W. Bernard Carlson

"This is a biography of one of the major 20th-century scientists, Nikola Tesla. It is interdisciplinary, containing accounts of U.S. manufacturing in the early 1900s and other contemporary cultural materials"--

Inventor of the Electrical Age

Tesla

Wynter

This is an interesting biography of a very interesting man. It is also one of those books that kept swinging the rating pendulum back and forth from two to four stars, depending on which chapter it happened to stop on. I found the first chapters describing Tesla's success years incredibly dense and scientific. Surely to fully appreciate their merit, the reader must wield academic knowledge of physics and electric engineering. Upon reading yet another description on how pivot arms were pushed by the heat and magnets to generate motion, I thought of pulling my hair and proclaiming myself the biggest idiot, because I could not picture what was happening to save my life. Pages upon pages of scientific jargon obscured any information about the man behind these inventions, and the real reason why I picked this book up in the first place. But as Tesla's reputation began to fumble and the chapters were progressing past his glory years, the real story and the emotions began trickling through. 

It seems that Tesla was a great dreamer. So great in fact, that he had no interest in practicality and commercial application of his inventions. He had a vision of how future should be and nothing could sway him from that idea. I thought the book presented him somewhat vain, picturing himself as THE best inventor of his time, whose creations would turn the world upside down. The tragedic reality is that Tesla lived way ahead of his times, and lacked financial supporters that shared his fantastic enthusiasm. Did his dreams go too far, in the realm of illusion? The later chapters seems to suggest so. Carlson presents several instances where the great inventor might have ventured into the land of unabashed sensationalism and (later in life) senility. It is somewhat sad that being carried away by his dreams and lacking focus, Tesla never realized his dreams beyond his work on AC power and a few small projects. 

How accurate is this interpretation of Tesla by Carlson? It is hard for me to tell, as I am yet to read any other academic work on the man. But I am hopeful to find a kinder version, if somewhat romanticized, of Tesla as a human being behind a glamour of a mad scientist. After reading the opening chapters I wanted to give this book two stars, but I find that it redeems itself significantly later on. Three and a half stars it is then.

Adam

In modern times, Telsa is thrown using terms like "conspiracy" and "magic". His legacy has been revived in recent years, with theories about "the government" holding back various inventions of his. Even The Oatmeal (web comic) has jumped on board crediting Tesla as the inventor of just about everything electrical and wireless in the last 150 years.

This book puts these in perspective and helps separate the truth from the myth. The truth is, he was a very smart inventor at a time when a lot of major technical inventions were coming into being. Tesla made his money (which would be 10s of millions in todays dollars) by patenting his work and leasing it out to other companies. This goes against some of the Tesla conspiracy theories that circulate today.

What was interesting to me was that Tesla seemed myopic in pursuit of wireless power transfer, which eventually would bankrupt him. During this time he neglected radio transmission (which let Marcone take credit) and he overlooked X-rays in his experiments, only realizing them after someone else made the discovery.

Tesla seemed like a nerd who loved thinking of world changing electronics, but not always with a plan on how to roll them out to the world who would use them. This, coupled with a love for living the high life, meant that he was dreaming big and living big, but was not able to continually raise more funds needed to make wireless power a reality.

Tesla Inventor of the Electrical Age

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