Wizard: The Life And Times Of Nikola Tesla

by Marc J. Seifer

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 fthe 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.

The book is illustrated with sixteen pages of photographs, including the July 20, 1931, Time magazine cover for an issue celebrating the inventor's career.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Science, History, Audiobook, Biography Memoir, Physics

580 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Το Άθχημο γατί του θενιόρ Γκουαναμίρου · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It is not humans that I love, but humanity".

Born in Serbia, a true Balkan till end of his life, educated in Europe, where he lived for a while before settling permanently in America, influenced by Eastern religions (Buddhism) and theosophy, Tesla seems to incorporate many different ideas, attitudes, perceptions, interpretations into his worldview, and ends up becoming an enigmatic personality.

A 22nd-century spirit bound by 19th-century constraints, a mind that conceived the shapes of the future but did not always succeed in disengaging himself from all that constituted, traditional, scientific ideas, an man who lived to see the transition from the Newtonian world to the Einstein's universe.

Γεννημένος στη Σερβία, ένας βέρος Βαλκάνιος μέχρι το τέλος της ζωής του, με σπουδές στην Ευρώπη όπου και έζησε για ένα διάστημα προτού εγκατασταθεί μόνιμα στην Αμερική, με επιρροές από τα ανατολικά θρησκεύματα (βουδισμός) όπως αυτά διαμορφώθηκαν μέσα από το χωνευτήρι της θεοσοφίας, ο Τέσλα μοιάζει να ενσωματώνει στην κοσμοθεωρία του πολλές και διαφορετικές ιδέες, νοοτροπίες, αντιλήψεις, ερμηνείες και καταλήγει να αποτελεί ο ίδιος ένα αίνιγμα.

Ένα πνεύμα του 22ου αιώνα δεσμευμένο από τους περιορισμούς του 19ου αιώνα, ένας νους που συνέλαβε την εικόνα του μέλλοντος αλλά δεν κατάφερνε πάντα να απαγκιστρωθεί από όλα εκείνα που συνιστούσαν την παραδοσιακή επιστημονική ερμηνευτική, έζησε σε εκείνο το μεταίχμιο που συνιστά το πέρασμα από το Νευτώνειο σύμπαν στην κατανόηση του κόσμου μέσα από τη ανατρεπτική ματιά του Αϊνστάιν και τις νέες θεωρίες της κβαντομηχανικής.

Οι άνθρωποι που ζουν αρκετά ώστε να έχουν υπάρξει σε δύο διαφορετικές εποχές, είναι οι άνθρωποι που μοιραία υποχρεώνονται να ζήσουν με το ένα πόδι σε ένα παρελθόν που γι' αυτούς αποτελεί μια όχι και τόσο μακρινή ανάμνηση και σε ένα παρόν που μοιάζει να σαρώνει τα πάντα στο πέρασμά του, ένας φως που κινείται προς τα εμπρός αφήνοντας πίσω του όσα προηγήθηκαν βυθισμένα στο σκοτάδι.

Όταν ο Τέσλα έφτασε στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, σε ηλικία 28 ετών, στα 1884, μαζί με τις λιγοστές αποσκευές του, έφερε όλα τα επιστημονικά τεκμήρια που θα μπορούσαν σχετικά άμεσα να καταστήσουν εφικτή την παραγωγή του εναλλασσόμενου ηλεκτρικού ρεύματος, κάτι που σήμαινε πρακτικά πως είχε τον τρόπο να προσφέρει στους ανθρώπους, ασφαλέστερη, φθηνότερη και καλύτερη μετάδοση της ηλεκτρικής ενέργειας.

Είναι ακριβώς το είδος του ηλεκτρικού ρεύματος που μας παρέχει την ενέργεια όπως τη γνωρίζουμε όλοι σήμερα. Ωστόσο, αφού πρώτα συνάντησε την καχυποψία, την απόρριψη και τη χλεύη από τα μεγάλα μυαλά της εποχής της, στο τέλος κατέληξαν όλοι να τον αντιγράψουν (ήταν συχνό θύμα της βιομηχανικής κατασκοπίας) και με τον έναν ή το άλλο τρόπο να οικειοποιηθούν τις εφευρέσεις του, πιστοί στο πνεύμα ενός ακραίου ανταγωνισμού που πάντα οδηγούσε το νικητή στην εξόντωση του αντιπάλου του.

Ο Τέσλα, δουλεύοντας με εξαντλητικά ωράρια μέσα στο εργαστήριό του, εργαζόταν με απώτερο στόχο το όφελος της ανθρωπότητας. Χωρίς να στερείται της μεγαλομανίας αλλά και της μονομανίας που συχνά συνοδεύει τις μεγαλοφυΐες, ποτέ δεν έχασε από τον ορίζοντα των προσδοκιών του την ωφέλεια του συνόλου, που δεν περιελάμβανε μόνο τους ανθρώπους, αλλά ολάκερο τον πλανήτη, καθώς από πολύ νωρίς είχε αρχίσει να ανησυχεί για την κατασπατάληση των πλουτοπαραγωγικών πηγών και την καταστροφή του περιβάλλοντος.

"Ο επιστήμονας, στα μάτια του Τέσλα, πάντα ήταν και πάντα θα είναι ο φωτοδότης του ανθρώπινου είδους, οδηγός του μέλλοντος μέσα από την εξέλιξη της τεχνολογίας. Τα πλήθη με τη σειρά τους, θα ωφελούνταν καθώς οι μηχανές θα αναλάμβαναν γι' αυτούς τις πιο ταπεινές εργασίες, ώστε να μπορέσουν εκείνοι να ασχολούνται με πιο πνευματικές δραστηριότητες. Με την ανάπτυξη της τεχνολογίας η πολιτισμική πρόοδος θα αυξανόταν με αλματώδεις ρυθμούς".

