Tesla sitting in his Colorado Springs laboratory with his "magnifying transmitter". The image was created using trick photography via a double exposure. The electrical bolts were photographed in a darkened room. The photographic plate was exposed a second time with the equipment off and Tesla sitting in the chair. Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856 - January 7, 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, and futurist. He was an important contributor to the use of commercial electricity, and for developing the modern alternating current (AC) electrical supply system. Because of his 1894 demonstration of short range wireless communication through radio and as the eventual victor in the "War of Currents" (Tesla vs. Edison), he was widely respected as one of the greatest electrical engineers. He was known for his great showmanship, presenting his innovations and demonstrations to the public like a magician. Tesla was a life long bachelor who may have suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder. He did things in threes, and was adamant about staying in a hotel room with a number divisible by three. He died in 1943, at age 86, in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel. Later that year the US Supreme Court credited him as being the inventor of the radio.