He didn't think it up in the first place and he wasn't the first person who built one, but he got several patents e.g. [0] on the idea and his designs were the

He didn't think it up in the first place and he wasn't the first person who built one, but he got several patents e.g. [0] on the idea and his designs were the first commercially successful ones in the United States. Westinghouse and others then improved the idea further, and Italians would probably take a different view of all the above. Tesla made induction motors practical. I don't think it's wrong to say (informally, to a first approximation) that Tesla invented the induction motor. Edison didn't think up the light bulb either, but by virtue of making light bulbs practical it's not wrong to refer to him informally as the "inventor" of the light bulb. [0] https://patents.google.com/patent/US405858 https://patents.google.com/patent/US405858