Σε μια κοινωνία όπου το κέρδος είχε αναχθεί σε ύψιστη θεότητα, η προσπάθεια του Τέσλα να εξασφαλίσει αγοραστές και χρηματοδότες, διατηρώντας ωστόσο το γενικότερο, αλτρουιστικό όραμά του για την ελεύθερη διάθεση των αγαθών κοινής ωφελείας, κατέληξε στην περιθωριοποίηση και στον παραγκωνισμό του, στην υπονόμευση των προσπαθειών του αλλά και στην από μέρους του εκδήλωση ενός αντιφατικού χαρακτήρα, η οποία συχνά καταπλήσσει τον συγγραφέα του συγκεκριμένου βιβλίου, αλλά κατά την άποψή μου έχει μια απόλυτη λογική βάση και εξήγηση. Είναι αυτό που λέμε "ο σκοπός αγιάζει τα μέσα". Αλλά παίζοντας αυτό το παιχνίδι, ο Τέσλα που ήταν εξαίρετος οραματιστής αλλά αδέξιος οπορτουνιστής, έχασε. Κατέληξε να πεθάνει φτωχός και χρεοκοπημένος και ξεχασμένος από τους περισσότερους.

Συνέπεια της πρώτης αντίφασης αποτελεί και η αποτυχία να κατηγοριοποιηθεί ο Τέσλα ως δημιουργός και ως άνθρωπος. Από τη μία ήταν ένας πρακτικός εφευρέτης, από την άλλη ένας θαυματοποιός όπου έδινε παραστάσεις για να εξοικειώσει το κοινό με τη νέα τεχνολογία ώστε να πάψουν να τη φοβούνται. Από τη μία ήταν ένας άνθρωπος που επιδίωκε να ζει μια άνετη ζωή, να διατηρεί επαφές και σχέσεις με τους κεφαλαιούχους και ανώτερα κοινωνικά στρώματα κι από την άλλη ήταν ένας μοναχικός και μισάνθρωπος ασεξουαλικός ερημίτης που ζούσε στη μοναξιά του εργαστηρίου του και πήγαινε τις νυχτερινές ώρες να ταΐσει τα περιστέρια στο πάρκο. Από τη μία ήταν φοβερά μυστικοπαθής στην προσπάθεια να διασώσει το έργο του κι από την άλλη έκανε ανοίγματα και πομπώδεις δηλώσεις στον τύπο προκειμένου να κερδίσει την προσοχή του κοινού.

Στο τέλος δεν ξέρω αν τελικά ήταν όντως ο Τέσλα ένας αντιφατικός και ακατανόητος χαρακτήρας ή απλώς η εποχή του αποτελούσε τη συνέχιση, μια πιο ήπια εκδοχή, του αγώνα για την κατάκτηση του Νέου Κόσμου, μέσα στον οποίο τέθηκαν οι βάσεις και τα θεμέλια για πολλές από τις παθογένειες (παράλληλα με τα εξαιρετικά επιτεύγματα βεβαίως) που ακόμα και σήμερα κατατρύχουν αυτό που ορίζουμε ως σύγχρονο δυτικό πολιτισμό - κυρίως στον τομέα που αφορά στον τρόπο που διανέμονται και καθίστανται προσβάσιμα τα τεχνολογικά και επιστημονικά επιτεύγματα στο σύνολο της κοινωνίας.

Το πιο χτυπητό παράδειγμα αποτελεί η υπονόμευση του σπουδαιότερου έργου του εφευρέτη, ενός πύργου (Wardenclyffe Tower 1901–1917) που στόχευε στην ασύρματη μετάδοση ενέργειας και πληροφορίας - εικόνα, ήχος, ηλεκτρικό ρεύμα - από τον χρηματοδότη του, τον μεγαλοεπιχειρηματία John Pierpont Morgan:

"Κάποτε φτάνουμε σε ένα σταυροδρόμι όπου οι αποφάσεις ορισμένων ανθρώπων αλλάζουν τη ροή της ιστορίας [...] για πολλούς και διάφορους λόγους ο Morgan αποφάσισε στα 1903 να κάνει το παν προκειμένου να εξασφαλιστεί η αποτυχία του εφευρέτη. Ο Morgan είχε ομολογουμένως μια εκ διαμέτρου αντίθετη φιλοσοφία από εκείνη που χαρακτήριζε το σχέδιο του Τέσλα. Πιθανώς να του ασκήθηκε πίεση από τους άλλους μεγιστάνες της Wall Street".

Φαίνεται ή τουλάχιστον έτσι ιστορείται μέσα από μια έμμεση μαρτυρία πως ένα από αυτά τα καθίκ καλούς ανθρώπους συμβούλευσε τον Morgan:

"Κοίτα, αυτός ο άνθρωπος είναι τρελός. Αυτό που θέλει να είναι να παρέχει δωρεάν ηλεκτρική ενέργεια σε όλους τους ανθρώπους και σε αυτό δεν μπορούμε να βάλουμε μετρητή. Αν υποστηρίξουμε αυτόν τον τύπο, τότε όλοι μας θα χρεοκοπήσουμε".

Ήταν ακριβώς η κατάρρευση αυτού το σχεδίου που οδήγησε στην σταδιακή κατάρρευση και του ίδιου του εφευρέτη. Δεν θα πέσει βέβαια αμαχητί, αλλά θα σπαταλήσει το υπόλοιπο της ζωής του μέσα σε μάταιους αγώνες, χωρίς ποτέ να δει τα οράματά του να υλοποιούνται.

Για τα τελευταία χρόνια της ζωής του υπάρχουν πολλές εικασίες, πολλές μπερδεμένες αναφορές και μαρτυρίες, σχετικά με τις επίσημες και ανεπίσημες επαφές που είχε ο ηλικιωμένος εφευρέτης με διάφορους πολιτικούς και μη παράγοντες. Η πνευματική του κατάσταση είχε αρχίσει να επιδεινώνεται. Πάντα η φαντασία του προπορευόταν της εποχής του και νομίζω πως χρειάζεται να γραφτεί ένα ξεχωριστό βιβλίο για να ξεκαθαρίσει το τοπίο. Σίγουρα ο Τέσλα δεν ήρθε σε επαφή με εξωγήινους. Δεν κατασκεύασε ποτέ ένα υπερόπλο που να εκπέμπει ακτίνες θανάτου. Μάλιστα πολλές από τις εφευρέσεις του απέτυχαν γιατί στην εποχή που έζησε, δεν υπήρχαν ακόμα τα κατάλληλα υλικά και οι υποδομές ώστε τα σχέδιά του να αποκτήσουν υλική υπόσταση.

Αλλά το όραμά του για έναν καλύτερο κόσμο... Αυτό θα συνεχίζει να υπάρχει κόντρα σε όλες τις αντιξοότητες και τα εμπόδια. Θα τα καταφέρουμε. Είμαι αισιόδοξη.

Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο είναι εξαιρετικό. Ενδεχομένως κάποιος θα μπορούσε να θεωρήσει ως μειονέκτημα το ότι είναι βαρυφορτωμένο με πληροφορίες, πρόσωπα, χρονολογίες και τεχνικούς όρους αλλά καταφέρνει με εξαιρετικό τρόπο να αξιοποιήσει το σύνολο της υπάρχουσας βιβλιογραφίας (τουλάχιστον ως την εποχή που εκδόθηκε) με τρόπο αντικειμενικό, μακριά από ψευδοεπιστημονικούς ισχυρισμούς και θεωρίες συνωμοσίας. Εκεί που θεωρώ πως αποτυγχάνει είναι στην δημιουργία ενός επιτυχημένου ψυχολογικού προφίλ του εφευρέτη, βασίζεται υπερβολικά στη φροϋδική ψυχολογία, την οποία δεν έχει κατανοήσει επαρκώς.

Ωστόσο παρά τις όποιες αδυναμίες αποτελεί ένα απολαυστικό ανάγνωσμα και με έκανε όχι απλώς να γνωρίσω αλλά και να αγαπήσω βαθύτατα αυτόν τον υπέροχο άνθρωπο, όπου το μυαλό του βρισκόταν στα άστρα, τα πόδια του στη γη και η καρδιά του στη σωστή της θέση.

[David Rubenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[R.K. Gold · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

It has been done! This biography took me so long to read! I began in summer 2016 but couldn’t get into it. Picked it back up at the start of my fall semester this year but couldn’t get into it. Picked it up again at the end of the semester and forced myself to through.

All in all his was a fascinating book that did an incredible job capturing the complicated life of an American Immigrant icon.

While I was reading the book I struggled with how in depth and technical it got with his patents and his competitor’s patents at times but once I decided “it’s okay not to retain every word” and just kept reading, these tid-bits of information no longer slowed me down and by the end of the book I was excited to learn more. It almost read like it was letting you in on a secret, at times differentiating what the world saw at a given time and what actually happened (like with all of his feuds and how for decades those who pirated his work were rewarded).

What I enjoyed most about this tale was seeing how intertwined he was with the most powerful American families of all time. This was a man who worked with both JP Morgan and Jr. He was a direct rival of Edison and a pen pal of Elenor Roosevelt.

I am incredibly happy to have finally finished this book.

[Margie · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 to gouge your eyes out.

I do not need to know which of his instructors at university was mustachioed and which had a full head of hair. Really, really do not. Do not care. Yet I really care about Tesla - I'd love to learn more about him. This book is not the means to that end for me. The minutia killed it for me.

I'd give it three stars because it obviously gives historical information that people want, but I'm mad about the way it made me feel. Admittedly I'm not an engineer and don't know a whole lot about electricity. But I'm not stupid - I read a lot of books about various branches of science. But this book was so overwhelmingly tedious that it made me want to read a picture book about Tesla. Or a pop-up book! That would be fun! I just wanted to get to the good stuff, and I felt superficial in the face of this dense collection of minutia. The emphasis on tiny unimportant (to my mind) details lessened the impact of Tesla's discoveries and inventions. The elevation of the unimportant made the important seem flat. I wasn't able to maintain my attention, and also was wearied by the effort required to sift through to find the interesting stuff.

So only two stars. Tesla, though: 17 stars.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is actually the reason I can't check out anything at the SF Public Library anymore. I took it out years ago, and by the time I started it, it was due back again. But being the lazy bastard I am, I just kept reading it because it was so engrossing, and never renewed it. Tesla was, next to Da Vinci, probably the purest and most intuitive scientific genius ever to have lived. He was also one of the most paranoid and eccentric, but really everyone knows that is a prerequisite for genius. Seeing how badly Edison screwed him over, and the personal hatred Edison had for him, was shocking, not to mention the experiments Tesla did in Colorado with 'free energy', make it worthwhile. Oh, and he designed and tested all his machines in his head, so they worked perfectly the first time he built them almost always.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense

This book is a very thoughtful well researched and revealing work about Nicola Tesla and his theories. It is also an interesting look into the mans personal relationships and idiosyncrasies. Difficult at times to wade through, the end result is well worth the effort. Death rays, anyone?

[Joseph Sciuto · Rating 5 out of 5]

My journey into the world of "Electrical Science," started off with me reading the historical fictional novel, "The Last Days Of Night," by Graham Moore. As I would soon learn the book was much more fiction than actual history and it, more or less, covered Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla, but I did come away with a small understanding of the difference between AC and DC electrical currents and enough interest to pursue the topic further.

I went on to read a number of nonfiction books that covered the history of electrical science which also dealt with the three main people associated with the science: Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla. But, it was not until I read "Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse and the Race to Electrify the World," by Jill Jonnes that my interest peaked.

So, from there I decided to read biographies dedicated not to the three men, but biographies on each individual, and I started with the most fascinating of them all, Nikola Tesla.

"Wizard: The Life and Times of Nicola Tesla/ Biography Of a Genius," by Marc J. Seifer was where I started and believe me I was not disappointed. The word 'genius' is often thrown around quite easily, but throughout this book I kept going through famous names who I thought were comparable with the genius of Mr. Tesla. After reading two-thirds of the book, I came up with two names who I thought Nikola Tesla was comparable too: Leonard da Vinci and Ben Franklin. And in a strange occurrence, a couple pages further into the book, a number of magazines and distinguished individuals said, "That Nicola Tesla deserved to be included in the select group of da Vinci and Franklin."

Nicola Tesla was born in Croatia and was of Serbian decent. He was able to speak up to ten different languages, and was profoundly affected by literature and poetry. Aside from being the genius behind the Niagara Falls Project that send electricity over greater areas than ever before imagined and lighting up much of the Chicago World's Fair in the middle 1890's, he also invented the first robots, wireless telegraphy, the radio (which was originally attributed to the Italian inventor Marconi who literally stole his ideas and was forced by courts in Europe and America to acknowledge his theft) and laser bean technology which the U.S. government refused to buy the patents for but was quick to get hold of the 87 trunks stored in Manhattan after his death.

