The Strange Life Of Nikola Tesla

The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain. Its ultimate purpose is the complete mastery of mind over the material world, the harnessing of the forces of nature to human needs. This is the difficult task of the inventor who is often misunderstood and unrewarded. But he finds ample compensation in the pleasing exercises of his powers and in the knowledge of being one of that exceptionally privileged class without whom the race would have long ago perished in the bitter struggle against pitiless elements. Speaking for myself, I have already had more than my full measure of this exquisite enjoyment; so much, that for many years my life was little short of continuous rapture. I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labor, for I have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours. But if work is interpreted to be a definite performance in a specified time according to a rigid rule, then I may be the worst of idlers. Every effort under compulsion demands a sacrifice of life-energy. I never paid such a price. On the contrary, I have thrived on my thoughts. In attempting to give a connected and faithful account of my activities in this story of my life, I must dwell, however reluctantly, on the impressions of my youth and the circumstances and events which have been instrumental in determining my career. Our first endeavors are purely instinctive promptings of an imagination vivid and undisciplined. As we grow older, reason asserts itself and we become more and more systematic and designing. But those early impulses, though not immediately productive, are of the greatest moment and may shape our very destinies. Indeed, I feel now that had I understood and cultivated instead of suppressing them, I would have added substantial value to my bequest to the world. But not until I had attained manhood did I realize that I was an inventor. This was due to a number of causes. In the first place I had a brother who was gifted to an extraordinary degree; one of those rare phenomena of mentality which biological investigation has failed to explain. His premature death left my earth parents disconsolate. (I will explain my remark about my “earth parents” later.) We owned a horse which had been presented to us by a dear friend. It was a magnificent animal of Arabian breed, possessed of almost human intelligence, and was cared for and petted by the whole family, having on one occasion saved my dear father’s life under remarkable circumstances. My father had been called one winter night to perform an urgent duty and while crossing the mountains, infested by wolves, the horse became frightened and ran away, throwing him violently to the ground. It arrived home bleeding and exhausted, but after the alarm was sounded, immediately dashed off again, returning to the spot, and before the searching party were far on the way they were met by my father, who had recovered consciousness and remounted, not realizing that he had been lying in the snow for several hours. This horse was responsible for my brother’s injuries from which he died. I witnessed the tragic scene and although so many years have elapsed since, my visual impression of it has lost none of its force. The recollection of his attainments made every effort of mine seem dull in comparison. Anything I did that was creditable merely caused my parents to feel their loss more keenly. So I grew up with little confidence in myself.

Nikola Tesla is the true unsung prophet of the electric age, without whom our radio, auto ignition, telephone, television, and alternating current power generation and transmission would all have been impossible. Yet his life and times have vanished largely from public access. This autobiography is released to remedy this situation, and to understand the life and the mind of Nikola Tesla.CONTENTSChapter 1: My Early Life -The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain. Its ultimate purpose is the complete mastery of mind over the material world, the harnessing of the forces of nature to human needs.Chapter 2: -I shall dwell briefly on these extraordinary experiences, on account of their possible interest to students of psychology and physiology and also because this period of agony was of the greatest consequence on my mental development and subsequent labors.Chapter 3: How Tesla Conceived The Rotary Magnetic Field -At the age of ten I entered the Real Gymnasium which was a new and fairly well equipped institution. In the department of physics were various models of classical scientific apparatus, electrical and mechanical. The demonstrations and experiments performed from time to time by the instructors fascinated me and were undoubtedly a powerful incentive to invention.Chapter 4: The Discovery of the Tesla Coil and Transformer -For a while I gave myself up entirely to the intense enjoyment of picturing machines and devising new forms. It was a mental state of happiness about as complete as I have ever known in life. Ideas came in an uninterrupted stream and the only difficulty I had was to hold them fast.Chapter 5: -As I review the events of my past life I realize how subtle are the influences that shape our destinies. An incident of my youth may serve to illustrate.Chapter 6: -No subject to which I have ever devoted myself has called for such concentration of mind, and strained to so dangerous a degree the finest fibers of my brain, as the systems of which the magnifying transmitter is the foundation.

