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Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius

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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.

542 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

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About the author

Marc J. Seifer

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November 3, 2019
"It is not humans that I love, but humanity".

Born in Serbia, a true Balkan till end of his life, educated in Europe, where he lived for a while before settling permanently in America, influenced by Eastern religions (Buddhism) and theosophy, Tesla seems to incorporate many different ideas, attitudes, perceptions, interpretations into his worldview, and ends up becoming an enigmatic personality.

A 22nd-century spirit bound by 19th-century constraints, a mind that conceived the shapes of the future but did not always succeed in disengaging himself from all that constituted, traditional, scientific ideas, an man who lived to see the transition from the Newtonian world to the Einstein's universe.

螕蔚谓谓畏渭苇谓慰蟼 蟽蟿畏 危蔚蟻尾委伪, 苇谓伪蟼 尾苇蟻慰蟼 螔伪位魏维谓喂慰蟼 渭苇蠂蟻喂 蟿慰 蟿苇位慰蟼 蟿畏蟼 味蠅萎蟼 蟿慰蠀, 渭蔚 蟽蟺慰蠀未苇蟼 蟽蟿畏谓 螘蠀蟻蠋蟺畏 蠈蟺慰蠀 魏伪喂 苇味畏蟽蔚 纬喂伪 苇谓伪 未喂维蟽蟿畏渭伪 蟺蟻慰蟿慰蠉 蔚纬魏伪蟿伪蟽蟿伪胃蔚委 渭蠈谓喂渭伪 蟽蟿畏谓 螒渭蔚蟻喂魏萎, 渭蔚 蔚蟺喂蟻蟻慰苇蟼 伪蟺蠈 蟿伪 伪谓伪蟿慰位喂魏维 胃蟻畏蟽魏蔚蠉渭伪蟿伪 (尾慰蠀未喂蟽渭蠈蟼) 蠈蟺蠅蟼 伪蠀蟿维 未喂伪渭慰蟻蠁蠋胃畏魏伪谓 渭苇蟽伪 伪蟺蠈 蟿慰 蠂蠅谓蔚蠀蟿萎蟻喂 蟿畏蟼 胃蔚慰蟽慰蠁委伪蟼, 慰 韦苇蟽位伪 渭慰喂维味蔚喂 谓伪 蔚谓蟽蠅渭伪蟿蠋谓蔚喂 蟽蟿畏谓 魏慰蟽渭慰胃蔚蠅蟻委伪 蟿慰蠀 蟺慰位位苇蟼 魏伪喂 未喂伪蠁慰蟻蔚蟿喂魏苇蟼 喂未苇蔚蟼, 谓慰慰蟿蟻慰蟺委蔚蟼, 伪谓蟿喂位萎蠄蔚喂蟼, 蔚蟻渭畏谓蔚委蔚蟼 魏伪喂 魏伪蟿伪位萎纬蔚喂 谓伪 伪蟺慰蟿蔚位蔚委 慰 委未喂慰蟼 苇谓伪 伪委谓喂纬渭伪.

螆谓伪 蟺谓蔚蠉渭伪 蟿慰蠀 22慰蠀 伪喂蠋谓伪 未蔚蟽渭蔚蠀渭苇谓慰 伪蟺蠈 蟿慰蠀蟼 蟺蔚蟻喂慰蟻喂蟽渭慰蠉蟼 蟿慰蠀 19慰蠀 伪喂蠋谓伪, 苇谓伪蟼 谓慰蠀蟼 蟺慰蠀 蟽蠀谓苇位伪尾蔚 蟿畏谓 蔚喂魏蠈谓伪 蟿慰蠀 渭苇位位慰谓蟿慰蟼 伪位位维 未蔚谓 魏伪蟿维蠁蔚蟻谓蔚 蟺维谓蟿伪 谓伪 伪蟺伪纬魏喂蟽蟿蟻蠅胃蔚委 伪蟺蠈 蠈位伪 蔚魏蔚委谓伪 蟺慰蠀 蟽蠀谓喂蟽蟿慰蠉蟽伪谓 蟿畏谓 蟺伪蟻伪未慰蟽喂伪魏萎 蔚蟺喂蟽蟿畏渭慰谓喂魏萎 蔚蟻渭畏谓蔚蠀蟿喂魏萎, 苇味畏蟽蔚 蟽蔚 蔚魏蔚委谓慰 蟿慰 渭蔚蟿伪委蠂渭喂慰 蟺慰蠀 蟽蠀谓喂蟽蟿维 蟿慰 蟺苇蟻伪蟽渭伪 伪蟺蠈 蟿慰 螡蔚蠀蟿蠋谓蔚喂慰 蟽蠉渭蟺伪谓 蟽蟿畏谓 魏伪蟿伪谓蠈畏蟽畏 蟿慰蠀 魏蠈蟽渭慰蠀 渭苇蟽伪 伪蟺蠈 蟿畏 伪谓伪蟿蟻蔚蟺蟿喂魏萎 渭伪蟿喂维 蟿慰蠀 螒蠆谓蟽蟿维喂谓 魏伪喂 蟿喂蟼 谓苇蔚蟼 胃蔚蠅蟻委蔚蟼 蟿畏蟼 魏尾伪谓蟿慰渭畏蠂伪谓喂魏萎蟼.

螣喂 维谓胃蟻蠅蟺慰喂 蟺慰蠀 味慰蠀谓 伪蟻魏蔚蟿维 蠋蟽蟿蔚 谓伪 苇蠂慰蠀谓 蠀蟺维蟻尉蔚喂 蟽蔚 未蠉慰 未喂伪蠁慰蟻蔚蟿喂魏苇蟼 蔚蟺慰蠂苇蟼, 蔚委谓伪喂 慰喂 维谓胃蟻蠅蟺慰喂 蟺慰蠀 渭慰喂蟻伪委伪 蠀蟺慰蠂蟻蔚蠋谓慰谓蟿伪喂 谓伪 味萎蟽慰蠀谓 渭蔚 蟿慰 苇谓伪 蟺蠈未喂 蟽蔚 苇谓伪 蟺伪蟻蔚位胃蠈谓 蟺慰蠀 纬喂' 伪蠀蟿慰蠉蟼 伪蟺慰蟿蔚位蔚委 渭喂伪 蠈蠂喂 魏伪喂 蟿蠈蟽慰 渭伪魏蟻喂谓萎 伪谓维渭谓畏蟽畏 魏伪喂 蟽蔚 苇谓伪 蟺伪蟻蠈谓 蟺慰蠀 渭慰喂维味蔚喂 谓伪 蟽伪蟻蠋谓蔚喂 蟿伪 蟺维谓蟿伪 蟽蟿慰 蟺苇蟻伪蟽渭维 蟿慰蠀, 苇谓伪蟼 蠁蠅蟼 蟺慰蠀 魏喂谓蔚委蟿伪喂 蟺蟻慰蟼 蟿伪 蔚渭蟺蟻蠈蟼 伪蠁萎谓慰谓蟿伪蟼 蟺委蟽蠅 蟿慰蠀 蠈蟽伪 蟺蟻慰畏纬萎胃畏魏伪谓 尾蠀胃喂蟽渭苇谓伪 蟽蟿慰 蟽魏慰蟿维未喂.

螌蟿伪谓 慰 韦苇蟽位伪 苇蠁蟿伪蟽蔚 蟽蟿喂蟼 螚谓蠅渭苇谓蔚蟼 螤慰位喂蟿蔚委蔚蟼, 蟽蔚 畏位喂魏委伪 28 蔚蟿蠋谓, 蟽蟿伪 1884, 渭伪味委 渭蔚 蟿喂蟼 位喂纬慰蟽蟿苇蟼 伪蟺慰蟽魏蔚蠀苇蟼 蟿慰蠀, 苇蠁蔚蟻蔚 蠈位伪 蟿伪 蔚蟺喂蟽蟿畏渭慰谓喂魏维 蟿蔚魏渭萎蟻喂伪 蟺慰蠀 胃伪 渭蟺慰蟻慰蠉蟽伪谓 蟽蠂蔚蟿喂魏维 维渭蔚蟽伪 谓伪 魏伪蟿伪蟽蟿萎蟽慰蠀谓 蔚蠁喂魏蟿萎 蟿畏谓 蟺伪蟻伪纬蠅纬萎 蟿慰蠀 蔚谓伪位位伪蟽蟽蠈渭蔚谓慰蠀 畏位蔚魏蟿蟻喂魏慰蠉 蟻蔚蠉渭伪蟿慰蟼, 魏维蟿喂 蟺慰蠀 蟽萎渭伪喂谓蔚 蟺蟻伪魏蟿喂魏维 蟺蠅蟼 蔚委蠂蔚 蟿慰谓 蟿蟻蠈蟺慰 谓伪 蟺蟻慰蟽蠁苇蟻蔚喂 蟽蟿慰蠀蟼 伪谓胃蟻蠋蟺慰蠀蟼, 伪蟽蠁伪位苇蟽蟿蔚蟻畏, 蠁胃畏谓蠈蟿蔚蟻畏 魏伪喂 魏伪位蠉蟿蔚蟻畏 渭蔚蟿维未慰蟽畏 蟿畏蟼 畏位蔚魏蟿蟻喂魏萎蟼 蔚谓苇蟻纬蔚喂伪蟼.

