Page - 31 - in Nikola Tesla and the Graz Tech

31 most diligent and best student. He did not miss a single lecture in his first year and passed all his examinations with distinction. In his second year, however, he was not so exemplary. He went out more often with his friends, and spent a lot of his time in coffee houses, missing the occasional lecture. According to a colleague of Tesla’s, the aged professor in Sarajevo, Kosta Kulišić, who lodged for a time in the same rooms as Tesla in Attemsgasse in Graz, Tesla often stayed out late in the cafés until after midnight, playing billiards and chess with a passion. Just as passionately, he visited the library and the physics laboratory. Pöschl’s experiments with the Gramme machine were of great in- terest to him, and he had occupied himself since 1877 with the problem of an electric motor without commutator and brushes, something which he often discussed with his professor. ‘Through this, Pöschl contributed to Tesla’s discovery of the rotating magnetic field and three-phase system in 1882, and thus to the foundations of three- phase power transmission. In any case, I think it necessary to highlight in par- ticular Pöschl’s merits, for his experiments and his trust in Tesla’s capabilities crucially influenced Tesla’s interest in the alternating current motor. Fig.: Friedrich Zotter, Rector (photo: H. Tezak). Fig.: Bernhard Baule, Dean (photo: H. Tezak). Fig.: Karl Federhofer, Promoter (photo: H. Tezak).