Tesla for Beginners

Robert Sutherland-Cohen

Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)

The father of modern-day electricity and considered by some to be the ultimate "mad scientist," Nikola Tesla filed nearly 300 patents in his lifetime. Many of these patents resulted in functioning inventions; others were little more than wide-eyed dreams - or still await possible development. Tesla for Beginners examines the man behind the alternating current and wireless technologies who travelled from Serbia by steamship to arrive in the United States with only four cents in his pocket. It was in the early 1880s, at the tail end of the Industrial Revolution and the beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution, that America beckoned him.

Nikola Tesla - a poet of invention - left behind a vast and intriguing legacy. He was a scientist, physicist, mathematician, electrical engineer, and extensively published author who spent his last decades scraping for funding for celestial projects and living out his final days in penurious solitude with a pigeon.

Review by Paul Lappen (301118) Rating (9/10)

Review by Paul Lappen
Book Source: Not Known
Rating 9/10
Nikola Tesla was one of the greatest scientists of modern history, on the same level as Guglielmo Marconi or Thomas Edison. Here is his story.

In the late 19th century, Tesla immigrated to America from his native Serbia. He carried more than a letter of introduction to Thomas Edison, who was The Man at that time. After working for Edison for several months, Tesla went off on his own. New York City had started to get electricity through Edison's direct current (dc) system. Tesla developed alternating current (ac), a much more efficient way of distributing energy, which has become the standard.

Tesla had an incredible memory, and a head full of ideas. It led to him receiving over 300 patents. Among other things, alternators in cars, robotics, remote control and radio are based on his work. He envisioned a hand-held device that could connect people all over the world with pictures, voice and information (sound vaguely familiar?). He became world famous.

Tesla was a great scientist, but he was not much of a businessman. Getting funding for his various projects was a constant struggle. In later years, his work went from Cutting Edge to Just Plain Weird. In 1943, he died in New York City, broke and alone.

This is an excellent, and easy to understand, book. Tesla was world famous, and seems to have been forgotten by history. If you are reading this on a cell phone, thank Nikola Tesla.
Paul Lappen (30th November 2018)