Nikola Tesla was a brilliant inventor of the Industrial Revolution, but as a child, he struggled with illnesses. When sick, Tesla found comfort in stories by Mark Twain. As an adult, Tesla became friends with the man behind this pen name, Samuel Clemens, who was captivated by Tesla's unique inventions. This book unveils details behind this interesting friendship, with approachable text and enlightening historical images. Fascinating fact boxes and primary sources enhance this biography, which aligns with social studies curricula. This volume leaves readers with a lasting appreciation for these historical figures and the power of friendship.
IN AN AGE OF WONDERS... An unlikely friendship arose between one of America's greatest scientists, and one of her most influential writers. Great fans of each other's work, Sam Clemens and Nikola Tesla's relationship was one of great humor and mutual respect. In this novel, the author tries to capture the heart and adventurous spirit of two of history's great minds through a series of (mostly) fictional adventures, where the pair face ghosts, earthquakes, aliens, and the occasional megalomaniacal dictator
Nikola Tesla was a brilliant inventor of the Industrial Revolution, but as a child, he struggled with illnesses. When sick, Tesla found comfort in stories by Mark Twain. As an adult, Tesla became friends with the man behind this pen name, Samuel Clemens, who was captivated by Tesla's unique inventions. This book unveils details behind this interesting friendship, with approachable text and enlightening historical images. Fascinating fact boxes and primary sources enhance this biography, which aligns with social studies curricula. This volume leaves readers with a lasting appreciation for these historical figures and the power of friendship.
“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.”-
Tesla jolts and flows between the extraordinary life of the inventor Nikola Tesla, the making of a feature film about him by the celebrated director Michael Almereyda, and episodes from the filmmaker's own restless, quixotic career. In these pages, we encounter Tesla's colleagues and friends intermingling with Almereyda's collaborators and influences: Thomas Edison and David Lynch, Mark Twain and Sam Shepard, Sarah Bernhardt and Ethan Hawke, J.P. Morgan and Orson Welles. A rich array of illustrations - vintage and personal photographs, film stills, drawings and comic-book art - enhance the sense of time travel and parallel histories, as we read of a scheme to transmit wireless energy through the earth, of the electrocution of an elephant, of fortunes made and surrendered, and of the obsessions that propel a scientist seeking to transform the world and a director seeking to make a movie.
Who was Nikola Tesla? Find out in this comprehensive volume that includes Tesla’s autobiography and scientific writings, as well as other works that examine his life and career in detail. Nikola Tesla came from a humble upbringing in what is now Croatia and reached the heights of science and technology in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla and Other Works gives readers a compelling insight into the man whose ideas revolutionized the fields of electrical and mechanical engineering, and who continues to be a source of inspiration for modern inventors. This volume includes Tesla’s autobiography My Inventions (1919), articles and diagrams that he published in scientific magazines—including “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy,” in which he discusses the potential of solar power—and Thomas Commerford Martin’s The Inventions, Researches, and Writings of Nikola Tesla. A scholarly introduction examines Tesla’s life and career, and the impact that he has had on generations of inventors up to the present day.
“The gold standard for Tesla biography.”—Science “Superb.”—Nature The definitive account of Tesla's life and work Nikola Tesla was a major contributor to the electrical revolution that transformed daily life at the turn of the twentieth century. His inventions, patents, and theoretical work formed the basis of modern AC electricity, and contributed to the development of radio and television. Like his competitor Thomas Edison, Tesla was one of America's first celebrity scientists, enjoying the company of New York high society and dazzling the likes of Mark Twain with his electrical demonstrations. An astute self-promoter and gifted showman, he cultivated a public image of the eccentric genius. Even at the end of his life when he was living in poverty, Tesla still attracted reporters to his annual birthday interview, regaling them with claims that he had invented a particle-beam weapon capable of bringing down enemy aircraft. Plenty of biographies glamorize Tesla and his eccentricities, but until now none has carefully examined what, how, and why he invented. In this groundbreaking book, W. Bernard Carlson demystifies the legendary inventor, placing him within the cultural and technological context of his time, and focusing on his inventions themselves as well as the creation and maintenance of his celebrity. Drawing on original documents from Tesla's private and public life, Carlson shows how he was an "idealist" inventor who sought the perfect experimental realization of a great idea or principle, and who skillfully sold his inventions to the public through mythmaking and illusion. This major biography sheds new light on Tesla's visionary approach to invention and the business strategies behind his most important technological breakthroughs.
True story: in 1899, Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla decided to end war forever. With Twain's connections and Tesla's inventions, they went into business selling world peace. So, what happened? Only now can the tale be toldin which Twain and Tesla collided with Edison and Morgan, an evil science cabal merging the Black Arts and the Industrial Age. Turn-of-the-century New York City sets the stage for a titanic battle over the very fate of mankind. Now back in print, this new edition of the steampunk classic features new cover art.
In this “informative and delightful” (American Scientist) biography, Margaret Cheney explores the brilliant and prescient mind of Nikola Tesla, one of the twentieth century’s greatest scientists and inventors. In Tesla: Man Out of Time, Margaret Cheney explores the brilliant and prescient mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists and inventors. Called a madman by his enemies, a genius by others, and an enigma by nearly everyone, Nikola Tesla was, without a doubt, a trailblazing inventor who created astonishing, sometimes world-transforming devices that were virtually without theoretical precedent. Tesla not only discovered the rotating magnetic field -- the basis of most alternating-current machinery -- but also introduced us to the fundamentals of robotics, computers, and missile science. Almost supernaturally gifted, unfailingly flamboyant and neurotic, Tesla was troubled by an array of compulsions and phobias and was fond of extravagant, visionary experimentations. He was also a popular man-about-town, admired by men as diverse as Mark Twain and George Westinghouse, and adored by scores of society beauties. From Tesla's childhood in Yugoslavia to his death in New York in the 1940s, Cheney paints a compelling human portrait and chronicles a lifetime of discoveries that radically altered -- and continue to alter -- the world in which we live. Tesla: Man Out of Time is an in-depth look at the seminal accomplishments of a scientific wizard and a thoughtful examination of the obsessions and eccentricities of the man behind the science.
Hunt's novel is a wondrous imagining of an unlikely friendship between theeccentric inventor Nikola Tesla and a young chambermaid in the Hotel New Yorker, where Tesla lived out his last days.