Eighty years later, much of that material in those trunks are still considered highly classified and the material and designs have never been seen.

Mr. Tesla lived a life a luxury, residing at the Waldorf Astoria for over twenty years and other famous hotels throughout Manhattan. His only problem was his inability to keep up with the payments at these hotels. His associates included Mark Twain, John Astor, J.P. Morgan, George Westinghouse, the Rockefeller's, and the list goes on and on. But, it was J.P. Morgan who caused him the most headaches and destroyed his biggest dream The Wardenclyffe Tower that he built on Long Island and promised to deliver wireless telegraphs across the Atlantic.

Tesla, out of generosity, simply gave Morgan 51 per cent of the Wardenclyffe project for his investment, but once Morgan figured out that such a powerful device would cost some of his current businesses to go bankrupt he held back much of the investment and it was never completed and eventually destroyed.

Nicola Tesla was a complicated genius, generous, trusting, and was the first to admit that all inventions were simply the byproduct of ideas and creations that came before. He was a conservationist whose inventions he felt would keep the air and nature clean and would lessen the hard labor of the working class.
In summary Goethe's lyrics from "Prometheus."

Cover your heaven, Zeus,
With cloudy vapours,
And test your strength, like a boy
Beheading thistles,
On oaks and mountain peaks;
Yet you must leave
My earth alone,
And my hut you did not build,
And my hearth,
Whose fire
You envy me.

Did you suppose
I should hate life,
Flee into the wilderness,
Because not all
My blossoming dreams bore fruit?

Here I sit, making men
In my own image,
A race that shall be like me,
That shall suffer, weep,
Know joy and delight,
And ignore you
As I do!

[BetseaK · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was not an easy listen. Over 22 hours dense with information, including technical descriptions of Nikola Tesla's inventions!
This being said, I am glad I bought this audiobook. It covers not only Tesla's inventions and ideas but also his cultural background, his relationships with quite a number of the luminaries of the times, as well as his physical and mental health.
For this reader/listener with no electrical engineering background, the descriptions of Tesla's inventions and postulated theories, most of which in his own words, were a little hard to understand, let alone evaluate. However, bearing in mind that this is not a scientific appreciation of Tesla's work but his biography, the book fulfilled my desire to know more about Tesla's achievements and why he was transformed into a mythical figure. The technical descriptions were informative enough to give the general reader/listener a fairly good insight into an array of Tesla's inventions, including both the proved and the postulated ones.
Therefore, I appreciate Mr. Seifer's efforts to do Nikola Tesla justice, separating the myth built around him from historic facts, fairly pointing out where Tesla was wrong, and thus bringing Tesla's fascinating accomplishments and ideas/postulated theories into proper perspective.

I liked how the book was organized. It was set chronologically, yet centered on Tesla's world wireless communication system (Wardenclyffe), involving Tesla's desire and efforts to make wireless transmission of power possible (which seems to have stuck in the throat of the electrical engineering companies battling for their share in the market). What I found both interesting and saddening were the descriptions of the competition between inventors, disputes about who was 'the first' and Tesla's struggles against patent infringements. The book renders both Tesla's virtues and his weaknesses, and I must admit that some of Tesla's quirks made me dislike him at times. In spite of it, I found the events leading to the development of radio (the Wireless) most saddening. Tesla aimed valiantly high (ahead of this time), which unfortunately led him to a blind alley and lose the battle with Marconi (though he was able to recover some money in the Courts long after Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics).

I digress a little, but I couldn't help but laugh at myself when I read Tesla's argument against Einstein's theory of relativity, claiming, “I hold that space cannot be curved, for the simple reason that it can have no properties. ... Of properties we can only speak when dealing with matter filling the space. To say that in the presence of large bodies space becomes curved is equivalent to stating that something can act upon nothing. I, for one, refuse to subscribe to such a view.“
Well, as I myself was inclined to refuse to subscribe to such a view, I would recommend Tesla (if he were alive) to read Galloping with Light - Einstein, Relativity, and Folklore in order to learn how to understand/interpret Einstein's Theory of Relativity and the concept of 'curved space' properly.


All in all, I congratulate Mr. Seifer on well researched and fairly even-handed biography of Nikola Tesla. While some of Tesla's postulated inventions, as described, left me wondering whether they were only the product of a brilliant dreamer (in this context, be prepared for a bit of conspiracy theories at the end of the book, regarding Tesla's 'death beam weapon'), the book as a whole succeeded to convince me that this genius deserves better recognition.

As my review refers to the audio version of Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius, let me say a word or two about the narration. Simon Prebble's performance is excellent indeed. It suits the times in which Tesla lived, as well as the general mood of the book. I particularly enjoyed how Mr. Prebble voiced Tesla's personal correspondence with J.P. Morgan and others, bringing life and personality to the characters in the book.

[J.P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m still looking for the definitive biography on Nikola Tesla because rest assured this isn’t it.
The author throws non-essential information about like it was confetti. I knew from the first chapter when he starts with the history of Croatia that this would be a less than promising beginning. Unfortunately it doesn’t get any better. People keep cropping up who had very little contact with or influence on Tesla. Information on his discoveries are kept to a minimum while matters of who filed what patent and when go on ad nauseum. There’s very little real science involved. It’s amazing how many times the author strays off the subject to bring up a trivial piece of data I could’ve lived the rest of my life without knowing. I’m willing to bet that overall more of the text is not about Tesla.
I wouldn’t have thought that a book about such a creative genius could be balled up to the point of practically making it unreadable. Cripes! Please, somebody write a really good biography of this man who deserves better than the treatment here.

[Glynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good but difficult book. The author is intent on putting down in meticulous detail the life of this amazing character and in doing so skips around with chaotic effect. Tesla knew and interacted with many famous people of his time and it was hard keeping track of his interactions with them as the author related stories and jumped from one character to another.

The author relates in detail the many inventions and ideas that Nikola Tesla advanced that were subsequently used by other inventors who gave no credit to Tesla and in fact stole his ideas. There are many instances depicted where Tesla is depicted as constantly fighting to convince the world that his ideas were stolen by other famous inventors. There are chapters which begin with one topic and then switch for no particular reason to another seemingly unrelated topic.

There are things I liked about the book. I liked reading about Teslas conviction that he could communicate with Mars and how he had a vision of the world wide web and cellular communication. I was fascinated with the struggles Tesla had in the Wardenclyffe project.

