Tesla stayed publicly single his whole life. The reason: he claimed celibacy helped fuel his creativity.
The closest Tesla got to finding a long-term romantic partner was his friendship with a white pigeon that would visit him regularly.
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Right before the bird died, Tesla claimed there was a bright light that shone from her eyes to warn him of her impending passing.
In the weeks and months that followed, the inventor was reportedly heartbroken.
In 1901, Tesla excitedly went to the press to spill the details about the alleged transmission he got from something — or someone — on the red planet.
Tesla allegedly survived on only a few hours of sleep per night. However, that habit wasn’t without consequence.
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When a young Tesla was attending engineering school in Austria, his professors saw that his terrible sleeping habits were destroying him.
He went on to lose his tuition money gambling, drop out of school, and suffer a nervous breakdown.
However, Tesla thought he did. He’d read an erroneous report in the New York Times that he was supposed to share the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics with Thomas Edison.
But when the medal went to a different pair of physicists, he was extremely disappointed.
Later on, the American Institute of Electric Engineers awarded Tesla with their highest honor — the Edison Medal.
Tesla was meticulously clean, to the point of obsession. It was a stark contrast from fellow inventor Thomas Edison.
Over the course of his life, Tesla obtained 308 patents in 27 different countries over the course of his life.
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While you might know him for some of his bigger creations, such as AC power, there are many inventions that he dreamed up, but never built.
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