A Note From Bob

Friday, and we mark a birthday. One hundred seventy years ago today, in the village of Smiljan in what is now Croatia, Nikola Tesla was born. He arrived in New York in 1884 with a few coins in his pocket and a head full of ideas, and within a decade his alternating current system had won the fight to power America. The induction motor, the Niagara Falls power plant, pioneering work in radio and wireless power: the modern electric world runs on his imagination. Today's featured quiz honors the man himself. Pour the coffee.

Trivia Question of the Day

The answer is at the bottom of this email.

Today's Featured Quiz

Fifteen questions on the visionary who wired the modern world. From his rivalry with Edison and his partnership with Westinghouse to the induction motor, the Niagara Falls power plant, and the strange, brilliant mind behind it all. See how well you know Tesla.

The Answer

Westinghouse bought Tesla's alternating current patents in 1888 and bet his company on them. When his firm won the contract to light the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, undercutting Edison's General Electric, millions of visitors saw a city of light powered safely by AC, and the War of the Currents was effectively over. The prize that followed was even bigger: the contract to harness Niagara Falls. In November 1896, Tesla and Westinghouse's generators sent Niagara power humming into Buffalo, and the age of the modern electric grid had begun.

On This Day

On this day in 1856, Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, in modern-day Croatia. Family legend holds that he arrived at the stroke of midnight during a fierce lightning storm, and that the midwife called him a child of the storm. His mother answered, "No, a child of light." She turned out to be right. Tesla's story is one chapter in humanity's long quest to tame electricity, and today's companion quiz covers the whole journey: fifteen questions on the sparks, discoveries, and inventors who wired the world.