigeons inside where he would feed them and let them sleep. Even still, there was one pigeon in particular he was in love with.
The pigeon Nikola Tesla was in love with
It was love at first sight. He knew from the moment she flew into his hotel room that he loved her. "I have been feeding pigeons, thousands of them for years. But there was one, a beautiful bird, pure white with light grey tips on its wings; that one was different. It was a female. I had only to wish and call her and she would come flying to me. I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life." Said Tesla on his love.
Sadly, this love was not to last long. One day she flew in his hotel room, and he knew. She was going to die.
“When that pigeon died, something went out of my life. Up to that time I knew a certainty that I would complete my work, no matter how ambitious my program, but when that something went out of my life, I knew my life’s work was finished.”
After his beloved pigeon died, Tesla ceased work in his laboratory and lived out the rest of his days fairly quietly.