"The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention." Visionary, pioneer, and eccentric genius, Nikola Tesla was the quintessential scientist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Two of his creations, the induction motor and the Tesla coil, underpin the technology of the modern world. First published as six articles in the Electrical Experimenter magazine, My Inventions tells the story of Tesla's life, from his humble beginnings in Croatia to his migration to the United States, and describes his revolutionary feats of invention and pivotal breakthroughs in the world of engineering. This book takes you on an inspirational journey into one of the world's greatest and most unconventional minds.

One of science's great unsung heroes, Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a prophet of the electronic age. His research laid much of the groundwork for modern electrical and communication systems, and his impressive accomplishments include development of the alternating-current electrical system, radio, the Tesla coil transformer, wireless transmission, and fluorescent lighting. Yet his name and work are only dimly recognized today: Tesla's research was so groundbreaking that many of his contemporaries failed to understand it, and other scientists are unjustly credited for his innovations. The visionary scientist speaks for himself in this volume, originally published in 1919 as a six-part series in Electrical Experimenter magazine. Tesla recounts his boyhood in Croatia, his schooling and work in Europe, his collaboration with Thomas Edison, and his subsequent research. This edition includes the essay "The Problem of Increasing Human Energy: With Special Reference to the Harnessing of the Sun's Energy," which anticipates latter-day advances in environmental technology. Written with wit and �lan, this memoir offers fascinating insights into one of the great minds of modern science.

This highly detailed work captures Tesla as a scientist and as a public figure. The first, original full-length biography, first published in 1944 and long a favorite of Tesla fans, is a definitive biography of the man without whom modern civilization would not exist. His inventions on rotating magnetic fields creating AC current as we know it today, have changed the worldyet he is relatively unknown. This special edition of ONeills classic book has many rare photographs of Tesla and his most advanced inventions. Teslas eccentric personality gives his life story a strange romantic quality. He made his first million before he was forty, yet gave up his royalties in a gesture of friendship, and died almost in poverty. Tesla could see an invention in 3-D, from every angle, within his mind, before it was built how he refused to accept the Nobel Prize why Tesla clung to his theories of electricity in the face of opposition his friendships with Mark Twain, George Westinghouse and competition with Thomas Edison In this penetrating study of the life and inventions of a scientific superman, Nikola Tesla is revealed as a figure of genius whose influence on the world reaches into the far future.

“The story of one of the most prolific, independent, and iconoclastic inventors of this century…fascinating.”—Scientific American Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), credited as the inspiration for radio, robots, and even radar, has been called the patron saint of modern electricity. Based on original material and previously unavailable documents, this acclaimed book is the definitive biography of the man considered by many to be the founding father of modern electrical technology. Among Tesla’s creations were the channeling of alternating current, fluorescent and neon lighting, wireless telegraphy, and the giant turbines that harnessed the power of Niagara Falls. This essential biography is illustrated with sixteen pages of photographs, including the July 20, 1931, Time magazine cover for an issue celebrating the inventor’s career. “A deep and comprehensive biography of a great engineer of early electrical science--likely to become the definitive biography. Highly recommended.”--American Association for the Advancement of Science “Seifer's vivid, revelatory, exhaustively researched biography rescues pioneer inventor Nikola Tesla from cult status and restores him to his rightful place as a principal architect of the modern age.” --Publishers Weekly Starred Review “[Wizard] brings the many complex facets of [Tesla's] personal and technical life together in to a cohesive whole....I highly recommend this biography of a great technologist.” --A.A. Mullin, U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command, COMPUTING REVIEWS “[Along with A Beautiful Mind] one of the five best biographies written on the brilliantly disturbed.”--WALL STREET JOURNAL “Wizard is a compelling tale presenting a teeming, vivid world of science, technology, culture and human lives.”-

Reprint. Originally published: New York: Ives Washburn, 1944.

My Inventions is an autobiographical account of Nikola Tesla, genius inventor, written at the age of 63. The content of the book was largely drawn from a series of articles that Nikola Tesla had written for Electrical Experimenter magazine. Tesla's personal account is divided into six chapters covering different periods of his life: My Early Life, My First Efforts At Invention, My Later Endeavors, The Discovery of the Tesla Coil and Transformer, The Magnifying Transmitter, and The Art of Telautomatics. Tesla tells about his life, how his inventions came to him, and even how his inventions helped save his life. He tells his encounters with famous people, his brushes with death, which happened more than once, and also about some future ideas. This autobiography provides a deeply captivating sight into Tesla's genius mind and his strange world out of time.