From the Bookshelf of Science and Inquiry…

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

Marc J. Seifer,

William H. Terbo (Foreword by)

Start date: May 1, 2013

Finish date: May 31, 2013

Discussion: Book Club 2013

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Book Club 2013

December 2013: "The Strangest Man"
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May 11, 2013 David Rubenstein rated it really liked it

Shelves: biography, history

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. Co 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. ...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Margie rated it it was ok

Shelves: biographies-memoirs, science, abandoned

Tesla is one of the most awesomest coolio scientists evah. Totally. Check out what The Oatmeal has to say: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla.

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 ...more

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May 30, 2013 Charlene rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biography, general-science, innovation, favorites, history

Extremely well written, informative, comprehensive, and entertaining.

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Jun 05, 2009 Christopher Luna rated it it was amazing

Excellent narration of the events during and after Tesla's life. Consolidates, corrects, and explains many details found in other Tesla biographies as well, but includes more insights through interviews and connections to Tesla's descendants. ...more

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Nov 03, 2013 Clay marked it as abandoned-books-for-the-moment

I am going to abandon this indefinitely. It may be more interesting to a patent lawyer, but I am just not getting into it... I will probably revisit it at some point.

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