Nikola Tesla — Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was an inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer. He designed a High Vacuum Apparatus in the 1890's that was capable of a high degree of exhaustion.

Tesla's patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current electric power (AC) systems, including the polyphase power distribution systems and the AC motor, with which he helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution. Contemporary biographers of Tesla have deemed him "the man who invented the twentieth century" and "the patron saint of modern electricity."

References: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla