# Nikola Tesla Up: [[Thomas Sowell]] · [[Post Analysis - brivael on Why Musk Is Under Attack (2026-10-24)|post analysis]] (rows 11–15) **Role in this topic:** the post's model of the unrewarded genius - Serbian-American inventor (1856–1943) ◻. - **What he invented:** the polyphase AC system and AC induction motor (1888 patents, licensed to Westinghouse) ◻. Galileo Ferraris developed a rotating-field motor independently (1885–88) ◻. - **What he didn't invent:** alternating current itself. Pixii (1832), Gaulard–Gibbs (1881–84) and Stanley (1886) came first ◻. - **Wireless:** the 1943 Supreme Court ruling in *Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. v. United States* invalidated key Marconi claims, citing Lodge, Tesla and Stone ◻. - **Wardenclyffe** (Shoreham, NY): funded by J.P. Morgan from 1901 until the money stopped, and demolished in 1917 ◻. - **Death:** Jan 7, 1943, at the Hotel New Yorker, aged 86, in debt ◻. - **Tesla Motors:** named in his honor by its founders Eberhard and Tarpenning (2003). Musk joined in 2004 ◻.