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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.
One of the most enduring problems of history is the decline of
Classical Civilization. How was it that the civilization of Greece
and Rome, which had endured almost a thousand years, a civilization
which prized learning, science and reason, gave way to the world of
the Medieval; an age which saw, for a while, the almost complete
disappearance of the rationalist spirit of Greece and Rome? The
traditional view was that after their seizure of Italy in the fifth
century, the Barbarian tribes of Germany and Scythia had reduced
Europe to an economic and cultural wasteland, initiating a Dark
Age, which was to last half a millennium. After the Reformation,
another suspect was added to the list: Christianity, or, more
accurately, Catholic Christianity. In this view Christianity was
corrupted beyond recognition after the time of Constantine and from
the fourth century onwards a power-hungry Church hierarchy, in
cahoots with the Imperial authorities, kept the population of
Europe in subservience and ignorance, effectively completing the
destructive work of the Barbarians.
In this ground-breaking work, historian John J. O'Neill examines
a great variety of evidence from many specialties and reaches an
astonishing and novel conclusion: Classical Civilization was not
destroyed by Barbarians or by Christians. It survived intact into
the early seventh century. The Vandals and Goths who seized the
Western Empire in the fifth century had become completely romanized
by the start of the sixth century. Artistic and intellectual life
flourished, as did the economy and the cities built earlier under
the Empire. Yet sometime in the middle of the seventh century
everything changed. Cities were abandoned, literacy plummeted,
royal authority declined and local strongmen, or barons, seized
control of the provinces. The Middle Ages had begun.
Who or what had caused this? As O'Neill notes, by the 1920s
Belgian historian Henri Pirenne had located the proverbial smoking
gun; but it was not in the hands of the Barbarians or the
Christians: it was held by those who, even then, it had become
fashionable to credit with saving, rather than destroying,
Classical Civilization: the Arabs. In a conclusion that will have
resonance for the modern world, O'Neill argues convincingly that
all we regard as Medieval had its origin in Islam, and that the
Muslims terminated Classical Civilization in Europe just as surely
as they did in the Middle East. O'Neill shows how the sudden
relapse of Europe in the seventh century was due entirely to the
economic blockade imposed by Islam's war against Christendom. The
Mediterranean, which had previously been a cultural highway, now
became a frontier, and a very dangerous frontier at it. Prompted by
Islam's doctrine of perpetual war against nonbelievers, Muslim
pirates scoured the Mediterranean, effectively ending all trade
between Europe and the great centers of civilization in the Near
East. The flow of gold ended, as did the supply of all luxury
items. And so too did the supply of papyrus from Egypt, without
which Europeans were forced to rely on expensive parchment. Not
surprisingly, literacy plummeted. Worst of all, the great cities of
the West, which depended upon the trade in luxury items from the
East, began to decline.
As the dominant power of the time, ideas originating in the
Islamic world now began to penetrate Europe. From their Muslim foes
Christian Europeans began to think in terms that would have been
unimaginable a century earlier. The idea of Holy War entered the
mindset of Christians, and, under the influence of Islam, the
rationalism of Greece and Rome began to be replaced by a literal
and intolerant interpretation of The Book. Classical civilization
was dead.
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.
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