Nikola Tesla was one of the 20th century's great pioneers; his role in advancing electrical energy through the use of alternating current, and his stupendous engineering finesse, make this biography by journalist John J. O'Neill a fine read. Born in a Serbian village to a religious family, Nikola demonstrated an early interest in physics. The nascent science behind electricity - in the 1870s a mysterious, unharnessed force - became his passion. Though the young man's engineering aspirations were almost derailed when he contracted cholera, and later by Austro-Hungarian conscription, Tesla managed to enrol to study in Graz, Austria. A top-class student, tutors admiration for Tesla's gifts and boundless curiosity was tempered by concerns over his tendency to overwork. These attributes marked Tesla's professional life; an obsessively driven man, Tesla's gifts for invention were amply demonstrated and rewarded in the United States. As his ambitions grew in size and scope, Tesla was hailed as a visionary.

Nikola Tesla was one of the 20th century's great pioneers; his role in advancing electrical energy through the use of alternating current, and his stupendous engineering finesse, make this biography by journalist John J. O'Neill a fine read. Born in a Serbian village to a religious family, Nikola demonstrated an early interest in physics. The nascent science behind electricity - in the 1870s a mysterious, unharnessed force - became his passion. Though the young man's engineering aspirations were almost derailed when he contracted cholera, and later by Austro-Hungarian conscription, Tesla managed to enrol to study in Graz, Austria. A top-class student, tutors admiration for Tesla's gifts and boundless curiosity was tempered by concerns over his tendency to overwork. These attributes marked Tesla's professional life; an obsessively driven man, Tesla's gifts for invention were amply demonstrated and rewarded in the United States. As his ambitions grew in size and scope, Tesla was hailed as a visionary.

This is a new release of the original 1959 edition.

This is a new release of the original 1959 edition.

Tesla created the modern era; he was unquestionably one of the world's greatest geniuses, but he leaves no offspring, no legatees of his brilliant mind, who might aid in administering that world; he created fortunes for multitudes of others but himself died penniless, spurning wealth that might be gained from his discoveries. Even as he walked among the teeming millions of New York he became a fabled individual who seemed to belong to the far-distant future or to have come to us from the mystical realm of the gods, for he seemed to be an admixture of a Jupiter or a Thor who hurled the shafts of lightning; an Ajax who defied the Jovian bolts; a Prometheus who transmuted energy into electricity to spread over the earth; an Aurora who would light the skies as a terrestrial electric lamp; a Mazda who created a sun in a tube; a Hercules who shook the earth with his mechanical vibrators; a Mercury who bridged the ambient realms of space with his wireless waves-and a Hermes who gave birth to an electrical soul in the earth that set it pulsating from pole to pole.Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer best known for developing the modern alternating current electrical supply system. Tesla's patents and theoretical work also formed the basis of wireless communication and the radio.

Nikola Tesla: Incredible Scientist, and article from the American Mercury, June 59; Illustrations of patents; Tesla stamps; Articles and pictures from the book Lightning in His Hands; Bibliography of books and articles on Tesla; Prodigal Genius.

Nikola Tesla: Incredible Scientist, and article from the American Mercury, June 59; Illustrations of patents; Tesla stamps; Articles and pictures from the book Lightning in His Hands; Bibliography of books and articles on Tesla; Prodigal Genius.

Nikola Tesla: Incredible Scientist, and article from the American Mercury, June 59; Illustrations of patents; Tesla stamps; Articles and pictures from the book Lightning in His Hands; Bibliography of books and articles on Tesla; Prodigal Genius.

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.

Even the gods of old, in the wildest imaginings of their worshipers, never undertook such gigantic tasks of world-wide dimension as those which Tesla attempted and accomplished. -from Chapter One First published in 1944 and long a favorite of Tesla fans, this is a definitive biography of the man without whom modern civilization would not exist. Nikola Tesla, pioneer of electrical engineering, was a close friend of Pulitzer Prize-winning author O'Neill, and here, O'Neill captures the man as a scientist and as a public figure, exploring: . how Tesla's father inspired his life in engineering . why Tesla clung to his theories of electricity in the face of opposition . how the shy but newly popular Tesla navigated the social life of New York in the gay 1890s . Tesla's friendship with Mark Twain . the story of Tesla's lost Nobel Prize . Tesla's dabblings in the paranormal . and much more. JOHN JOSEPH O'NEILL (b. 1889) also wrote Engineering the New Age and You and the Universe: What Science Reveals.

Nikola Tesla: Incredible Scientist, and article from the American Mercury, June 59; Illustrations of patents; Tesla stamps; Articles and pictures from the book Lightning in His Hands; Bibliography of books and articles on Tesla; Prodigal Genius.