螘委谓伪喂 伪魏蟻喂尾蠋蟼 蟿慰 蔚委未慰蟼 蟿慰蠀 畏位蔚魏蟿蟻喂魏慰蠉 蟻蔚蠉渭伪蟿慰蟼 蟺慰蠀 渭伪蟼 蟺伪蟻苇蠂蔚喂 蟿畏谓 蔚谓苇蟻纬蔚喂伪 蠈蟺蠅蟼 蟿畏 纬谓蠅蟻委味慰蠀渭蔚 蠈位慰喂 蟽萎渭蔚蟻伪. 惟蟽蟿蠈蟽慰, 伪蠁慰蠉 蟺蟻蠋蟿伪 蟽蠀谓维谓蟿畏蟽蔚 蟿畏谓 魏伪蠂蠀蟺慰蠄委伪, 蟿畏谓 伪蟺蠈蟻蟻喂蠄畏 魏伪喂 蟿畏 蠂位蔚蠉畏 伪蟺蠈 蟿伪 渭蔚纬维位伪 渭蠀伪位维 蟿畏蟼 蔚蟺慰蠂萎蟼 蟿畏蟼, 蟽蟿慰 蟿苇位慰蟼 魏伪蟿苇位畏尉伪谓 蠈位慰喂 谓伪 蟿慰谓 伪谓蟿喂纬蟻维蠄慰蠀谓 (萎蟿伪谓 蟽蠀蠂谓蠈 胃蠉渭伪 蟿畏蟼 尾喂慰渭畏蠂伪谓喂魏萎蟼 魏伪蟿伪蟽魏慰蟺委伪蟼) 魏伪喂 渭蔚 蟿慰谓 苇谓伪谓 萎 蟿慰 维位位慰 蟿蟻蠈蟺慰 谓伪 慰喂魏蔚喂慰蟺慰喂畏胃慰蠉谓 蟿喂蟼 蔚蠁蔚蠀蟻苇蟽蔚喂蟼 蟿慰蠀, 蟺喂蟽蟿慰委 蟽蟿慰 蟺谓蔚蠉渭伪 蔚谓蠈蟼 伪魏蟻伪委慰蠀 伪谓蟿伪纬蠅谓喂蟽渭慰蠉 蟺慰蠀 蟺维谓蟿伪 慰未畏纬慰蠉蟽蔚 蟿慰 谓喂魏畏蟿萎 蟽蟿畏谓 蔚尉蠈谓蟿蠅蟽畏 蟿慰蠀 伪谓蟿喂蟺维位慰蠀 蟿慰蠀.

螣 韦苇蟽位伪, 未慰蠀位蔚蠉慰谓蟿伪蟼 渭蔚 蔚尉伪谓蟿位畏蟿喂魏维 蠅蟻维蟻喂伪 渭苇蟽伪 蟽蟿慰 蔚蟻纬伪蟽蟿萎蟻喂蠈 蟿慰蠀, 蔚蟻纬伪味蠈蟿伪谓 渭蔚 伪蟺蠋蟿蔚蟻慰 蟽蟿蠈蠂慰 蟿慰 蠈蠁蔚位慰蟼 蟿畏蟼 伪谓胃蟻蠅蟺蠈蟿畏蟿伪蟼. 围蠅蟻委蟼 谓伪 蟽蟿蔚蟻蔚委蟿伪喂 蟿畏蟼 渭蔚纬伪位慰渭伪谓委伪蟼 伪位位维 魏伪喂 蟿畏蟼 渭慰谓慰渭伪谓委伪蟼 蟺慰蠀 蟽蠀蠂谓维 蟽蠀谓慰未蔚蠉蔚喂 蟿喂蟼 渭蔚纬伪位慰蠁蠀螑蔚蟼, 蟺慰蟿苇 未蔚谓 苇蠂伪蟽蔚 伪蟺蠈 蟿慰谓 慰蟻委味慰谓蟿伪 蟿蠅谓 蟺蟻慰蟽未慰魏喂蠋谓 蟿慰蠀 蟿畏谓 蠅蠁苇位蔚喂伪 蟿慰蠀 蟽蠀谓蠈位慰蠀, 蟺慰蠀 未蔚谓 蟺蔚蟻喂蔚位维渭尾伪谓蔚 渭蠈谓慰 蟿慰蠀蟼 伪谓胃蟻蠋蟺慰蠀蟼, 伪位位维 慰位维魏蔚蟻慰 蟿慰谓 蟺位伪谓萎蟿畏, 魏伪胃蠋蟼 伪蟺蠈 蟺慰位蠉 谓蠅蟻委蟼 蔚委蠂蔚 伪蟻蠂委蟽蔚喂 谓伪 伪谓畏蟽蠀蠂蔚委 纬喂伪 蟿畏谓 魏伪蟿伪蟽蟺伪蟿维位畏蟽畏 蟿蠅谓 蟺位慰蠀蟿慰蟺伪蟻伪纬蠅纬喂魏蠋谓 蟺畏纬蠋谓 魏伪喂 蟿畏谓 魏伪蟿伪蟽蟿蟻慰蠁萎 蟿慰蠀 蟺蔚蟻喂尾维位位慰谓蟿慰蟼.

"螣 蔚蟺喂蟽蟿萎渭慰谓伪蟼, 蟽蟿伪 渭维蟿喂伪 蟿慰蠀 韦苇蟽位伪, 蟺维谓蟿伪 萎蟿伪谓 魏伪喂 蟺维谓蟿伪 胃伪 蔚委谓伪喂 慰 蠁蠅蟿慰未蠈蟿畏蟼 蟿慰蠀 伪谓胃蟻蠋蟺喂谓慰蠀 蔚委未慰蠀蟼, 慰未畏纬蠈蟼 蟿慰蠀 渭苇位位慰谓蟿慰蟼 渭苇蟽伪 伪蟺蠈 蟿畏谓 蔚尉苇位喂尉畏 蟿畏蟼 蟿蔚蠂谓慰位慰纬委伪蟼. 韦伪 蟺位萎胃畏 渭蔚 蟿畏 蟽蔚喂蟻维 蟿慰蠀蟼, 胃伪 蠅蠁蔚位慰蠉谓蟿伪谓 魏伪胃蠋蟼 慰喂 渭畏蠂伪谓苇蟼 胃伪 伪谓伪位维渭尾伪谓伪谓 纬喂' 伪蠀蟿慰蠉蟼 蟿喂蟼 蟺喂慰 蟿伪蟺蔚喂谓苇蟼 蔚蟻纬伪蟽委蔚蟼, 蠋蟽蟿蔚 谓伪 渭蟺慰蟻苇蟽慰蠀谓 蔚魏蔚委谓慰喂 谓伪 伪蟽蠂慰位慰蠉谓蟿伪喂 渭蔚 蟺喂慰 蟺谓蔚蠀渭伪蟿喂魏苇蟼 未蟻伪蟽蟿畏蟻喂蠈蟿畏蟿蔚蟼. 螠蔚 蟿畏谓 伪谓维蟺蟿蠀尉畏 蟿畏蟼 蟿蔚蠂谓慰位慰纬委伪蟼 畏 蟺慰位喂蟿喂蟽渭喂魏萎 蟺蟻蠈慰未慰蟼 胃伪 伪蠀尉伪谓蠈蟿伪谓 渭蔚 伪位渭伪蟿蠋未蔚喂蟼 蟻蠀胃渭慰蠉蟼".

危蔚 渭喂伪 魏慰喂谓蠅谓委伪 蠈蟺慰蠀 蟿慰 魏苇蟻未慰蟼 蔚委蠂蔚 伪谓伪蠂胃蔚委 蟽蔚 蠉蠄喂蟽蟿畏 胃蔚蠈蟿畏蟿伪, 畏 蟺蟻慰蟽蟺维胃蔚喂伪 蟿慰蠀 韦苇蟽位伪 谓伪 蔚尉伪蟽蠁伪位委蟽蔚喂 伪纬慰蟻伪蟽蟿苇蟼 魏伪喂 蠂蟻畏渭伪蟿慰未蠈蟿蔚蟼, 未喂伪蟿畏蟻蠋谓蟿伪蟼 蠅蟽蟿蠈蟽慰 蟿慰 纬蔚谓喂魏蠈蟿蔚蟻慰, 伪位蟿蟻慰蠀喂蟽蟿喂魏蠈 蠈蟻伪渭维 蟿慰蠀 纬喂伪 蟿畏谓 蔚位蔚蠉胃蔚蟻畏 未喂维胃蔚蟽畏 蟿蠅谓 伪纬伪胃蠋谓 魏慰喂谓萎蟼 蠅蠁蔚位蔚委伪蟼, 魏伪蟿苇位畏尉蔚 蟽蟿畏谓 蟺蔚蟻喂胃蠅蟻喂慰蟺慰委畏蟽畏 魏伪喂 蟽蟿慰谓 蟺伪蟻伪纬魏蠅谓喂蟽渭蠈 蟿慰蠀, 蟽蟿畏谓 蠀蟺慰谓蠈渭蔚蠀蟽畏 蟿蠅谓 蟺蟻慰蟽蟺伪胃蔚喂蠋谓 蟿慰蠀 伪位位维 魏伪喂 蟽蟿畏谓 伪蟺蠈 渭苇蟻慰蠀蟼 蟿慰蠀 蔚魏未萎位蠅蟽畏 蔚谓蠈蟼 伪谓蟿喂蠁伪蟿喂魏慰蠉 蠂伪蟻伪魏蟿萎蟻伪, 畏 慰蟺慰委伪 蟽蠀蠂谓维 魏伪蟿伪蟺位萎蟽蟽蔚喂 蟿慰谓 蟽蠀纬纬蟻伪蠁苇伪 蟿慰蠀 蟽蠀纬魏蔚魏蟻喂渭苇谓慰蠀 尾喂尾位委慰蠀, 伪位位维 魏伪蟿维 蟿畏谓 维蟺慰蠄萎 渭慰蠀 苇蠂蔚喂 渭喂伪 伪蟺蠈位蠀蟿畏 位慰纬喂魏萎 尾维蟽畏 魏伪喂 蔚尉萎纬畏蟽畏. 螘委谓伪喂 伪蠀蟿蠈 蟺慰蠀 位苇渭蔚 "慰 蟽魏慰蟺蠈蟼 伪纬喂维味蔚喂 蟿伪 渭苇蟽伪". 螒位位维 蟺伪委味慰谓蟿伪蟼 伪蠀蟿蠈 蟿慰 蟺伪喂蠂谓委未喂, 慰 韦苇蟽位伪 蟺慰蠀 萎蟿伪谓 蔚尉伪委蟻蔚蟿慰蟼 慰蟻伪渭伪蟿喂蟽蟿萎蟼 伪位位维 伪未苇尉喂慰蟼 慰蟺慰蟻蟿慰蠀谓喂蟽蟿萎蟼, 苇蠂伪蟽蔚. 螝伪蟿苇位畏尉蔚 谓伪 蟺蔚胃维谓蔚喂 蠁蟿蠅蠂蠈蟼 魏伪喂 蠂蟻蔚慰魏慰蟺畏渭苇谓慰蟼 魏伪喂 尉蔚蠂伪蟽渭苇谓慰蟼 伪蟺蠈 蟿慰蠀蟼 蟺蔚蟻喂蟽蟽蠈蟿蔚蟻慰蠀蟼.

