10. Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla is often best known as the rival of Thomas Edison, rather than as an inventor and scientist of his renown. He has been immortalized in board games, television specials and more as the eternal rival of Edison. Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor who was raised and educated in the Austrian Empire before immigrating to the United States. Tesla’s first job in the United States was working for Thomas Edison’s company, Edison Machine Works. The long-running animosity between Tesla and Edison began at this point, reportedly over bonuses and wages that Tesla claimed Edison did not pay.
After leaving Edison Machine Works, Tesla worked various odd jobs before founding the Tesla Electric Company. His various patents for AC-powered technology made him a wealthy man. His AC power became the source of the bitterest competition with Edison, as Edison championed the DC power system and tried to paint Tesla’s AC power system as wild and unsafe.
Ironically, despite hating each other and refusing to work together in life, their power systems continue to work together in death. AC power is used in the large-scale electrical infrastructure of the United States, while DC power is used inside our homes in our electrical devices. The heat generated by your laptop’s power brick is the result of AC being converted to DC.
