TESLA's FIRST JOB AS A TEACHER.

After his university flop, Nikola returns to his home town, Gospić. 

In April of that same year, Nikola’s father dies and he has to start  working as a teacher in his old school, the "Real Gymnasium" in Gospić. 

Tesla taught, but did not want this to be his future.

EDISON, THE TRAIN HERO!!!

14-year-old Edison saved 3-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from a runaway train at Port Huron station. After saving him, the child's father, JU Mackenzie, was so grateful that he taught Edison how to operate the telegraph machine.

Ricardo, Andrea M., Paula, Clara R. & Carmen S.

TESLA`s UNIVERSITY YEARS HAD THEIR UPS AND DOWNS.

In 1875 Nicola Tesla began to study electrical engineering in Graz University of Technology, one of the best engineering schools in Europe at the time. Nowadays it is a private university in Austria.

For his first year he never missed a class and he obtained the highest marks possible. 

During his second year, Tesla came into conflict with Professor Poeschl over the Gramme dynamo, and at the end of the second year, Tesla lost his scholarship and took up gambling.

Near the end of the third year, Tesla stopped attending classes and dropped out the following year. 

Great Nikola Tesla never got a university degree!!!!!!!!!

Darío, Davis & Clara G.

The enterprising young Edison.

In 1859, when he was 12, Al gets a job as a trainboy, on the morning train from Port Huron to Detroit, selling newspapers and sweets.

During this period young Edison set up a chemistry lab and a printing press on the train.

The company lent him a carriage where he installed a typewriter and a handmade press.

He was able to write and print four hundred copies a week of "The Grand Trunk Herald", for entertaining the train passengers. 

The money earned with the newspapers was invested on his lab, that was settled in the same train carriage.

Ricardo, Andrea M., Patricia & Olivia

TESLA's BAD AND GOOD LUCK...

After graduating, Nikola then returned to his home town of Smiljan, where he contracted cholera. For nine months, he remained in bed, too ill to get up and was close to death several times. 

But every cloud has a silver lining and although his father desired his son to enter the priesthood like him, he promised Nikola that if he returned to health, he would enroll him in the finest engineering school.

That motivation along with reading many books in his father's library, Nikola made a full recovery.

Andrés

BIG HEAD MEANS... BIG BRAIN?

Did you know that Edison had such a big head that the doctor of the village thought he suffered a cerebral infection ?

It´s true Edison had a big head, but he wasn´t ill. It was because he had a really big brain... Maybe this is the reason of his amazing intelligence.

Even having a big head, things were not easy to little Al. He was always asking questions and getting into trouble (once he burnt out his neighbour's barn) , and his teacher thought that he was really slow... and he was expelled from school!!! 

No one of his school would have guessed that Al would become a genius and a great inventor.

Yoana, Ignacio & Robert

MARTIN SEKULIC: A GREAT TEACHER

In 1870 Tesla moves to Karlovac (Carlstadt), Croatia and stays with his aunt. He attends "Higher Real Gymnasium" where teacher Martin Sekulić teaches him Maths and Physics and has a decisive influence on him. 

Sekulić was a memeber of the Academy of Sciences in Zagreb (in the division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics) anf he wasis probably the most important teacher during the entire schooling of Nikola Tesla. His experiments of electricity and magnetism filled young Tesla with excitement.

Tesla completed his required four years of high school in only three years, graduating in 1873.

EDISON, A CURIOUS BOY

One day Edison's mother, as a part of her lessons, explained his son how geese were born. Al seemed really interested and he asked her a lot of questions.

A few days later, Edison disappeared from the house. His mother, who was really worried, looked everywhere, but she couldn´t find him. Eventually, she discovered him hidden in the family barn.

She couldn´t believe hes eyes when she saw his son!!!! 

He was brooding goose eggs because he wanted to see the decisive moment of the geese birth.

This story shows us how curious Edison was since he was a child.

Cecilia    

TESLA's EARLY YEARS

Nikola Tesla was born the 10th of July of 1856 in Smiljan, Austrian Empire (nowadays Croatia).

His father, Milutin Tesla, was an Orthodox priest. His mother, Duka Tesla, even though she was illiterate, she had a talent for making craft tools and mechanical objects, and a great memory. Nikola inherited his eidetic memory and creative abilities from his mother.

Tesla was the youngest of five siblings: he had one older brother and three sisters. His brother died in a horse-riding accident when Nikola was five.

Nikola went to school where he studied Arithmetics and Religion. He was so intelligent that he was able to make very difficult calculations in his head, but the teachers believed that he was cheating. 

Andrés & Carmen C.

EDISON's EARLY YEARS

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio EEUU. He was the last of seven children of Samuel and Nancy Edison.

His father, Samuel O. Edison Jr, was a son of a loyalist refugee and he moved from Navasota to south-western Ondaris. In Milan, samuel established himself as a manufacturer of roof shingles.

His mother, Nancy Ellist, was born in Chenago county, New York. She worked as a teacher before getting married and looking after her children.

"Al," as he was called as a boy, went to school only a short time.

He wasn´t a good student so his mother, who was a former teacher, taught her son at home. 

Al learned to love reading, a habit he kept for the rest of his life. 

He also liked to make experiments in the basement.

Clara R.; Paula; Carmen S. & Cecilia

BORN BETWEEN LIGHTNINGS

Nikola Tesla had the great birth he deserved: her mom gave birth around midnight, between the night of the 9th and 10th of  July, 1856, meanwhile a fierce electric storm.

According to the family legend, in the middle of the birth, the midwife heard a thunder and saw a strong lightning and said:

"This boy is going to be son of darkness"

At which Nikola's mom answered:

 "No. He is going to be son of light".

Hugo D.

EDISON & TESLA, TESLA & EDISON.

You've probably heard about Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison - both giants of electrical engineering whose innovations changed history - and about the rivalry between them.

But what exactly was their history with one another?

If you are patient, we'll show it to you along the following posts.