Tesla was indeed far ahead of his time. He came here on a recommendation of a friend to work with Tom Edison. The friend wrote “I know two very intelligent men. You’re one of them, this man Mr. Tesla is the other.”
Edison told Tesla he would pay him $50,000 (in the early 1900’s, that was a TON of money) if he could produce 5 items that could be patented. Tesla did, and Edison stiffed him for the money. Tesla went on to work for what would become GE, but didn’t make the kind of money he should have. He would have a bit of revenge on Edison later as his AC was chosen to power the Chicago Worlds Fair over Edison’s DC.
He also liked to sit in the park for hours feeding the pigeons, and said he didn’t like women because of the earrings they wore.
I think it’s very cool they named this all electric vehicle after him:
