Nikola Tesla: The Mad Genius Who Lit Up Niagara—and Tried to Talk to Aliens

Buffalo aglow during the Pan-American Exposition—a city lit by ambition and electricity.

Nikola Tesla: The Mad Genius Who Lit Up Buffalo—and Tried to Talk to Aliens

Before there was AC/DC the band, there was AC/DC the battle—a brutal feud between electrical titans Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison over how to power the modern world. Edison backed direct current (DC)—steady, limited, and only able to travel short distances. Tesla, on the other hand, had a wild new vision: alternating current (AC), which could be transmitted over long distances, wrapped up and down in voltage using transformers, and made vastly more efficient and cost-effective.

Edison, threatened by Tesla’s brilliance, called AC dangerous—he even orchestrated public demonstrations electrocuting animals to scare the public. But the truth was this: AC wasn’t just safe—it was revolutionary.

In 1901, Tesla’s AC system powered the first major city in the world: Buffalo, New York. Electricity, generated by the massive hydroelectric plants at Niagara Falls, traveled over 20 miles to Buffalo, lighting homes, running streetcars, and powering the famous Pan-American Exposition. For the first time, an entire city was aglow thanks to water, magnets, and Tesla’s genius. Buffalo became known as “The City of Light”, and Tesla’s alternating current became the global standard.

But Tesla didn’t stop at electrifying cities. He wanted to give electricity away—wirelessly and freely. At his mysterious Wardenclyffe Tower on Long Island, he experimented with transmitting energy through the air. His dream? A world where power flowed invisibly, available to all, no wires required. Sound familiar? Today’s wireless charging tech—like powering your phone by just placing it on a pad—draws from the same principles Tesla imagined over a century ago.

And then things got really weird.

Tesla claimed he had picked up radio signals from space. He believed they were sent by intelligent beings—possibly Martians.

“I have a deep conviction that highly intelligent beings exist on Mars,” he wrote.

Many dismissed him as mad. But in the early days of radio, nobody could be sure. His receivers were more sensitive than anything else on Earth. Maybe he was wrong—but maybe he was just ahead of his time. Again.

So whether you’re rocking out to AC/DC or wirelessly juicing up your devices, you’re standing in the shadow of a man whose ideas were as electric as lightning and just as unpredictable. Tesla was a visionary, a prophet of power, and yes—a little bit of a mad scientist. But without him, the modern world would still be in the dark.Above is an image of Buffalo illuminated during the Pan-American Exposition—the first time the city was lit up on such a grand scale. Below is a stylized depiction of Tesla’s famous Wardenclyffe Tower on Long Island, where he dreamed of transmitting wireless electricity across the globe.