Nikola Tesla

The world Nikola Tesla imagined had no wires. It had no friction between invention and use, no gap between a mind's reach and what a hand could switch on. He got there, mostly. Alternating current, the rotating magnetic field, radio transmission, remote control, fluorescent lighting: these were not incremental improvements but fundamental shifts in what electricity could do and who could have it. Tesla arrived in New York from Paris in 1884 with four cents in his pocket and a letter of introduction to Thomas Edison. Their break was swift and permanent. Tesla's vision required no copper wire blanketing coastlines; Edison's financial interests did. History sided with Tesla. He died alone in Room 3327 of the Hotel New Yorker, still sketching. His notebooks were seized by government agents before the day was out. He never stopped. He simply ran out of time.