I hated school... I just knew cage stops lightning. and Tesla did lightning stuff, unless I am completely confusing him with someone else, in which case ... 
No, you're right about Tesla, dude was a serious mad scientist genius with electricity. He had some great ideas (free broadcast electricity for everyone!) and some not so great ones (energy is transmitted through the invisible aether!) and did some stuff before other people (first x-ray picture, a radio controlled boat, radio itself) but a lot of the stuff about him is just myth as well. And he died penniless and alone, long after the idea thief and much better PR man Edison had electrocuted enough elephants for DC and his lightbulb design to gain primacy.