Nikola Tesla

“ Fifteen or sixteen years ago, when I was pursuing my course at the college, I was told by an eminent physicist that a motor could not he operated without the use of brushes and commutators, or mechanical means of some kind for commutating the current. ”

“ Now all this I did long before anything whatever transpired in the whole scientific literature — as far as it could be ascertained — which would have even pointed at the possibility of obtaining such a result, but quite contrary at a time when scientific and practical men alike considered this result unattainable. ”

“ Ferraris, and I hope that my statement of facts will not be misinterpreted. Even if Prof. Ferraris's essay would have anticipated the date of filing of my application, yet, in the opinion of all fairminded men, I would have been entitled to the credit of having been the first to produce a practical motor ; for Prof. Ferraris himself denies in his essay the value of the invention for the transmission of power, and only points out the possibility of using a properly-constructed generator, which is the only way of obtaining the required difference of phase without losses ”