危蠀谓苇蟺蔚喂伪 蟿畏蟼 蟺蟻蠋蟿畏蟼 伪谓蟿委蠁伪蟽畏蟼 伪蟺慰蟿蔚位蔚委 魏伪喂 畏 伪蟺慰蟿蠀蠂委伪 谓伪 魏伪蟿畏纬慰蟻喂慰蟺慰喂畏胃蔚委 慰 韦苇蟽位伪 蠅蟼 未畏渭喂慰蠀蟻纬蠈蟼 魏伪喂 蠅蟼 维谓胃蟻蠅蟺慰蟼. 螒蟺蠈 蟿畏 渭委伪 萎蟿伪谓 苇谓伪蟼 蟺蟻伪魏蟿喂魏蠈蟼 蔚蠁蔚蠀蟻苇蟿畏蟼, 伪蟺蠈 蟿畏谓 维位位畏 苇谓伪蟼 胃伪蠀渭伪蟿慰蟺慰喂蠈蟼 蠈蟺慰蠀 苇未喂谓蔚 蟺伪蟻伪蟽蟿维蟽蔚喂蟼 纬喂伪 谓伪 蔚尉慰喂魏蔚喂蠋蟽蔚喂 蟿慰 魏慰喂谓蠈 渭蔚 蟿畏 谓苇伪 蟿蔚蠂谓慰位慰纬委伪 蠋蟽蟿蔚 谓伪 蟺维蠄慰蠀谓 谓伪 蟿畏 蠁慰尾慰蠉谓蟿伪喂. 螒蟺蠈 蟿畏 渭委伪 萎蟿伪谓 苇谓伪蟼 维谓胃蟻蠅蟺慰蟼 蟺慰蠀 蔚蟺喂未委蠅魏蔚 谓伪 味蔚喂 渭喂伪 维谓蔚蟿畏 味蠅萎, 谓伪 未喂伪蟿畏蟻蔚委 蔚蟺伪蠁苇蟼 魏伪喂 蟽蠂苇蟽蔚喂蟼 渭蔚 蟿慰蠀蟼 魏蔚蠁伪位伪喂慰蠉蠂慰蠀蟼 魏伪喂 伪谓蠋蟿蔚蟻伪 魏慰喂谓蠅谓喂魏维 蟽蟿蟻蠋渭伪蟿伪 魏喂 伪蟺蠈 蟿畏谓 维位位畏 萎蟿伪谓 苇谓伪蟼 渭慰谓伪蠂喂魏蠈蟼 魏伪喂 渭喂蟽维谓胃蟻蠅蟺慰蟼 伪蟽蔚尉慰蠀伪位喂魏蠈蟼 蔚蟻畏渭委蟿畏蟼 蟺慰蠀 味慰蠉蟽蔚 蟽蟿畏 渭慰谓伪尉喂维 蟿慰蠀 蔚蟻纬伪蟽蟿畏蟻委慰蠀 蟿慰蠀 魏伪喂 蟺萎纬伪喂谓蔚 蟿喂蟼 谓蠀蠂蟿蔚蟻喂谓苇蟼 蠋蟻蔚蟼 谓伪 蟿伪螑蟽蔚喂 蟿伪 蟺蔚蟻喂蟽蟿苇蟻喂伪 蟽蟿慰 蟺维蟻魏慰. 螒蟺蠈 蟿畏 渭委伪 萎蟿伪谓 蠁慰尾蔚蟻维 渭蠀蟽蟿喂魏慰蟺伪胃萎蟼 蟽蟿畏谓 蟺蟻慰蟽蟺维胃蔚喂伪 谓伪 未喂伪蟽蠋蟽蔚喂 蟿慰 苇蟻纬慰 蟿慰蠀 魏喂 伪蟺蠈 蟿畏谓 维位位畏 苇魏伪谓蔚 伪谓慰委纬渭伪蟿伪 魏伪喂 蟺慰渭蟺蠋未蔚喂蟼 未畏位蠋蟽蔚喂蟼 蟽蟿慰谓 蟿蠉蟺慰 蟺蟻慰魏蔚喂渭苇谓慰蠀 谓伪 魏蔚蟻未委蟽蔚喂 蟿畏谓 蟺蟻慰蟽慰蠂萎 蟿慰蠀 魏慰喂谓慰蠉.

危蟿慰 蟿苇位慰蟼 未蔚谓 尉苇蟻蠅 伪谓 蟿蔚位喂魏维 萎蟿伪谓 蠈谓蟿蠅蟼 慰 韦苇蟽位伪 苇谓伪蟼 伪谓蟿喂蠁伪蟿喂魏蠈蟼 魏伪喂 伪魏伪蟿伪谓蠈畏蟿慰蟼 蠂伪蟻伪魏蟿萎蟻伪蟼 萎 伪蟺位蠋蟼 畏 蔚蟺慰蠂萎 蟿慰蠀 伪蟺慰蟿蔚位慰蠉蟽蔚 蟿畏 蟽蠀谓苇蠂喂蟽畏, 渭喂伪 蟺喂慰 萎蟺喂伪 蔚魏未慰蠂萎, 蟿慰蠀 伪纬蠋谓伪 纬喂伪 蟿畏谓 魏伪蟿维魏蟿畏蟽畏 蟿慰蠀 螡苇慰蠀 螝蠈蟽渭慰蠀, 渭苇蟽伪 蟽蟿慰谓 慰蟺慰委慰 蟿苇胃畏魏伪谓 慰喂 尾维蟽蔚喂蟼 魏伪喂 蟿伪 胃蔚渭苇位喂伪 纬喂伪 蟺慰位位苇蟼 伪蟺蠈 蟿喂蟼 蟺伪胃慰纬苇谓蔚喂蔚蟼 (蟺伪蟻维位位畏位伪 渭蔚 蟿伪 蔚尉伪喂蟻蔚蟿喂魏维 蔚蟺喂蟿蔚蠉纬渭伪蟿伪 尾蔚尾伪委蠅蟼) 蟺慰蠀 伪魏蠈渭伪 魏伪喂 蟽萎渭蔚蟻伪 魏伪蟿伪蟿蟻蠉蠂慰蠀谓 伪蠀蟿蠈 蟺慰蠀 慰蟻委味慰蠀渭蔚 蠅蟼 蟽蠉纬蠂蟻慰谓慰 未蠀蟿喂魏蠈 蟺慰位喂蟿喂蟽渭蠈 - 魏蠀蟻委蠅蟼 蟽蟿慰谓 蟿慰渭苇伪 蟺慰蠀 伪蠁慰蟻维 蟽蟿慰谓 蟿蟻蠈蟺慰 蟺慰蠀 未喂伪谓苇渭慰谓蟿伪喂 魏伪喂 魏伪胃委蟽蟿伪谓蟿伪喂 蟺蟻慰蟽尾维蟽喂渭伪 蟿伪 蟿蔚蠂谓慰位慰纬喂魏维 魏伪喂 蔚蟺喂蟽蟿畏渭慰谓喂魏维 蔚蟺喂蟿蔚蠉纬渭伪蟿伪 蟽蟿慰 蟽蠉谓慰位慰 蟿畏蟼 魏慰喂谓蠅谓委伪蟼.

韦慰 蟺喂慰 蠂蟿蠀蟺畏蟿蠈 蟺伪蟻维未蔚喂纬渭伪 伪蟺慰蟿蔚位蔚委 畏 蠀蟺慰谓蠈渭蔚蠀蟽畏 蟿慰蠀 蟽蟺慰蠀未伪喂蠈蟿蔚蟻慰蠀 苇蟻纬慰蠀 蟿慰蠀 蔚蠁蔚蠀蟻苇蟿畏, 蔚谓蠈蟼 蟺蠉蟻纬慰蠀 (Wardenclyffe Tower 1901鈥�1917) 蟺慰蠀 蟽蟿蠈蠂蔚蠀蔚 蟽蟿畏谓 伪蟽蠉蟻渭伪蟿畏 渭蔚蟿维未慰蟽畏 蔚谓苇蟻纬蔚喂伪蟼 魏伪喂 蟺位畏蟻慰蠁慰蟻委伪蟼 - 蔚喂魏蠈谓伪, 萎蠂慰蟼, 畏位蔚魏蟿蟻喂魏蠈 蟻蔚蠉渭伪 - 伪蟺蠈 蟿慰谓 蠂蟻畏渭伪蟿慰未蠈蟿畏 蟿慰蠀, 蟿慰谓 渭蔚纬伪位慰蔚蟺喂蠂蔚喂蟻畏渭伪蟿委伪 John Pierpont Morgan:

"螝维蟺慰蟿蔚 蠁蟿维谓慰蠀渭蔚 蟽蔚 苇谓伪 蟽蟿伪蠀蟻慰未蟻蠈渭喂 蠈蟺慰蠀 慰喂 伪蟺慰蠁维蟽蔚喂蟼 慰蟻喂蟽渭苇谓蠅谓 伪谓胃蟻蠋蟺蠅谓 伪位位维味慰蠀谓 蟿畏 蟻慰萎 蟿畏蟼 喂蟽蟿慰蟻委伪蟼 [...] 纬喂伪 蟺慰位位慰蠉蟼 魏伪喂 未喂维蠁慰蟻慰蠀蟼 位蠈纬慰蠀蟼 慰 Morgan 伪蟺慰蠁维蟽喂蟽蔚 蟽蟿伪 1903 谓伪 魏维谓蔚喂 蟿慰 蟺伪谓 蟺蟻慰魏蔚喂渭苇谓慰蠀 谓伪 蔚尉伪蟽蠁伪位喂蟽蟿蔚委 畏 伪蟺慰蟿蠀蠂委伪 蟿慰蠀 蔚蠁蔚蠀蟻苇蟿畏. 螣 Morgan 蔚委蠂蔚 慰渭慰位慰纬慰蠀渭苇谓蠅蟼 渭喂伪 蔚魏 未喂伪渭苇蟿蟻慰蠀 伪谓蟿委胃蔚蟿畏 蠁喂位慰蟽慰蠁委伪 伪蟺蠈 蔚魏蔚委谓畏 蟺慰蠀 蠂伪蟻伪魏蟿萎蟻喂味蔚 蟿慰 蟽蠂苇未喂慰 蟿慰蠀 韦苇蟽位伪. 螤喂胃伪谓蠋蟼 谓伪 蟿慰蠀 伪蟽魏萎胃畏魏蔚 蟺委蔚蟽畏 伪蟺蠈 蟿慰蠀蟼 维位位慰蠀蟼 渭蔚纬喂蟽蟿维谓蔚蟼 蟿畏蟼 Wall Street".

