Tesla's father, Milutin, was an Orthodox priest from the village of Smiljan. Tesla later on wrote that he turned enthusiastic about demonstrations of electricity by his physics professor.[b] Tesla observed that these demonstrations of this "mysterious phenomena" built him want "to learn extra of this excellent power".

Bernard Carlson notes Tesla could have fulfilled firm founder Thomas Edison only several moments.[forty two] A type of instances was famous in Tesla's autobiography in which, right after remaining up all night repairing the broken dynamos on the ocean liner SS Oregon, he ran into Batchelor and Edison, who built a quip with regards to their "Parisian" staying out all evening. Soon after Tesla advised them he had been up all night correcting the Oregon, Edison commented to Batchelor that "that is a damned very good guy".[39] Among the projects specified to Tesla was to acquire an arc lamp-dependent street lights process.[44][45] Arc lights was the most well-liked kind of Avenue lights nevertheless it required superior voltages and was incompatible Along with the Edison minimal-voltage incandescent system, resulting in the business to lose contracts in a few cities. Tesla's layouts have this site been by no means set into manufacturing, possibly as a consequence of technical advancements in incandescent street lights or due to an set up deal that Edison manufactured with the arc lights company.[forty six]