Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) came to the U.S. from Austria-Hungary as a young engineer. Tesla held more than 700 patents. His inventions included the principle of the rotating magnetic field machine,the induction motor, polyphase alternating-current systems, the Tesla coil transformer, wireless communication, radio, and fluorescent lights. Tesla first worked for Edison, but his enthusiasm for ac led to his leaving; he worked at odd jobs (including ditch-digging) for two years before he was hired by Westinghouse. Tesla was an eccentric with a phobia about germs, but he helped allay public fears about electricity by demonstrations in which he allowed currents to pass through his body to ignite flames