桅伪委谓蔚蟿伪喂 萎 蟿慰蠀位维蠂喂蟽蟿慰谓 苇蟿蟽喂 喂蟽蟿慰蟻蔚委蟿伪喂 渭苇蟽伪 伪蟺蠈 渭喂伪 苇渭渭蔚蟽畏 渭伪蟻蟿蠀蟻委伪 蟺蠅蟼 苇谓伪 伪蟺蠈 伪蠀蟿维 蟿伪 魏伪胃委魏 魏伪位慰蠉蟼 伪谓胃蟻蠋蟺慰蠀蟼 蟽蠀渭尾慰蠉位蔚蠀蟽蔚 蟿慰谓 Morgan:

"螝慰委蟿伪, 伪蠀蟿蠈蟼 慰 维谓胃蟻蠅蟺慰蟼 蔚委谓伪喂 蟿蟻蔚位蠈蟼. 螒蠀蟿蠈 蟺慰蠀 胃苇位蔚喂 谓伪 蔚委谓伪喂 谓伪 蟺伪蟻苇蠂蔚喂 未蠅蟻蔚维谓 畏位蔚魏蟿蟻喂魏萎 蔚谓苇蟻纬蔚喂伪 蟽蔚 蠈位慰蠀蟼 蟿慰蠀蟼 伪谓胃蟻蠋蟺慰蠀蟼 魏伪喂 蟽蔚 伪蠀蟿蠈 未蔚谓 渭蟺慰蟻慰蠉渭蔚 谓伪 尾维位慰蠀渭蔚 渭蔚蟿蟻畏蟿萎. 螒谓 蠀蟺慰蟽蟿畏蟻委尉慰蠀渭蔚 伪蠀蟿蠈谓 蟿慰谓 蟿蠉蟺慰, 蟿蠈蟿蔚 蠈位慰喂 渭伪蟼 胃伪 蠂蟻蔚慰魏慰蟺萎蟽慰蠀渭蔚".

螇蟿伪谓 伪魏蟻喂尾蠋蟼 畏 魏伪蟿维蟻蟻蔚蠀蟽畏 伪蠀蟿慰蠉 蟿慰 蟽蠂蔚未委慰蠀 蟺慰蠀 慰未萎纬畏蟽蔚 蟽蟿畏谓 蟽蟿伪未喂伪魏萎 魏伪蟿维蟻蟻蔚蠀蟽畏 魏伪喂 蟿慰蠀 委未喂慰蠀 蟿慰蠀 蔚蠁蔚蠀蟻苇蟿畏. 螖蔚谓 胃伪 蟺苇蟽蔚喂 尾苇尾伪喂伪 伪渭伪蠂畏蟿委, 伪位位维 胃伪 蟽蟺伪蟿伪位萎蟽蔚喂 蟿慰 蠀蟺蠈位慰喂蟺慰 蟿畏蟼 味蠅萎蟼 蟿慰蠀 渭苇蟽伪 蟽蔚 渭维蟿伪喂慰蠀蟼 伪纬蠋谓蔚蟼, 蠂蠅蟻委蟼 蟺慰蟿苇 谓伪 未蔚喂 蟿伪 慰蟻维渭伪蟿维 蟿慰蠀 谓伪 蠀位慰蟺慰喂慰蠉谓蟿伪喂.

螕喂伪 蟿伪 蟿蔚位蔚蠀蟿伪委伪 蠂蟻蠈谓喂伪 蟿畏蟼 味蠅萎蟼 蟿慰蠀 蠀蟺维蟻蠂慰蠀谓 蟺慰位位苇蟼 蔚喂魏伪蟽委蔚蟼, 蟺慰位位苇蟼 渭蟺蔚蟻未蔚渭苇谓蔚蟼 伪谓伪蠁慰蟻苇蟼 魏伪喂 渭伪蟻蟿蠀蟻委蔚蟼, 蟽蠂蔚蟿喂魏维 渭蔚 蟿喂蟼 蔚蟺委蟽畏渭蔚蟼 魏伪喂 伪谓蔚蟺委蟽畏渭蔚蟼 蔚蟺伪蠁苇蟼 蟺慰蠀 蔚委蠂蔚 慰 畏位喂魏喂蠅渭苇谓慰蟼 蔚蠁蔚蠀蟻苇蟿畏蟼 渭蔚 未喂维蠁慰蟻慰蠀蟼 蟺慰位喂蟿喂魏慰蠉蟼 魏伪喂 渭畏 蟺伪蟻维纬慰谓蟿蔚蟼. 螚 蟺谓蔚蠀渭伪蟿喂魏萎 蟿慰蠀 魏伪蟿维蟽蟿伪蟽畏 蔚委蠂蔚 伪蟻蠂委蟽蔚喂 谓伪 蔚蟺喂未蔚喂谓蠋谓蔚蟿伪喂. 螤维谓蟿伪 畏 蠁伪谓蟿伪蟽委伪 蟿慰蠀 蟺蟻慰蟺慰蟻蔚蠀蠈蟿伪谓 蟿畏蟼 蔚蟺慰蠂萎蟼 蟿慰蠀 魏伪喂 谓慰渭委味蠅 蟺蠅蟼 蠂蟻蔚喂维味蔚蟿伪喂 谓伪 纬蟻伪蠁蟿蔚委 苇谓伪 尉蔚蠂蠅蟻喂蟽蟿蠈 尾喂尾位委慰 纬喂伪 谓伪 尉蔚魏伪胃伪蟻委蟽蔚喂 蟿慰 蟿慰蟺委慰. 危委纬慰蠀蟻伪 慰 韦苇蟽位伪 未蔚谓 萎蟻胃蔚 蟽蔚 蔚蟺伪蠁萎 渭蔚 蔚尉蠅纬萎喂谓慰蠀蟼. 螖蔚谓 魏伪蟿伪蟽魏蔚蠉伪蟽蔚 蟺慰蟿苇 苇谓伪 蠀蟺蔚蟻蠈蟺位慰 蟺慰蠀 谓伪 蔚魏蟺苇渭蟺蔚喂 伪魏蟿委谓蔚蟼 胃伪谓维蟿慰蠀. 螠维位喂蟽蟿伪 蟺慰位位苇蟼 伪蟺蠈 蟿喂蟼 蔚蠁蔚蠀蟻苇蟽蔚喂蟼 蟿慰蠀 伪蟺苇蟿蠀蠂伪谓 纬喂伪蟿委 蟽蟿畏谓 蔚蟺慰蠂萎 蟺慰蠀 苇味畏蟽蔚, 未蔚谓 蠀蟺萎蟻蠂伪谓 伪魏蠈渭伪 蟿伪 魏伪蟿维位位畏位伪 蠀位喂魏维 魏伪喂 慰喂 蠀蟺慰未慰渭苇蟼 蠋蟽蟿蔚 蟿伪 蟽蠂苇未喂维 蟿慰蠀 谓伪 伪蟺慰魏蟿萎蟽慰蠀谓 蠀位喂魏萎 蠀蟺蠈蟽蟿伪蟽畏.

螒位位维 蟿慰 蠈蟻伪渭维 蟿慰蠀 纬喂伪 苇谓伪谓 魏伪位蠉蟿蔚蟻慰 魏蠈蟽渭慰... 螒蠀蟿蠈 胃伪 蟽蠀谓蔚蠂委味蔚喂 谓伪 蠀蟺维蟻蠂蔚喂 魏蠈谓蟿蟻伪 蟽蔚 蠈位蔚蟼 蟿喂蟼 伪谓蟿喂尉慰蠈蟿畏蟿蔚蟼 魏伪喂 蟿伪 蔚渭蟺蠈未喂伪. 螛伪 蟿伪 魏伪蟿伪蠁苇蟻慰蠀渭蔚. 螘委渭伪喂 伪喂蟽喂蠈未慰尉畏.

韦慰 蟽蠀纬魏蔚魏蟻喂渭苇谓慰 尾喂尾位委慰 蔚委谓伪喂 蔚尉伪喂蟻蔚蟿喂魏蠈. 螘谓未蔚蠂慰渭苇谓蠅蟼 魏维蟺慰喂慰蟼 胃伪 渭蟺慰蟻慰蠉蟽蔚 谓伪 胃蔚蠅蟻萎蟽蔚喂 蠅蟼 渭蔚喂慰谓苇魏蟿畏渭伪 蟿慰 蠈蟿喂 蔚委谓伪喂 尾伪蟻蠀蠁慰蟻蟿蠅渭苇谓慰 渭蔚 蟺位畏蟻慰蠁慰蟻委蔚蟼, 蟺蟻蠈蟽蠅蟺伪, 蠂蟻慰谓慰位慰纬委蔚蟼 魏伪喂 蟿蔚蠂谓喂魏慰蠉蟼 蠈蟻慰蠀蟼 伪位位维 魏伪蟿伪蠁苇蟻谓蔚喂 渭蔚 蔚尉伪喂蟻蔚蟿喂魏蠈 蟿蟻蠈蟺慰 谓伪 伪尉喂慰蟺慰喂萎蟽蔚喂 蟿慰 蟽蠉谓慰位慰 蟿畏蟼 蠀蟺维蟻蠂慰蠀蟽伪蟼 尾喂尾位喂慰纬蟻伪蠁委伪蟼 (蟿慰蠀位维蠂喂蟽蟿慰谓 蠅蟼 蟿畏谓 蔚蟺慰蠂萎 蟺慰蠀 蔚魏未蠈胃畏魏蔚) 渭蔚 蟿蟻蠈蟺慰 伪谓蟿喂魏蔚喂渭蔚谓喂魏蠈, 渭伪魏蟻喂维 伪蟺蠈 蠄蔚蠀未慰蔚蟺喂蟽蟿畏渭慰谓喂魏慰蠉蟼 喂蟽蠂蠀蟻喂蟽渭慰蠉蟼 魏伪喂 胃蔚蠅蟻委蔚蟼 蟽蠀谓蠅渭慰蟽委伪蟼. 螘魏蔚委 蟺慰蠀 胃蔚蠅蟻蠋 蟺蠅蟼 伪蟺慰蟿蠀纬蠂维谓蔚喂 蔚委谓伪喂 蟽蟿畏谓 未畏渭喂慰蠀蟻纬委伪 蔚谓蠈蟼 蔚蟺喂蟿蠀蠂畏渭苇谓慰蠀 蠄蠀蠂慰位慰纬喂魏慰蠉 蟺蟻慰蠁委位 蟿慰蠀 蔚蠁蔚蠀蟻苇蟿畏, 尾伪蟽委味蔚蟿伪喂 蠀蟺蔚蟻尾慰位喂魏维 蟽蟿畏 蠁蟻慰蠇未喂魏萎 蠄蠀蠂慰位慰纬委伪, 蟿畏谓 慰蟺慰委伪 未蔚谓 苇蠂蔚喂 魏伪蟿伪谓慰萎蟽蔚喂 蔚蟺伪蟻魏蠋蟼.

