'Science is not only a discipline of reason, but also one of romance and passion', Stephen Hawking

A man’s duty is to build a house, plant a tree, and father a son. That’s true for most – millions of lives, meaningless in grand scale, never leaving a trace in history books. Yet, some people devote their entire life not to loved ones, but work. They choose to thread their own path, often against the wishes of family, tradition, prejudice, a path, where there is no warm dinner waiting for them when they come back from work, no cuddles before fireplace, no person to steal your blanket in the dark of the night; a path, where there is no love.
Or, is there?
Instead of marrying a living person, they married their research. Their children were their inventions, their legacy – scientific books they were authors of, in which they described what they found. Yet, in the evening of their life, many of them regretted that choice.
Main example of a scholar that devoted his life to science is Nikola Tesla. Born in 1856, he was a Serbian American inventor, electrical and mechanical engineer, physicist and futurist, best known for his contribution to the design of the modern alternating current electricity supply system. He was a prolific and revolutionary, having invented or discovered, among other things, a radio, radar, an x-ray, radio waves from outer space, resonant frequency of Earth, earthquake machine (that nearly demolished an entire neighbourhood in New York City when it was turned on, oops), remote control, neon lightning, modern electric motor, wireless communication and, probably the most famous and spectacular, Tesla coil.  [2min]
He even briefly worked with Thomas Edison, so-called father of the light bulb (despite him only improving on ideas of 22 other men, who pioneered before him). Tesla was given the task of redesigning Edison’s inefficient motor and generators and offered a hefty pay – about a million dollars in today’s economy. After months of work, he succeeded – but, after inquiring about money he was to receive, he heard Edison say ‘Tesla, you don’t understand our American humour’. Edison wanted to give him a raise, which infuriated Tesla and made him quit the job. He then partnered with two businessmen in 1886, but they had a falling out and forced Tesla out, leaving him penniless. He was forced to work lowest pay, and even questioned the value of education.
He was even a soldier, but not one whose weapon is gun. He fought in War of Currents – electrical distribution battle between Thomas Edison, representing the DC, and George Westinghouse, the AC. It all started in April 1887, when Tesla, after the disastrous, bitter winter,  formed the Tesla Electric Company. Later this year, he developed induction motor that ran on alternating current – a system that was starting to be built throughout Europe and US because of its advantages over DC; it didn’t require nearly as many generation stations and was possible to be transmitted on higher voltage. It put him firmly on Westinghouse’s side, and this war truly was all holds barred; Harold Brown, determined to prove AC is more dangerous than DC, even paid local children to collect stray dogs off the streets and then made a spectacle out of torturing poor animal with subjecting it to increasing levels of direct current (up to 1000 volts), which the dog survived, and then killing it with only 300 volts of AC. He even went as far as to kill three dogs in succession four days later, to answer critics claims that the DC probably weakened the dog. Brown didn’t succeed in forcing restriction of AC to 300 volts, although he came close in Ohio and Virginia. In the end, AC and Westinghouse won, with Edison leaving the electric power business. He even said to George Stanley, son of AC transformer inventor, ‘Tell your father I was wrong’, admitting he had underestimated the development potential of alternating current. [4min]
Yet, despite all of his inventions, he remained poor throughout his life. His inventions were ahead of time in the world that required useful, practical and profitable things. The world needed light bulbs, not radio astronomy. Had he been born in this century, he would probably be second Steve Jobs or Bill Gates.
As with many slightly crazy scientists, he had certain quirks, for example he ate dinner at exactly 8.10pm. He also claimed to never sleep more than two hours, however he admitted to dozing off from time to time; on one occasion, Tesla worked for a period of 84 hours without sleep or rest. He also fluently spoke eight languages – among them was Hungarian, one of hardest ones to learn – and was able to recite entire books at will, supposedly possessing a photographic memory.  He was also able to envision with extreme precision any inventions; typically, he worked from memory, rarely making any notes. He was also fond of pigeons, which he enjoyed feeding; he even spent over 2000 $ for a device that comfortably supported broken wing of his favourite bird, allowing it to heal – and that was when he was struggling to get any money for himself.
He was asocial and prone to seclude himself with his work; however, when he did engage in social life, many people spoke very positively and admiringly of Tesla. He had a lot of close friends, having even befriended Mark Twain, a famous American writer and author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The prince and the pauper. Tesla, despite his popularity among women – some were madly in love with him – never married, which he came to regret later in his life. He did not have any known relationships.
He died alone in room 3327 or New York Hotel, impoverished and in debt, despite selling his AC electricity patents. Throughout his life, he obtained around 300 patents worldwide for his inventions. Some were not accounted for, others hidden in patent archives. Many of his inventions weren’t put into patent protection.
‘Science is not only a discipline of reason, but also one of romance and passion’, said Stephen Hawking. But it is also needed to add ‘romance and passion of somebody else’. Because truly, what did Tesla get for his innovative ideas? A lonely, sad death, with no one to cry after him. Now it’s only guessing, but if he let anyone into his life, he might have lived happier, maybe little less prolific but better life. He deserved that. Alas, life is never fair.