Nikola Tesla (10.07.1856-7.01.1943) was a Serbian scientist in the fields of electrical engineering and radio engineering. He was born in the village of Smiljan (Croatia). He graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in Graz (1878) and the University of Prague (1880). He worked as an engineer in Budapest, in 1882 — 84 in Paris, and from 1884 at the Edison and Westinghouse works in the USA.
He developed a number of designs of polyphase (chiefly two-phase) generators, electric motors and transformers, and also schemes for the transmission and distribution of polyphase currents. In 1888 (independently of G. Ferraris) he discovered the phenomenon of the rotating magnetic field, on the basis of which he built in 1889 — 90 electric generators with frequencies from 5000 to 20000 Hz. He invented (1891) the high-frequency transformer (the Tesla transformer) and the first electromechanical high-frequency generators. He studied the possibility of transmitting signals and energy over considerable distances without wires, and in 1899 demonstrated lamps and motors that worked without wires on high-frequency currents. He designed a number of radio-controlled self-propelled mechanisms. He studied the physiological action of high-frequency currents. In 1899 he built a 200 kW radio station in Colorado and a radio antenna 57.6 m high on Long Island. He invented an electric meter, a frequency meter and others.