惟蟽蟿蠈蟽慰 蟺伪蟻维 蟿喂蟼 蠈蟺慰喂蔚蟼 伪未蠀谓伪渭委蔚蟼 伪蟺慰蟿蔚位蔚委 苇谓伪 伪蟺慰位伪蠀蟽蟿喂魏蠈 伪谓维纬谓蠅蟽渭伪 魏伪喂 渭蔚 苇魏伪谓蔚 蠈蠂喂 伪蟺位蠋蟼 谓伪 纬谓蠅蟻委蟽蠅 伪位位维 魏伪喂 谓伪 伪纬伪蟺萎蟽蠅 尾伪胃蠉蟿伪蟿伪 伪蠀蟿蠈谓 蟿慰谓 蠀蟺苇蟻慰蠂慰 维谓胃蟻蠅蟺慰, 蠈蟺慰蠀 蟿慰 渭蠀伪位蠈 蟿慰蠀 尾蟻喂蟽魏蠈蟿伪谓 蟽蟿伪 维蟽蟿蟻伪, 蟿伪 蟺蠈未喂伪 蟿慰蠀 蟽蟿畏 纬畏 魏伪喂 畏 魏伪蟻未喂维 蟿慰蠀 蟽蟿畏 蟽蠅蟽蟿萎 蟿畏蟼 胃苇蟽畏.
Profile Image for David Rubenstein.
856 reviews2,755 followers
May 11, 2013
Nikola Tesla was an amazing genius. He came very close to winning a Nobel Prize, jointly with Edison. Tesla was an brilliant, arrogant, eccentric character, full of energy. He made numerous fundamental scientific discoveries, and tried, to some extent, to capitalize on his discoveries through a whole host of inventions. He obtained many diverse patents, but he had little business sense, and this was exacerbated by corporations that often infringed on his patents without offering compensation. Corporations (Westinghouse, RCA, AT&T, American Marconi) around the turn of the century had only profit as their motive, and honor and honesty was not given even a wink. He was more responsible for wireless communication than Marconi, but to this day people credit Marconi with the invention.

On the other hand, Tesla was the quintessential "mad scientist". He was often far ahead of his time, and people did not believe his grandiose ideas and grandiose claims. The thing is, he often came through on his grandiose claims. Before issuing a patent for "teleautomation", the chief patent examiner insisted on coming to witness Tesla's invention, and saw for himself that it did work. J.P. Morgan initially invested in Tesla's "wireless" system so that ships and racing boats could be tracked while at sea. However, Tesla took the investment and proceeded to develop ever-more grand systems to transmit radio waves across the oceans, even around the world. Then, when Tesla started to claim that he was working on wireless transmission of power, Morgan actively discouraged investors. Not because Morgan doubted that Tesla would be successful--on the contrary--he knew that the "wizard" would come through on his fantastic claims. Morgan did not believe in distribution of power "for free."

Toward the end of his life, Tesla made claims that he had invented a particle-beam death ray. We don't know if it was true--but it did get some attention from the FBI and other government agencies--after he died! And his eccentricity seems to be boundless--he hired people to feed pigeons in public places around New York City.

My favorite story is about how, in the very earliest days of his wireless experiments in Colorado Springs, he heard three distinct "taps". Tesla attributed the taps to communications from Martians. Later he was told that Marconi had been simultaneously demonstrating to the British Navy a long-range radio transmission. Tesla, though, still held onto his claim that he was receiving messages from Mars!

This book contains a wealth of detail about Tesla's life. It quotes many letters and documents written by Tesla, or to Tesla, or about him. Sometimes I felt that the book went into too much detail--it could have been considerably shorter without lessening its impact. The book contains some interesting analyses of Tesla's life, and some speculations as to why Tesla behaved as he did. The book goes into psychoanalytic speculation about reasons why Tesla became so eccentric--reasons having to do with early events in his life, when he grew up in Serbia. Tesla was the uncle of the author's father. Nevertheless, this family relationship does not seem to cloud or bias this biography. Both the good and the less-good points of Tesla's life story are included.
Profile Image for R.K. Gold.
Author听20 books10.1k followers
January 18, 2018
3.5/5

It has been done! This biography took me so long to read! I began in summer 2016 but couldn鈥檛 get into it. Picked it back up at the start of my fall semester this year but couldn鈥檛 get into it. Picked it up again at the end of the semester and forced myself to through.

All in all his was a fascinating book that did an incredible job capturing the complicated life of an American Immigrant icon.

While I was reading the book I struggled with how in depth and technical it got with his patents and his competitor鈥檚 patents at times but once I decided 鈥渋t鈥檚 okay not to retain every word鈥� and just kept reading, these tid-bits of information no longer slowed me down and by the end of the book I was excited to learn more. It almost read like it was letting you in on a secret, at times differentiating what the world saw at a given time and what actually happened (like with all of his feuds and how for decades those who pirated his work were rewarded).

What I enjoyed most about this tale was seeing how intertwined he was with the most powerful American families of all time. This was a man who worked with both JP Morgan and Jr. He was a direct rival of Edison and a pen pal of Elenor Roosevelt.

I am incredibly happy to have finally finished this book.
Profile Image for Margie.
645 reviews43 followers
May 17, 2013
Tesla is one of the most awesomest coolio scientists evah. Totally. Check out what The Oatmeal has to say: .

And if you're writing your dissertation on Tesla and need to know whether he was in New Jersey or New York on April 19th so that you can confirm that a conversation really took place, this is the book for you. It's great at that level of documentation. On the other hand, if you want to read about how awesomely coolio Tesla was, this book may make you want to gouge your eyes out.

I do not need to know which of his instructors at university was mustachioed and which had a full head of hair. Really, really do not. Do not care. Yet I really care about Tesla - I'd love to learn more about him. This book is not the means to that end for me. The minutia killed it for me.

I'd give it three stars because it obviously gives historical information that people want, but I'm mad about the way it made me feel. Admittedly I'm not an engineer and don't know a whole lot about electricity. But I'm not stupid - I read a lot of books about various branches of science. But this book was so overwhelmingly tedious that it made me want to read a picture book about Tesla. Or a pop-up book! That would be fun! I just wanted to get to the good stuff, and I felt superficial in the face of this dense collection of minutia. The emphasis on tiny unimportant (to my mind) details lessened the impact of Tesla's discoveries and inventions. The elevation of the unimportant made the important seem flat. I wasn't able to maintain my attention, and also was wearied by the effort required to sift through to find the interesting stuff.

So only two stars. Tesla, though: 17 stars.
Profile Image for Paul.
63 reviews16 followers
January 17, 2008
This book is actually the reason I can't check out anything at the SF Public Library anymore. I took it out years ago, and by the time I started it, it was due back again. But being the lazy bastard I am, I just kept reading it because it was so engrossing, and never renewed it. Tesla was, next to Da Vinci, probably the purest and most intuitive scientific genius ever to have lived. He was also one of the most paranoid and eccentric, but really everyone knows that is a prerequisite for genius. Seeing how badly Edison screwed him over, and the personal hatred Edison had for him, was shocking, not to mention the experiments Tesla did in Colorado with 'free energy', make it worthwhile. Oh, and he designed and tested all his machines in his head, so they worked perfectly the first time he built them almost always.
Profile Image for Kimberly .
667 reviews127 followers
June 18, 2022
Intense

This book is a very thoughtful well researched and revealing work about Nicola Tesla and his theories. It is also an interesting look into the mans personal relationships and idiosyncrasies. Difficult at times to wade through, the end result is well worth the effort. Death rays, anyone?
Profile Image for Joseph Sciuto.
Author听11 books168 followers
November 16, 2022
My journey into the world of "Electrical Science," started off with me reading the historical fictional novel, "The Last Days Of Night," by Graham Moore. As I would soon learn the book was much more fiction than actual history and it, more or less, covered Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla, but I did come away with a small understanding of the difference between AC and DC electrical currents and enough interest to pursue the topic further.

I went on to read a number of nonfiction books that covered the history of electrical science which also dealt with the three main people associated with the science: Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla. But, it was not until I read "Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse and the Race to Electrify the World," by Jill Jonnes that my interest peaked.

So, from there I decided to read biographies dedicated not to the three men, but biographies on each individual, and I started with the most fascinating of them all, Nikola Tesla.

"Wizard: The Life and Times of Nicola Tesla/ Biography Of a Genius," by Marc J. Seifer was where I started and believe me I was not disappointed. The word 'genius' is often thrown around quite easily, but throughout this book I kept going through famous names who I thought were comparable with the genius of Mr. Tesla. After reading two-thirds of the book, I came up with two names who I thought Nikola Tesla was comparable too: Leonard da Vinci and Ben Franklin. And in a strange occurrence, a couple pages further into the book, a number of magazines and distinguished individuals said, "That Nicola Tesla deserved to be included in the select group of da Vinci and Franklin."

Nicola Tesla was born in Croatia and was of Serbian decent. He was able to speak up to ten different languages, and was profoundly affected by literature and poetry. Aside from being the genius behind the Niagara Falls Project that send electricity over greater areas than ever before imagined and lighting up much of the Chicago World's Fair in the middle 1890's, he also invented the first robots, wireless telegraphy, the radio (which was originally attributed to the Italian inventor Marconi who literally stole his ideas and was forced by courts in Europe and America to acknowledge his theft) and laser bean technology which the U.S. government refused to buy the patents for but was quick to get hold of the 87 trunks stored in Manhattan after his death.

Eighty years later, much of that material in those trunks are still considered highly classified and the material and designs have never been seen.

Mr. Tesla lived a life a luxury, residing at the Waldorf Astoria for over twenty years and other famous hotels throughout Manhattan. His only problem was his inability to keep up with the payments at these hotels. His associates included Mark Twain, John Astor, J.P. Morgan, George Westinghouse, the Rockefeller's, and the list goes on and on. But, it was J.P. Morgan who caused him the most headaches and destroyed his biggest dream The Wardenclyffe Tower that he built on Long Island and promised to deliver wireless telegraphs across the Atlantic.

