Also, how legitimate are the claims that Tesla would have/was close to devising a mechanism that would have supplied electricity for free?
This question might potentially upset a lot of people since the Internet just adores Mr. Tesla! However, I just want to know more about this topic as it has been on my mind since long. So, apologies in advance. :)
This question pops up a lot. As an alum of the documentary project on the companies, I had access to pretty much everything relevant from the Edison side (you'd have to go to Belgrade to possibly get Tesla's side in detail, if the notes exist in his boxes--just make sure to sharpen those language skills, because he was a true polyglot). My discussion is primarily in this thread. Basically, the story of his being taken advantage of may well be true, but its ascription to Edison personally is not Tesla's own. I suspect, rather, it was not Edison at all but Sam Insull, his managing director. There are many other threads, however; just search for "Tesla" in the window or check out the list of commonly asked questions.
Not sure what you mean by "taken advantage of by Thomas Edison", there are many internet myths/tropes re:Edison stole Tesla's light-bulb, Edison turned down Tesla's AC ideas, Edison stiffed Tesla on a bonus.
The Bonus one, as khosikulu notes, comes up allot and is attributed to motor designs.
If you ask several historians who read Tesla's and Edison's papers you get this TL,DR:
Tesla never really interacted with Edison (big company with Tesla being a little cog at a Manhattan subsidiary, Edison Machine Works, working there for only 6 months).
Tesla's big project at Edison Machine Works was an arc lighting system, maybe something Tesla would have gotten a bonus on if it was produced, but it was shelved when Edison Electric used the threat of an Edison backed system as leverage to cut a deal with an arc light installer.
Tesla, pissed, quit and patented that arc lighting system, setting up his own company along with investors a few months after leaving Edison.
"Free energy" is a myth that has blown up since Tesla died. He thought he could "inflate the Earth" with electricity and get a bit more power out than he put in but it had nothing to do with real physics, just a notion in his mind. And ($300,000?) wireless power plants powered by expensive coal are not "free".