Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 - 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and futurist. He is best known for his contributions to the modern alternating current (AC) electrical supply system. Tesla's patents and theoretical work helped form the basis of wireless communication and radio. His many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism were based on Michael Faraday's theories of electromagnetic technology. Born to Serbian parents in the village of Smiljan (now in Croatia), Tesla was a subject of the Austrian Empire by birth and later became an American citizen. Because of his 1894 demonstration of short range wireless communication through radio and his contributions to the development of alternating current, the successful system in the "War of Currents", he is widely respected as one of the greatest electrical engineers who worked in America. This book, Tesla's autobiography, was first published as a six-part 1919 series in the Electrical Experimenter magazine, in the February - June, and October issues in 1919, at which time Tesla was 63 years old.