Seite - 20 - in Nikola Tesla and the Graz Tech

20 At the beginning of the 1875/76 academic year, Nikola Tesla started his studies at the former Imperial and Royal College of Technology at Graz. In his academic file, his date of birth was later corrected to 10 July 1856; his nationality is cited as ‘Serb’. Smiljan is entered as his place of birth, on the military border. In his first academic year, Nikola Tesla took his studies very seriously. He took examinations on 11 different lecture courses with a total of 46 hours. This can be described as clearly above average. The courses in the first academic year comprised: Nikola Tesla: Student at the Graz Tech Subjects Hours Lecturer Proven success Mathematics I 7 Rogner Excellent Mathematics II 7 Alle Excellent Experimental physics 5 Pöschl Excellent Organic chemistry 5 Maly Excellent Inorganic chemistry 5 Maly Excellent Zoology 5 Grabner Excellent General botany incl. demonstrations 3 Leitgeb Excellent Demonstration Popular mechanics 2 Bartl Excellent French language 3 Plisnier Excellent Cubing of areas II 2 Rogner Excellent Practical arithmetic 2 Rogner Excellent Reflecting on this time, Nikola Tesla wrote forty years later (/10/): ‘In the first year of my studies at the Joanneum I rose regularly at three o’clock in the morning and worked till eleven at night; no Sundays or holidays excepted. My success was unusual and excited the interest of the professors. Among these was Dr. Allé, who lectured on differential equations and other branches of higher mathematics and whose addresses were unforgettable intellectual treats, and Prof. Poeschl, who held the chair of Physics, theoretical and experimental. These men I always remember with a sense of gratitude.’ Nikola Tesla worked with great diligence in his second year (1876/77), too. He enrolled for a total of eleven lectures, but only completed five of them successfully. He did not take any examinations in the other subjects. One lecturer records ‘no contact’.