I liked the depiction of Teslas relationship to Katherine Underwood Johnson and would have liked a more satisfying telling of that relationship. The author simply announces at one point a list of people who died and Katherine is among this list. This is the main problem I had with this book. The organization requires better editing.

Another aspect of the book that turned me off was the constant detail concerning monetary and financial problems. It seems like Tesla was constantly concerned with obtaining funding for his many inventions. I suppose this is the plight of many an inventor but I would have preferred less detailing of this (to me) boring topic.

Although I struggled with this book, I did enjoy reading about this great man's life and work and would recommend this book for anyone interested in Nikola Tesla.

[Rohan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was long. I had my doubts about finishing this one in a month but I ended up wrapping it up in just over a week. Although, that has more to do with Tesla's character and his inventions rather than Author's writing style. Though, to be fair to the Author, he has done a decent job of making the book dramatic enough especially considering it is actually a Biography.

It is clear from the book that Tesla was a Brilliant man whose ideas were well ahead of his time. At the same time, book has enough evidence and stories from his life to prove that many of those ideas were not executed to completion by Tesla. It is also clear that Tesla was no genius when it came to his social skills and financial management. This book makes you wonder what more greater inventions this great (sometimes also called mad) scientist could've done for man kind, if he had at least one of those two skills.

Personally for me, the best (and partly sad) part of the book were Tesla's and J.P Morgan's exchanges. Frankly, I really do not think either J.P or Tesla were wrong in what they did. Tesla had really a lot to prove since he had no practical application of most of the claims he was making and Morgan was trying to be what he is, a Businessman.

The desperation in Tesla's tone in those letters to J.P Morgan clearly presents the state of his mind in those days. In spite of that, it is commendable that Tesla's objective was more or less to bring about a Revolution in the Wireless Systems. It is even more admiring because of the fact that most of his contemporaries especially Edison, Marconi etc were bad mouthing Tesla in the scientific community and were always on the look out for ways to bring him down.

Other than this, the other interesting parts were stories about Westinghouse and RCA's formation, Tesla's rivalry with Edison and Marconi, Tesla's views on Einstein's theory of relativity, World war and its impacts on US policies on Patent Infringement and many more.

It is a shame that Tesla (and Edison) never won a Nobel Prize especially considering that other people who actually build their inventions using his ideas went on to get a Nobel Prize and also lived a much more financially stable life than him.

Overall, I would say the book is good. Just keep in mind the fact that it is a Biography and that the Author might not be highly qualified to give you all the technical details about Tesla's inventions.

[britt_brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a bit dry and very technical, but totally fascinating! Tesla’s life spanned 86 years and witnessed some amazing discoveries, many his own. He was an eccentric with an astonishing mind, living decades in NYC hotels, developing a penchant for pigeons, and was a self-described celibate. We can thank Nikola Tesla for many of our modern conveniences. And he was friends with Mark Twain which is pretty cool in my book.

[Martina · Rating 4 out of 5]

No review of mine would be complete without a little backstory, so I shall share it now. I've been acquainted with the genius of Nikola Tesla for a long, long time. Ever since I've come to the realization that we owe that man a lot, I've striven to inform myself about the man and his work. I watched documentaries, attended lectures, read publications; I was terribly angry when the recreated Tesla laboratory in the Technical museum wasn't open when I found a time slot to visit it... heh, the only sin I'm guilty of is not visiting his house in Smiljan. I've even watched Prestige just to see how David Bowie had tapped into Tesla's role, for crying out loud.

That all being said, I have to admit that I've expected The Wizard to be a book suitable for revision of facts I already knew about Tesla. I thought that it should be good as an introduction to Tesla's life and work, but I was a bit skeptical on what new could such a book offer to me. You can't imagine my delight when I started reading - after the chapters on Tesla's origins and childhood, which presented me with little new facts, I embarked on a very different journey. I can only imagine the time and effort it took the author to collect so many sources, and write such a unique and complete biography. Every passage, sentence or letter has a reference, so that readers can be directed to other sources, either for checking or simply finding new literature. What I also loved was the inclusion of multiple tellings of some situations in Tesla's life (for example, the two contradictory stories that depict Tesla's drive for money, or lack thereof, in his dealings with Edison).

Seifer pictures Tesla's life in such minute detail, that even a person with a ready-made skeleton can make tweaks on the skeleton and start to construct tendons and joints, and completely flesh the structure out. The sheer wealth of information left me very impressed, and I was a skeptic no more. Instead, I learned so many things I didn't know prior, concerning Tesla's life and struggle. Because, let's face it, people - it was a battle with many admirable adversaries. From Edison, the people with whom Tesla had founded his first company, svindlers galore (yes, Michael Pupin and all that mendacious crowd that had preferred to simply not mention Tesla), money investors and bankers (yes, I'm talking about J.P. Morgan and the gang which squashed Tesla's dream of free energy), plagiators (yes, that is pointed towards Marconi), fires in his laboratories, to the general public (during the battle of currents and also later on in life), Tesla had had to fight his way to the top. And even though he had had his share of triumphs (1891/92. and the European tour, the fame which came in 1893/94., etc.), external factors and his own ideas seemed to work against him (after all, the ideas he had later on in life were the culprits of his pendulous fall...). Not to mention that he was in a not so grateful position of an expatriate in a new country (which he clearly felt, at least in the beginning, for he had written upon the demise of his Hungarian friend Szegeti, “I feel alienated, and it is difficult [for me to adapt to the American lifestyle].”). But in spite all that, he achieved great things of unsurpassed practical value. It would take me a whole book to list his discoveries, but let's mention the rotating magnetic field, polyphase electric system, lasers, fluorescent lights, wireless transmission and radio among the myriad other things we use in everyday life. But ultimately, Tesla's life story doesn't end up on a very optimistic note. Because, it all boils down to a man who had lots of great ideas which could have brought even more prosperity to mankind, but was barred from achieving the bulk of them by people who didn't have such altruistic interests as he had.