Tesla, out of generosity, simply gave Morgan 51 per cent of the Wardenclyffe project for his investment, but once Morgan figured out that such a powerful device would cost some of his current businesses to go bankrupt he held back much of the investment and it was never completed and eventually destroyed.

Nicola Tesla was a complicated genius, generous, trusting, and was the first to admit that all inventions were simply the byproduct of ideas and creations that came before. He was a conservationist whose inventions he felt would keep the air and nature clean and would lessen the hard labor of the working class.
In summary Goethe's lyrics from "Prometheus."

Cover your heaven, Zeus,
With cloudy vapours,
And test your strength, like a boy
Beheading thistles,
On oaks and mountain peaks;
Yet you must leave
My earth alone,
And my hut you did not build,
And my hearth,
Whose fire
You envy me.

Did you suppose
I should hate life,
Flee into the wilderness,
Because not all
My blossoming dreams bore fruit?

Here I sit, making men
In my own image,
A race that shall be like me,
That shall suffer, weep,
Know joy and delight,
And ignore you
As I do!
Profile Image for BetseaK.
78 reviews
April 30, 2013
This was not an easy listen. Over 22 hours dense with information, including technical descriptions of Nikola Tesla's inventions!
This being said, I am glad I bought this audiobook. It covers not only Tesla's inventions and ideas but also his cultural background, his relationships with quite a number of the luminaries of the times, as well as his physical and mental health.
For this reader/listener with no electrical engineering background, the descriptions of Tesla's inventions and postulated theories, most of which in his own words, were a little hard to understand, let alone evaluate. However, bearing in mind that this is not a scientific appreciation of Tesla's work but his biography, the book fulfilled my desire to know more about Tesla's achievements and why he was transformed into a mythical figure. The technical descriptions were informative enough to give the general reader/listener a fairly good insight into an array of Tesla's inventions, including both the proved and the postulated ones.
Therefore, I appreciate Mr. Seifer's efforts to do Nikola Tesla justice, separating the myth built around him from historic facts, fairly pointing out where Tesla was wrong, and thus bringing Tesla's fascinating accomplishments and ideas/postulated theories into proper perspective.

I liked how the book was organized. It was set chronologically, yet centered on Tesla's world wireless communication system (Wardenclyffe), involving Tesla's desire and efforts to make wireless transmission of power possible (which seems to have stuck in the throat of the electrical engineering companies battling for their share in the market). What I found both interesting and saddening were the descriptions of the competition between inventors, disputes about who was 'the first' and Tesla's struggles against patent infringements. The book renders both Tesla's virtues and his weaknesses, and I must admit that some of Tesla's quirks made me dislike him at times. In spite of it, I found the events leading to the development of radio (the Wireless) most saddening. Tesla aimed valiantly high (ahead of this time), which unfortunately led him to a blind alley and lose the battle with Marconi (though he was able to recover some money in the Courts long after Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics).



All in all, I congratulate Mr. Seifer on well researched and fairly even-handed biography of Nikola Tesla. While some of Tesla's postulated inventions, as described, left me wondering whether they were only the product of a brilliant dreamer (in this context, be prepared for a bit of conspiracy theories at the end of the book, regarding Tesla's 'death beam weapon'), the book as a whole succeeded to convince me that this genius deserves better recognition.

As my review refers to the audio version of , let me say a word or two about the narration. Simon Prebble's performance is excellent indeed. It suits the times in which Tesla lived, as well as the general mood of the book. I particularly enjoyed how Mr. Prebble voiced Tesla's personal correspondence with J.P. Morgan and others, bringing life and personality to the characters in the book.
Profile Image for J.P..
320 reviews60 followers
December 16, 2012
I鈥檓 still looking for the definitive biography on Nikola Tesla because rest assured this isn鈥檛 it.
The author throws non-essential information about like it was confetti. I knew from the first chapter when he starts with the history of Croatia that this would be a less than promising beginning. Unfortunately it doesn鈥檛 get any better. People keep cropping up who had very little contact with or influence on Tesla. Information on his discoveries are kept to a minimum while matters of who filed what patent and when go on ad nauseum. There鈥檚 very little real science involved. It鈥檚 amazing how many times the author strays off the subject to bring up a trivial piece of data I could鈥檝e lived the rest of my life without knowing. I鈥檓 willing to bet that overall more of the text is not about Tesla.
I wouldn鈥檛 have thought that a book about such a creative genius could be balled up to the point of practically making it unreadable. Cripes! Please, somebody write a really good biography of this man who deserves better than the treatment here.
Profile Image for Glynn.
347 reviews30 followers
May 25, 2013
This was a good but difficult book. The author is intent on putting down in meticulous detail the life of this amazing character and in doing so skips around with chaotic effect. Tesla knew and interacted with many famous people of his time and it was hard keeping track of his interactions with them as the author related stories and jumped from one character to another.

The author relates in detail the many inventions and ideas that Nikola Tesla advanced that were subsequently used by other inventors who gave no credit to Tesla and in fact stole his ideas. There are many instances depicted where Tesla is depicted as constantly fighting to convince the world that his ideas were stolen by other famous inventors. There are chapters which begin with one topic and then switch for no particular reason to another seemingly unrelated topic.

There are things I liked about the book. I liked reading about Teslas conviction that he could communicate with Mars and how he had a vision of the world wide web and cellular communication. I was fascinated with the struggles Tesla had in the Wardenclyffe project.

I liked the depiction of Teslas relationship to Katherine Underwood Johnson and would have liked a more satisfying telling of that relationship. The author simply announces at one point a list of people who died and Katherine is among this list. This is the main problem I had with this book. The organization requires better editing.

Another aspect of the book that turned me off was the constant detail concerning monetary and financial problems. It seems like Tesla was constantly concerned with obtaining funding for his many inventions. I suppose this is the plight of many an inventor but I would have preferred less detailing of this (to me) boring topic.

Although I struggled with this book, I did enjoy reading about this great man's life and work and would recommend this book for anyone interested in Nikola Tesla.
137 reviews15 followers
September 16, 2013
This book was long. I had my doubts about finishing this one in a month but I ended up wrapping it up in just over a week. Although, that has more to do with Tesla's character and his inventions rather than Author's writing style. Though, to be fair to the Author, he has done a decent job of making the book dramatic enough especially considering it is actually a Biography.

It is clear from the book that Tesla was a Brilliant man whose ideas were well ahead of his time. At the same time, book has enough evidence and stories from his life to prove that many of those ideas were not executed to completion by Tesla. It is also clear that Tesla was no genius when it came to his social skills and financial management. This book makes you wonder what more greater inventions this great (sometimes also called mad) scientist could've done for man kind, if he had at least one of those two skills.

Personally for me, the best (and partly sad) part of the book were Tesla's and J.P Morgan's exchanges. Frankly, I really do not think either J.P or Tesla were wrong in what they did. Tesla had really a lot to prove since he had no practical application of most of the claims he was making and Morgan was trying to be what he is, a Businessman.

The desperation in Tesla's tone in those letters to J.P Morgan clearly presents the state of his mind in those days. In spite of that, it is commendable that Tesla's objective was more or less to bring about a Revolution in the Wireless Systems. It is even more admiring because of the fact that most of his contemporaries especially Edison, Marconi etc were bad mouthing Tesla in the scientific community and were always on the look out for ways to bring him down.

Other than this, the other interesting parts were stories about Westinghouse and RCA's formation, Tesla's rivalry with Edison and Marconi, Tesla's views on Einstein's theory of relativity, World war and its impacts on US policies on Patent Infringement and many more.

It is a shame that Tesla (and Edison) never won a Nobel Prize especially considering that other people who actually build their inventions using his ideas went on to get a Nobel Prize and also lived a much more financially stable life than him.

Overall, I would say the book is good. Just keep in mind the fact that it is a Biography and that the Author might not be highly qualified to give you all the technical details about Tesla's inventions.
Profile Image for britt_brooke.
1,599 reviews115 followers
May 12, 2018
This is a bit dry and very technical, but totally fascinating! Tesla鈥檚 life spanned 86 years and witnessed some amazing discoveries, many his own. He was an eccentric with an astonishing mind, living decades in NYC hotels, developing a penchant for pigeons, and was a self-described celibate. We can thank Nikola Tesla for many of our modern conveniences. And he was friends with Mark Twain which is pretty cool in my book.
Profile Image for Martina.
427 reviews35 followers
May 15, 2013
No review of mine would be complete without a little backstory, so I shall share it now. I've been acquainted with the genius of Nikola Tesla for a long, long time. Ever since I've come to the realization that we owe that man a lot, I've striven to inform myself about the man and his work. I watched documentaries, attended lectures, read publications; I was terribly angry when the recreated Tesla laboratory in the Technical museum wasn't open when I found a time slot to visit it... heh, the only sin I'm guilty of is not visiting his house in Smiljan. I've even watched Prestige just to see how David Bowie had tapped into Tesla's role, for crying out loud.

That all being said, I have to admit that I've expected The Wizard to be a book suitable for revision of facts I already knew about Tesla. I thought that it should be good as an introduction to Tesla's life and work, but I was a bit skeptical on what new could such a book offer to me. You can't imagine my delight when I started reading - after the chapters on Tesla's origins and childhood, which presented me with little new facts, I embarked on a very different journey. I can only imagine the time and effort it took the author to collect so many sources, and write such a unique and complete biography. Every passage, sentence or letter has a reference, so that readers can be directed to other sources, either for checking or simply finding new literature. What I also loved was the inclusion of multiple tellings of some situations in Tesla's life (for example, the two contradictory stories that depict Tesla's drive for money, or lack thereof, in his dealings with Edison).

