He Arrived In New York With 4 Cents In His Pocket

The Edison Machine Works, a manufacturing subsidiary located in New York City, was managed by Edison manager Charles Batchelor, who had been in charge of the Paris installation, in 1884. Batchelor also requested that Tesla be brought to the United States. Tesla departed for America with the assistance of his uncles Peter and Pajo, but his journey was not particularly enjoyable. He was robbed, and both his possessions and his ticket were taken. During one of the ship's mutinies, he came dangerously close to being thrown overboard. He reportedly had only 4 cents in his pocket when he arrived in New York.

Tesla immigrated in 1884 and started working at the Machine Works on Manhattan's Lower East Side almost immediately. This overcrowded business had several hundred machinists, laborers, management personnel, and 20 “field engineers” who were tasked with constructing the vast electric utility in that city. Tesla was working on troubleshooting installations and enhancing generators, much like in Paris. Tesla may have only seldom interacted with Thomas Edison, according to historian W. Bernard Carlson. One of those instances is described in Tesla's book. Tesla bumped into Bachelor and Edison after working all night to fix the damaged dynamos on the ocean liner SS Oregon, and they made a joke about their “Parisian” being out all night. Edison told Bachelor that “he is a damned good man” after Tesla told them that he had spent the entire night repairing Oregon. The creation of a street lighting system based on arc lamps was one of the tasks assigned to Tesla. Although arc lighting was the most widely used kind of street lighting, it was incompatible with the Edison low-voltage incandescent system and required high voltages, costing the business contracts in some areas. Due to technical advancements in incandescent street lighting or a contract Edison had with an arc lighting business, Tesla's plans were never put into production.