All in all, I really liked this book. After all, it can't possibly be dull when it has such a fascinating topic! However, it wasn't flawless. The chronological structure, while logical, was perhaps one of the weaknesses of the book. I can tell that Seifer's goal was to present Tesla's life in an orderly way, but as a result of that, some chapters felt jumbled as we got to read about the different aspects of Tesla's life, consecutively. (Don't get me wrong, one of The Wizard's strengths is that it also discusses Tesla's social life, and gives proof in the form of various letters, directed either to or from Tesla, but that was tightly enmeshed in the tales of Tesla's discoveries, which made it a bit difficult for my mind to switch from topic to topic.) Another minor quibble - after the chapter Loose ends and Tesla's death, the author talks about some historical issues which perhaps were not necessary. But aside from that, the book is great and I highly recommend it.

[Morgan Blackledge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but before reading this book, somewhere in the back of my mind, I had pretty much bought into the new age mythology that Tesla was a mystic genius visionary who was the victim of Edison's jealous, evil industrialist thievery and sabotage. Now, after reading accounts of Tesla's embarrassing social, financial and professional missteps, his ridiculous pleading correspondences to J.P. Morgan (and other wealthy would-be benefactors), and less than half baked journal submissions (particularly the one that interpreted a three beat radio transmission as a communication from intelligent extra terrestrials), I'm seeing Tesla in a whole new light. Rather than a victim of conspiratorial thuggery, I now see Tesla as a victim of his own chronic douchiness.

Tesla was clearly decades ahead of his peers. But being "ahead of your time", contrary to hipster dogma, is not necessarily a good thing. Tesla had amazing ideas. But good ideas without good execution are about useless, where as even mediocre ideas, well executed, can at least be useful to someone. Tesla was with out a doubt, an amazing inventor. But it's hard not to feel like he could have achieved so much more if he wasn't such a dysfunctional, self sabotaging, grandiose douche bag.

This book is a well done (if a little long) biography of a fascinating (to say the least) character from a fascinating time. But the real value of the book is as a cautionary tale of how unchecked cognitive biases (see: confirmation bias) and magical thinking can be the undoing of even brilliant and talented people like Tesla. Be warned; if your model of reality becomes too divorced from actual reality, you may needlessly fritter away your hard work and talent on some really ridiculous shit.

Read this book, particularly if you like biographies of scientists, but if you're one of those Tesla worshipers, be prepared to deify the guy a whole lot less upon completion. Ultimately, the book renders a portrait of Tesla that is humane and realistic. Uncovering Tesla's scammy shenanigans, unexamined self delusions and outrageous foibles, while concurrently celebrating his incredible creativity and authentic brilliance.

BTW: a film is in production starring (self serious, tortured) Christian Bale as Tesla. I think (brilliant, trixter, clown) Sacha Baron-Cohen would make for a better, more realistic, funner film.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I review a biography, I usually start by saying "look how awesome this guy is" and then rambling about his appearance, his style, etc.

Well, look how awesome this guy is. He's like a more dashing Marcel Proust. He's got a handsome but not showy mustachio. He's got that cool oiled hair thing going on.

But Tesla's coolness is more about his showmanship. He took this terrifying, new thing called electricity, stuff that comes down from the sky and explodes trees and cows, and he just sits there reading a magazine while it rages around him. Or he'll walk out on a stage into the midst of bolts of electricity, walking through it like it's a waterfall instead of magical death light, protected only by the cork lining his shoes.



And it's not just Tesla's wacky experiments that make him so compelling. It's his personality and his history of hardships. He's a tragic figure, the Melville of science, who ran into some fame and fortune, but was ultimately condemned to a life of struggle and a death alone in a hotel room.

I won't force you to read this book. But you should at least read the Wikipedia article because this dude is really interesting.

[Marta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tesla was amazing; this book is not. I am not even sure what he invented after listening to this book, it got so lost among completely unimportant and uninteresting trivial details about his legal and money troubles.

It is a bloated monster of 21 hours of listening. The first third has Tesla’s prime, his inventions of the Tesla coils, success with AC power with the Westinghouse Corporation. Unfortunately, that was Tesla’s last sizeable commercial success.

Tesla was a rare genius: he was both a scientist and an engineer. He discovered new principles and also made working prototypes of his inventions. Where he failed was making it a commercial success. Tesla spent much of his life begging for money to build something much bigger and better than the investors and the market wanted - and he never delivered anything. Much of the book is devoted to how Marconi stole everything he invented from Tesla. This is true. However, reading how Tesla kept sabotaging himself and his investors, I feel that if it was up to Tesla, we would still be without radio.

The last two third of the book is a mess of Tesla’s troubles in great detail. It is completely skippable. I was still going to give it three stars because of Tesla and the clearly huge amount of research that Seifer put into it. But then he throws in a Freudian analysis of Tesla, which made me gag. There is a reason why Freud is no longer used in psychology.

There has to be better biographies of Tesla out there, but I have yet to find one.

[Brok3n · Rating 1 out of 5]

Biography by a cultist who knows no physics

If you take part in Internet discussions that sometimes stray onto science, you have probably run into Tesla cultists. These are people who believe that Nikola Tesla was the greatest genius and greatest scientist of all time. I've always been puzzled by this, as looking at short-form biographies such as can be found in encyclopedias, Tesla didn't accomplish all that much. Oh, yeah, clearly he was a genius and a brilliant inventor and played a big role in radio and in making our current power grid practical. But he wasn't much of a scientist. (The cultists, among whom I count Marc J. Seifer, fail to perceive the distinction between "inventor" and "scientist".) He never accepted the early 20th century physics revolution. He thought relativity was wrong, and as far as I can tell had nothing to say about quantum mechanics. So, I read this biography to better understand where all the Tesla worship comes from.

Well, I guess I know the answer now. But Seifer is the worst possible person to write a Tesla biography, and Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius is a very, very bad biography.

Seifer has two problems. First, as hinted, he is a Tesla cultist. He would dispute this, of course, and I will admit that he is capable of perceiving faults in Tesla. But he is not capable of perceiving that Tesla had any intellectual limitations. Seifer interprets any intellectual controversy in Tesla's life in the manner most flattering to Tesla and least flattering to his opponents. Second, Seifer doesn't understand fundamental physics. His explanation of the physics of Tesla's inventions are full of howlers. For instance, he claims that "the earth itself [is] an integral component in the successful implementation of any wireless system." This would come as a big surprise to the Apollo astronauts who used radios to communicate with each other on the Moon.