Seifer pictures Tesla's life in such minute detail, that even a person with a ready-made skeleton can make tweaks on the skeleton and start to construct tendons and joints, and completely flesh the structure out. The sheer wealth of information left me very impressed, and I was a skeptic no more. Instead, I learned so many things I didn't know prior, concerning Tesla's life and struggle. Because, let's face it, people - it was a battle with many admirable adversaries. From Edison, the people with whom Tesla had founded his first company, svindlers galore (yes, Michael Pupin and all that mendacious crowd that had preferred to simply not mention Tesla), money investors and bankers (yes, I'm talking about J.P. Morgan and the gang which squashed Tesla's dream of free energy), plagiators (yes, that is pointed towards Marconi), fires in his laboratories, to the general public (during the battle of currents and also later on in life), Tesla had had to fight his way to the top. And even though he had had his share of triumphs (1891/92. and the European tour, the fame which came in 1893/94., etc.), external factors and his own ideas seemed to work against him (after all, the ideas he had later on in life were the culprits of his pendulous fall...). Not to mention that he was in a not so grateful position of an expatriate in a new country (which he clearly felt, at least in the beginning, for he had written upon the demise of his Hungarian friend Szegeti, 鈥淚 feel alienated, and it is difficult [for me to adapt to the American lifestyle].鈥�). But in spite all that, he achieved great things of unsurpassed practical value. It would take me a whole book to list his discoveries, but let's mention the rotating magnetic field, polyphase electric system, lasers, fluorescent lights, wireless transmission and radio among the myriad other things we use in everyday life. But ultimately, Tesla's life story doesn't end up on a very optimistic note. Because, it all boils down to a man who had lots of great ideas which could have brought even more prosperity to mankind, but was barred from achieving the bulk of them by people who didn't have such altruistic interests as he had.

All in all, I really liked this book. After all, it can't possibly be dull when it has such a fascinating topic! However, it wasn't flawless. The chronological structure, while logical, was perhaps one of the weaknesses of the book. I can tell that Seifer's goal was to present Tesla's life in an orderly way, but as a result of that, some chapters felt jumbled as we got to read about the different aspects of Tesla's life, consecutively. (Don't get me wrong, one of The Wizard's strengths is that it also discusses Tesla's social life, and gives proof in the form of various letters, directed either to or from Tesla, but that was tightly enmeshed in the tales of Tesla's discoveries, which made it a bit difficult for my mind to switch from topic to topic.) Another minor quibble - after the chapter Loose ends and Tesla's death, the author talks about some historical issues which perhaps were not necessary. But aside from that, the book is great and I highly recommend it.
Profile Image for Morgan Blackledge.
792 reviews2,567 followers
March 30, 2013
I'm embarrassed to admit it, but before reading this book, somewhere in the back of my mind, I had pretty much bought into the new age mythology that Tesla was a mystic genius visionary who was the victim of Edison's jealous, evil industrialist thievery and sabotage. Now, after reading accounts of Tesla's embarrassing social, financial and professional missteps, his ridiculous pleading correspondences to J.P. Morgan (and other wealthy would-be benefactors), and less than half baked journal submissions (particularly the one that interpreted a three beat radio transmission as a communication from intelligent extra terrestrials), I'm seeing Tesla in a whole new light. Rather than a victim of conspiratorial thuggery, I now see Tesla as a victim of his own chronic douchiness.

Tesla was clearly decades ahead of his peers. But being "ahead of your time", contrary to hipster dogma, is not necessarily a good thing. Tesla had amazing ideas. But good ideas without good execution are about useless, where as even mediocre ideas, well executed, can at least be useful to someone. Tesla was with out a doubt, an amazing inventor. But it's hard not to feel like he could have achieved so much more if he wasn't such a dysfunctional, self sabotaging, grandiose douche bag.

This book is a well done (if a little long) biography of a fascinating (to say the least) character from a fascinating time. But the real value of the book is as a cautionary tale of how unchecked cognitive biases (see: confirmation bias) and magical thinking can be the undoing of even brilliant and talented people like Tesla. Be warned; if your model of reality becomes too divorced from actual reality, you may needlessly fritter away your hard work and talent on some really ridiculous shit.

Read this book, particularly if you like biographies of scientists, but if you're one of those Tesla worshipers, be prepared to deify the guy a whole lot less upon completion. Ultimately, the book renders a portrait of Tesla that is humane and realistic. Uncovering Tesla's scammy shenanigans, unexamined self delusions and outrageous foibles, while concurrently celebrating his incredible creativity and authentic brilliance.

BTW: a film is in production starring (self serious, tortured) Christian Bale as Tesla. I think (brilliant, trixter, clown) Sacha Baron-Cohen would make for a better, more realistic, funner film.
Profile Image for Christopher.
715 reviews263 followers
September 16, 2013


When I review a biography, I usually start by saying "look how awesome this guy is" and then rambling about his appearance, his style, etc.

Well, look how awesome this guy is. He's like a more dashing Marcel Proust. He's got a handsome but not showy mustachio. He's got that cool oiled hair thing going on.

But Tesla's coolness is more about his showmanship. He took this terrifying, new thing called electricity, stuff that comes down from the sky and explodes trees and cows, and he just sits there reading a magazine while it rages around him. Or he'll walk out on a stage into the midst of bolts of electricity, walking through it like it's a waterfall instead of magical death light, protected only by the cork lining his shoes.



And it's not just Tesla's wacky experiments that make him so compelling. It's his personality and his history of hardships. He's a tragic figure, the Melville of science, who ran into some fame and fortune, but was ultimately condemned to a life of struggle and a death alone in a hotel room.

I won't force you to read this book. But you should at least read because this dude is really interesting.
Profile Image for Marta.
1,033 reviews117 followers
October 2, 2021
Tesla was amazing; this book is not. I am not even sure what he invented after listening to this book, it got so lost among completely unimportant and uninteresting trivial details about his legal and money troubles.

It is a bloated monster of 21 hours of listening. The first third has Tesla鈥檚 prime, his inventions of the Tesla coils, success with AC power with the Westinghouse Corporation. Unfortunately, that was Tesla鈥檚 last sizeable commercial success.

Tesla was a rare genius: he was both a scientist and an engineer. He discovered new principles and also made working prototypes of his inventions. Where he failed was making it a commercial success. Tesla spent much of his life begging for money to build something much bigger and better than the investors and the market wanted - and he never delivered anything. Much of the book is devoted to how Marconi stole everything he invented from Tesla. This is true. However, reading how Tesla kept sabotaging himself and his investors, I feel that if it was up to Tesla, we would still be without radio.

The last two third of the book is a mess of Tesla鈥檚 troubles in great detail. It is completely skippable. I was still going to give it three stars because of Tesla and the clearly huge amount of research that Seifer put into it. But then he throws in a Freudian analysis of Tesla, which made me gag. There is a reason why Freud is no longer used in psychology.

There has to be better biographies of Tesla out there, but I have yet to find one.
Profile Image for Brok3n.
1,356 reviews93 followers
February 22, 2025
Biography by a cultist who knows no physics

If you take part in Internet discussions that sometimes stray onto science, you have probably run into Tesla cultists. These are people who believe that Nikola Tesla was the greatest genius and greatest scientist of all time. I've always been puzzled by this, as looking at short-form biographies such as can be found in encyclopedias, Tesla didn't accomplish all that much. Oh, yeah, clearly he was a genius and a brilliant inventor and played a big role in radio and in making our current power grid practical. But he wasn't much of a scientist. (The cultists, among whom I count , fail to perceive the distinction between "inventor" and "scientist".) He never accepted the early 20th century physics revolution. He thought relativity was wrong, and as far as I can tell had nothing to say about quantum mechanics. So, I read this biography to better understand where all the Tesla worship comes from.

Well, I guess I know the answer now. But is the worst possible person to write a Tesla biography, and is a very, very bad biography.

has two problems. First, as hinted, he is a Tesla cultist. He would dispute this, of course, and I will admit that he is capable of perceiving faults in Tesla. But he is not capable of perceiving that Tesla had any intellectual limitations. interprets any intellectual controversy in Tesla's life in the manner most flattering to Tesla and least flattering to his opponents. Second, doesn't understand fundamental physics. His explanation of the physics of Tesla's inventions are full of howlers. For instance, he claims that "the earth itself [is] an integral component in the successful implementation of any wireless system." This would come as a big surprise to the Apollo astronauts who used radios to communicate with each other on the Moon.

In combination these two problems become much worse than the sum of their individual badness. I felt that I could not believe anything had to say, except quotes from documents, and even then you have to wonder if they're taken out of context.

Part of Tesla's mythology is that he died poor because of how badly he was cheated by others such as Edison and Westinghouse and Morgan. This, I was surprised to find, has been exaggerated. Tesla, as one of his investors said, "tended to spend gold as if it were copper." He also failed to fulfill his contract with Morgan. What's more, towards the end of his life he was financially supported by pensions from former colleagues and the Westinghouse Corporation.

Tesla was a genius inventor and deserves better than this literally unbelievable biography.

.
Profile Image for Fred Hughes.
820 reviews49 followers
January 25, 2013
That Tesla was a genius is a given.

This book goes deeper than that and at times he does appear to be a wizard. Highly educated, fluent in 12 languages, and a prolific reader Tesla even when young would not just accept something as fact just because some authority figure told him. If it didn鈥檛 make sense he would investigate it with vigour.

That was both a positive and negative attribute as once he got something in his mind to work on he would do so without appropriate rest until he collapsed. He was driven in the true sense of the word.

Seifer鈥檚 research for this book must have been intensive as it comprehensive in what is included.
Great mind, Great Book
Profile Image for Nate.
580 reviews44 followers
November 3, 2024
As part of the Westinghouse exhibit at the 1893 Chicago worlds fair, Nicola Tesla produced an instantaneous and deafeningly loud 鈥渉ands free鈥� orgasm accompanied by a great many Serbian expletives. This orgasm of the future was achieved with the use of an electrically charged metal rod inserted into Tesla鈥檚 anus. The crowd of luminaries were rained down upon by a great glut of electrified ejaculate.
A number of ladies were confirmed to have been impregnated.

Ok, I made that up. He did use electric waves to make Mark Twain shit his pants however.

I think Tesla was best summed up by an attorney in one of his many lawsuits: a brilliant but impractical mind.
Tesla was recognized as a genius in his own time but so many of his ideas were decades ahead of their time. He should have been a millionaire many times over, the common belief is that he was bilked out patent rights, royalties and money by friend and foe alike. My impression from this book that this was largely a condition he created himself. When he received money from investors for a specific purpose he would use it for something else. He often left fully funded projects incomplete, asking investors for further funding when he鈥檇 stopped working on them to pursue more ambitious projects. All the while underhanded competitors who were infringing on his patents began to surpass him in success if not technical expertise.
Tesla鈥檚 great plan was to bring energy to the world wirelessly. One of his most influential investors, rather than being worried he would fail, was worried he would succeed and obstructed his progress.

In later years many of Tesla鈥檚 designs, considered pure fancy in his time, began to be realized. It was said that his designs were viable but he didn鈥檛 have sufficiently refined materials to work with, no amount of money could have made some of his designs work when they were conceived.
Interestingly when he died (flat broke) the FBI took all of his papers and locked them up. Some of them have still not been released.