In combination these two problems become much worse than the sum of their individual badness. I felt that I could not believe anything Seifer had to say, except quotes from documents, and even then you have to wonder if they're taken out of context.

Part of Tesla's mythology is that he died poor because of how badly he was cheated by others such as Edison and Westinghouse and Morgan. This, I was surprised to find, has been exaggerated. Tesla, as one of his investors said, "tended to spend gold as if it were copper." He also failed to fulfill his contract with Morgan. What's more, towards the end of his life he was financially supported by pensions from former colleagues and the Westinghouse Corporation.

Tesla was a genius inventor and deserves better than this literally unbelievable biography.

Blog review.

[Fred Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

That Tesla was a genius is a given.

This book goes deeper than that and at times he does appear to be a wizard. Highly educated, fluent in 12 languages, and a prolific reader Tesla even when young would not just accept something as fact just because some authority figure told him. If it didn’t make sense he would investigate it with vigour.

That was both a positive and negative attribute as once he got something in his mind to work on he would do so without appropriate rest until he collapsed. He was driven in the true sense of the word.

Seifer’s research for this book must have been intensive as it comprehensive in what is included.
Great mind, Great Book

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tesla is da Vinci reincarnated! I'm certain of it
RTC what an amazing man!
2017 Lenten Buddy Reading Challenge book #20

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

As part of the Westinghouse exhibit at the 1893 Chicago worlds fair, Nicola Tesla produced an instantaneous and deafeningly loud “hands free” orgasm accompanied by a great many Serbian expletives. This orgasm of the future was achieved with the use of an electrically charged metal rod inserted into Tesla’s anus. The crowd of luminaries were rained down upon by a great glut of electrified ejaculate.
A number of ladies were confirmed to have been impregnated.

Ok, I made that up. He did use electric waves to make Mark Twain shit his pants however.

I think Tesla was best summed up by an attorney in one of his many lawsuits: a brilliant but impractical mind.
Tesla was recognized as a genius in his own time but so many of his ideas were decades ahead of their time. He should have been a millionaire many times over, the common belief is that he was bilked out patent rights, royalties and money by friend and foe alike. My impression from this book that this was largely a condition he created himself. When he received money from investors for a specific purpose he would use it for something else. He often left fully funded projects incomplete, asking investors for further funding when he’d stopped working on them to pursue more ambitious projects. All the while underhanded competitors who were infringing on his patents began to surpass him in success if not technical expertise.
Tesla’s great plan was to bring energy to the world wirelessly. One of his most influential investors, rather than being worried he would fail, was worried he would succeed and obstructed his progress.

In later years many of Tesla’s designs, considered pure fancy in his time, began to be realized. It was said that his designs were viable but he didn’t have sufficiently refined materials to work with, no amount of money could have made some of his designs work when they were conceived.
Interestingly when he died (flat broke) the FBI took all of his papers and locked them up. Some of them have still not been released.

A lot of this book deals with the development of electrical technology and the impact it had on the world. Very interesting stuff. The way that technological advances went, what was cheaper, what was more easily monetized and controlled. It makes me wonder what the world would be like if Tesla had more business sense or a partner who could advance his interests while protecting him from himself. If he’d just delivered on the smaller, practical invention he was contracted to build, he would have been wealthy in his own right and able to pursue his other interests.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I endorse this book. If this book were a person, that person would kick Chuck Norris' ass. If this book were edible, your head would explode from the sheer ecstasy. If this book were a sound, your ears would explode--twice. I must warn you, though. If you aren't worthy, then this book will burn your hands upon contact. Only the most devote individuals have ever been known to hold this book and survive, let alone read it.

In other words, this book is awesome.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little on the academic side at times, but Tesla himself is amazing enough to make up for any downsides to this book. The author does a good job of presenting the revolutionary nature of Tesla's inventions to a non-engineering audience, while also investigating the social and political reasons why he is rarely remembered for them today. Certainly better than the incoherent mess that is Margaret Cheney's TESLA: MAN OUT OF TIME.

[Victoria Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

It fascinates me ! 💖

[Michael K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an extraordinarily well documented and researched biography! A phenomenal read and definitely well worth the time for you to read IF you are big into technology, innovation, and biographies. Tesla was, without a doubt, much akin to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates combined in the latter part of the 1800s. Intriguing and heartbreaking, all at the same time.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nikola Tesla was without a doubt a genius when it came to electricity and engineering. Have you ever been in wonder at the electric power produced by Niagara Falls? Well, this was a product of Tesla's insights and work.

The book traces nicely the trajectory of Tesla's career. We learn of his youth and his formative influences. He moved to the United States and began his work inventing devices. Early on, he came up with an electrical system--A.C.--as opposed to Thomas Edison's D.C. The two ended up--at best--as frenemies, and often sniped with one another. The same with Guglielmo Marconi.

When one considers Tesla's discoveries, it is clear that he was a major figure in his field. He gained the support of major figures, such as George Westinghouse. But, with time, he began to deliver less and less, as some of his eccentricities took center stage. At one point, he thought he was receiving signals from Mars. His eccentricity did not work in his favor.

And he liked to live well. But he met with reverses. He created Wardenclyffe, an enormous effort to develop wireless communication that could cover stupefying distances. Because of his poor business model, all was lost.

The book well covers his genius--and his shortcomings and stubbornness.

Want to learn more about a genuine genius? Take a look at this work. It is not always the most elegantly written, but the work is still quite readable. Documentation is solid.

[Jessica Baumgartner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nikola Tesla had abilities beyond that of many people, and though this book tried to present his life from all perspectives it is full of so much information pumped into so many different paragraphs that it becomes tedious. I had to take many breaks before deciding that this book is just a dry, hard read. I can usually push myself through a good book but how can one tell the story of a legend like Tesla in just one book? I'd much rather read the papers that he himself published and form my own idea of the man behind the myth.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as biographies go, this one was a challenging read. Being the inventor of the electric age, this biography was chalked full of technical descriptions of Tesla's inventions including his induction motor, polyphase systems, oscillators, etc, etc. As amazing as these inventions and innovations were, not having an electric or engineering background I often found that I was at a loss as to what exactly these inventions were or did. The same goes for the extensive sections on patents and patent law. Not having a legal background, I was not aware of the importance of patents. Now I know better. It's absolutely ridiculous how often Tesla's patents were violated with no royalties paid to the inventor. I'm looking directly at you Marconi. As a result of his patents alone, Tesla should have died a very, very rich man. Not the pauper that he was at the end of his life.
What I enjoyed most about "Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius" was Tesla's relationships and rivalries with a who's who of historical figures. Especially Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, J.P. Morgan, John Jacob Astor and Guglielmo Marconi.
I also enjoyed the history of the current wars between Thomas Edison and his direct current (DC) and George Westinghouse and his alternating current (AC), the development of wireless technology, radio, X-Rays, remote control, robotics and even death rays (lasers).
Nicola Tesla was a futurist and genius of the highest order. The contribution that he made to the modern world is incalculable.
While this biography can be overly technical at times, I would still recommend it. 4-Stars.

Side note: John Jacob Astor IV "the richest man on the Titanic," attended Harvard University in his youth. His unfortunate nickname? Yes, you guessed it. "Jack Ass."

[Andrew Halterman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very thorough take on Tesla’s life and pioneering work which continues to shape the way we experience everyday life. It is exciting to consider the feeling of seeing his work - such as AC electricity transmission, wireless communication, fluorescent lights and the like - for the first time. Tesla was clearly a visionary and ahead of his time. It was also fascinating to learn how his legacy was intentionally obfuscated to maintain financial interests for individual and corporate competitors. Unfortunately, Tesla may have made this easier as he often lacked the pragmatism, business sense and social awareness needed to succeed in the era of robber barons.

The author of this book chose to be exhaustive rather than entertaining. I’d describe this as a reference book on Tesla’s life - so if you’re doing a high school or college project about Tesla, here’s a source. One criticism is the book is written both thematically and, if possible, chronologically. This approach can be confusing as the same event will be addressed multiple time across chapters (How many times did his lab burn down? I think once but could have been 5… I should have read more carefully.)

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 really...

Wizard is the extremely comprehensive biography of possibly one of the most interesting men to have ever lived, a man so cool they had to get David Bowie to play him – Nikola Tesla.

Before we begin, I should probably make it clear that while I am fascinated by science and the great thinkers that practice it, my mind does not work in that way at all (I only passed my Science GCSE after my mum condensed pretty much the entire syllabus into a series of silly cartoons a few days before my exams) and so the title of this book is made even more appropriate. My only real understanding of electricity being that when I flip a switch, my lights come on (when the bulbs haven't gone), it really may as well be magic as far as I'm concerned.

A genius with a talent for invention as well as for winding up his investors and a great showman whose incredible lightning spewing demonstrations would capture the public imagination before his grandiose pronouncements and appetite for self-publicity saw him later dismissed as something of a crank unable to finish a project, Tesla would invent many of the things we take for granted in the modern world whilst also contributing to many more. He would also be eternally screwed over and in debt, his work credited to and making others rich, his achievements only properly recognised long after his death.

Born in Smiljan in 1856 to a gifted family (particularly his mum, who was forever inventing new household appliances for herself) and possessing a photographic memory, Tesla was already far more accomplished by the time he'd left University than most of us could hope to be in a lifetime, having taken courses in arithmetic and analytical geometry, theoretical and experimental physics, integral calculus, analytical chemistry, mineralogy, machinery construction, botany, wave theory, optics, philosophy and higher maths, and speaking 8 languages. He’d also survived several near death experiences including plunging into boiling milk, drowning under a raft, being swept over waterfall, contracting cholera, and driving himself through overwork into a nervous collapse – something he would continue to do throughout his lifetime as he subsisted on bread and milk, sleeping only a few hours a night and pouring all of his energies into his work.

Moving to the US in 1884 to work for Thomas Edison’s company, Tesla would set out on his own after almost immediately receiving the first of many shaftings at Edison’s hands – being paid just $18 a day to redesign and reassemble much of the company’s equipment after having been promised $50,000. These shaftings would also continue throughout his life, and were as many and varied as his astounding array of inventions (which included an induction motor, electrical power distribution system, fluorescent and neon lights, wireless telecommunication, remote control, robotics and apparently even fricking laser beams) and came at the hands of not just Edison but the likes of Marconi, Westinghouse, Pupin, Steinmetz, JP Morgan and the US Government.

Facing a publicity backlash due to Edison’s dickish publicity campaign in which he electrocuted animals with Tesla’s competing AC system, mired in patent infringements and court battles, and forever toadying up to potential investors (mostly unsuccessfully, thanks to his habit of sending long letters bemoaning his hard luck and full of emotional blackmail, while asking for way more funds having abandoned agreed plans in favour of altogether grander schemes), Tesla would become far more paranoid, bitter and reclusive over time, allowing the weirder aspects of his personality free reign.

Amongst his many peculiarities were: an aversion to women's earrings and touching people’s hair, being sent into fits at the sight of pearls and fevers at the sight of a peach, insisting on living in hotels despite an almost pathological inability to pay his rent, where his mirrors must be draped and no sunlight must enter his room. And despite being a favourite of the ladies (especially of his friend’s wife, Mrs Katherine Johnson), he remained celibate – having eyes only for his work and, well, I’ll let him tell you:

“I have been feeding pigeons, thousands of them for years. But there was one, a beautiful bird, pure white with light grey tips on its wings; that one was different. It was a female. I had only to wish and call her and she would come flying to me. I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. As long as I had her, my life had purpose."

Tesla passed away at the age of 86, having outlived his pigeon, sending various secret agencies into frenzies as they tried to suppress his papers and get their hands on a rumoured death ray machine, Tesla having supposedly left a working model in a hotel basement in lieu of rent.

As a reading experience, due to the staggering amount of information imparted I sometimes struggled with Wizard - especially as much of it was highly technical information. This, coupled with the authors insistence on flying off on tangents and flitting around in time, meant that I often spent entire chunks completely befuddled and bewildered. But I still learned everything I could possibly want to know about one of the most interesting people to have ever lived, so I'm not going to hold too much against it.

And in case you're wondering, I'm firmly on the Tesla side of this rap battle.

Too long, didn't read: Drunk History Volume 6 - Nikola Tesla

**Also posted at Randomly Reading and Ranting**

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough book about the life of Nikola Tesla. I am happy there is this book with much research having gone into his life to get an objective view of what was going on, why possibly he was the kind of person he was, and all the external factors forging his path in life as it did.