A lot of this book deals with the development of electrical technology and the impact it had on the world. Very interesting stuff. The way that technological advances went, what was cheaper, what was more easily monetized and controlled. It makes me wonder what the world would be like if Tesla had more business sense or a partner who could advance his interests while protecting him from himself. If he鈥檇 just delivered on the smaller, practical invention he was contracted to build, he would have been wealthy in his own right and able to pursue his other interests.
Profile Image for Daniel.
17 reviews
November 15, 2010
I endorse this book. If this book were a person, that person would kick Chuck Norris' ass. If this book were edible, your head would explode from the sheer ecstasy. If this book were a sound, your ears would explode--twice. I must warn you, though. If you aren't worthy, then this book will burn your hands upon contact. Only the most devote individuals have ever been known to hold this book and survive, let alone read it.

In other words, this book is awesome.
Profile Image for Erica.
55 reviews
May 16, 2017
A little on the academic side at times, but Tesla himself is amazing enough to make up for any downsides to this book. The author does a good job of presenting the revolutionary nature of Tesla's inventions to a non-engineering audience, while also investigating the social and political reasons why he is rarely remembered for them today. Certainly better than the incoherent mess that is Margaret Cheney's TESLA: MAN OUT OF TIME.
Profile Image for Michael K..
Author听1 book14 followers
October 19, 2022
This was an extraordinarily well documented and researched biography! A phenomenal read and definitely well worth the time for you to read IF you are big into technology, innovation, and biographies. Tesla was, without a doubt, much akin to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates combined in the latter part of the 1800s. Intriguing and heartbreaking, all at the same time.
Profile Image for Steven Peterson.
Author听19 books316 followers
January 19, 2013
Nikola Tesla was without a doubt a genius when it came to electricity and engineering. Have you ever been in wonder at the electric power produced by Niagara Falls? Well, this was a product of Tesla's insights and work.

The book traces nicely the trajectory of Tesla's career. We learn of his youth and his formative influences. He moved to the United States and began his work inventing devices. Early on, he came up with an electrical system--A.C.--as opposed to Thomas Edison's D.C. The two ended up--at best--as frenemies, and often sniped with one another. The same with Guglielmo Marconi.

When one considers Tesla's discoveries, it is clear that he was a major figure in his field. He gained the support of major figures, such as George Westinghouse. But, with time, he began to deliver less and less, as some of his eccentricities took center stage. At one point, he thought he was receiving signals from Mars. His eccentricity did not work in his favor.

And he liked to live well. But he met with reverses. He created Wardenclyffe, an enormous effort to develop wireless communication that could cover stupefying distances. Because of his poor business model, all was lost.

The book well covers his genius--and his shortcomings and stubbornness.

Want to learn more about a genuine genius? Take a look at this work. It is not always the most elegantly written, but the work is still quite readable. Documentation is solid.
Profile Image for Jessica Baumgartner.
Author听26 books95 followers
December 24, 2012
Nikola Tesla had abilities beyond that of many people, and though this book tried to present his life from all perspectives it is full of so much information pumped into so many different paragraphs that it becomes tedious. I had to take many breaks before deciding that this book is just a dry, hard read. I can usually push myself through a good book but how can one tell the story of a legend like Tesla in just one book? I'd much rather read the papers that he himself published and form my own idea of the man behind the myth.
Profile Image for John.
82 reviews
September 19, 2023
As far as biographies go, this one was a challenging read. Being the inventor of the electric age, this biography was chalked full of technical descriptions of Tesla's inventions including his induction motor, polyphase systems, oscillators, etc, etc. As amazing as these inventions and innovations were, not having an electric or engineering background I often found that I was at a loss as to what exactly these inventions were or did. The same goes for the extensive sections on patents and patent law. Not having a legal background, I was not aware of the importance of patents. Now I know better. It's absolutely ridiculous how often Tesla's patents were violated with no royalties paid to the inventor. I'm looking directly at you Marconi. As a result of his patents alone, Tesla should have died a very, very rich man. Not the pauper that he was at the end of his life.
What I enjoyed most about "Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius" was Tesla's relationships and rivalries with a who's who of historical figures. Especially Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, J.P. Morgan, John Jacob Astor and Guglielmo Marconi.
I also enjoyed the history of the current wars between Thomas Edison and his direct current (DC) and George Westinghouse and his alternating current (AC), the development of wireless technology, radio, X-Rays, remote control, robotics and even death rays (lasers).
Nicola Tesla was a futurist and genius of the highest order. The contribution that he made to the modern world is incalculable.
While this biography can be overly technical at times, I would still recommend it. 4-Stars.

Side note: John Jacob Astor IV "the richest man on the Titanic," attended Harvard University in his youth. His unfortunate nickname? Yes, you guessed it. "Jack Ass."
Profile Image for Andrew Halterman.
72 reviews1 follower
March 28, 2024
A very thorough take on Tesla鈥檚 life and pioneering work which continues to shape the way we experience everyday life. It is exciting to consider the feeling of seeing his work - such as AC electricity transmission, wireless communication, fluorescent lights and the like - for the first time. Tesla was clearly a visionary and ahead of his time. It was also fascinating to learn how his legacy was intentionally obfuscated to maintain financial interests for individual and corporate competitors. Unfortunately, Tesla may have made this easier as he often lacked the pragmatism, business sense and social awareness needed to succeed in the era of robber barons.

The author of this book chose to be exhaustive rather than entertaining. I鈥檇 describe this as a reference book on Tesla鈥檚 life - so if you鈥檙e doing a high school or college project about Tesla, here鈥檚 a source. One criticism is the book is written both thematically and, if possible, chronologically. This approach can be confusing as the same event will be addressed multiple time across chapters (How many times did his lab burn down? I think once but could have been 5鈥� I should have read more carefully.)
Profile Image for Lisa.
1,177 reviews64 followers
September 15, 2014
3.5 really...

Wizard is the extremely comprehensive biography of possibly one of the most interesting men to have ever lived, a man so cool they had to get David Bowie to play him 鈥� Nikola Tesla.

Before we begin, I should probably make it clear that while I am fascinated by science and the great thinkers that practice it, my mind does not work in that way at all (I only passed my Science GCSE after my mum condensed pretty much the entire syllabus into a series of silly cartoons a few days before my exams) and so the title of this book is made even more appropriate. My only real understanding of electricity being that when I flip a switch, my lights come on (when the bulbs haven't gone), it really may as well be magic as far as I'm concerned.

A genius with a talent for invention as well as for winding up his investors and a great showman whose incredible lightning spewing demonstrations would capture the public imagination before his grandiose pronouncements and appetite for self-publicity saw him later dismissed as something of a crank unable to finish a project, Tesla would invent many of the things we take for granted in the modern world whilst also contributing to many more. He would also be eternally screwed over and in debt, his work credited to and making others rich, his achievements only properly recognised long after his death.

Born in Smiljan in 1856 to a gifted family (particularly his mum, who was forever inventing new household appliances for herself) and possessing a photographic memory, Tesla was already far more accomplished by the time he'd left University than most of us could hope to be in a lifetime, having taken courses in arithmetic and analytical geometry, theoretical and experimental physics, integral calculus, analytical chemistry, mineralogy, machinery construction, botany, wave theory, optics, philosophy and higher maths, and speaking 8 languages. He鈥檇 also survived several near death experiences including plunging into boiling milk, drowning under a raft, being swept over waterfall, contracting cholera, and driving himself through overwork into a nervous collapse 鈥� something he would continue to do throughout his lifetime as he subsisted on bread and milk, sleeping only a few hours a night and pouring all of his energies into his work.

Moving to the US in 1884 to work for Thomas Edison鈥檚 company, Tesla would set out on his own after almost immediately receiving the first of many shaftings at Edison鈥檚 hands 鈥� being paid just $18 a day to redesign and reassemble much of the company鈥檚 equipment after having been promised $50,000. These shaftings would also continue throughout his life, and were as many and varied as his astounding array of inventions (which included an induction motor, electrical power distribution system, fluorescent and neon lights, wireless telecommunication, remote control, robotics and apparently even fricking laser beams) and came at the hands of not just Edison but the likes of Marconi, Westinghouse, Pupin, Steinmetz, JP Morgan and the US Government.

Facing a publicity backlash due to Edison鈥檚 dickish publicity campaign in which he electrocuted animals with Tesla鈥檚 competing AC system, mired in patent infringements and court battles, and forever toadying up to potential investors (mostly unsuccessfully, thanks to his habit of sending long letters bemoaning his hard luck and full of emotional blackmail, while asking for way more funds having abandoned agreed plans in favour of altogether grander schemes), Tesla would become far more paranoid, bitter and reclusive over time, allowing the weirder aspects of his personality free reign.

Amongst his many peculiarities were: an aversion to women's earrings and touching people鈥檚 hair, being sent into fits at the sight of pearls and fevers at the sight of a peach, insisting on living in hotels despite an almost pathological inability to pay his rent, where his mirrors must be draped and no sunlight must enter his room. And despite being a favourite of the ladies (especially of his friend鈥檚 wife, Mrs Katherine Johnson), he remained celibate 鈥� having eyes only for his work and, well, I鈥檒l let him tell you:
鈥淚 have been feeding pigeons, thousands of them for years. But there was one, a beautiful bird, pure white with light grey tips on its wings; that one was different. It was a female. I had only to wish and call her and she would come flying to me. I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. As long as I had her, my life had purpose."

Tesla passed away at the age of 86, having outlived his pigeon, sending various secret agencies into frenzies as they tried to suppress his papers and get their hands on a rumoured death ray machine, Tesla having supposedly left a working model in a hotel basement in lieu of rent.

As a reading experience, due to the staggering amount of information imparted I sometimes struggled with Wizard - especially as much of it was highly technical information. This, coupled with the authors insistence on flying off on tangents and flitting around in time, meant that I often spent entire chunks completely befuddled and bewildered. But I still learned everything I could possibly want to know about one of the most interesting people to have ever lived, so I'm not going to hold too much against it.

And in case you're wondering, I'm firmly on the Tesla side of .

Too long, didn't read:

Profile Image for Elisabeth.
1,281 reviews2 followers
August 31, 2018
A thorough book about the life of Nikola Tesla. I am happy there is this book with much research having gone into his life to get an objective view of what was going on, why possibly he was the kind of person he was, and all the external factors forging his path in life as it did.
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