Marc Seifer

Tesla is an unusual historical figure, living across cultures, in a period of quick technological transformation, a mix of engineer, scientist and trickster. The biography conveys the whole context and you are drawn into this budding world of inventions and patents which Tesla wove into his being naturally, but never quite fully benefited from. He liked jumping from projects and ideas that could be created quickly to fantastic creations that might affect the whole planet's magnetic field. The personality of the inventor is that of a quirky slightly capricious genius: one that revels in his view of the world even as the actual social mechanics take advantage of him and "steal" his inventions. But the real magical genius of Tesla is about having a picture of how electromagnetism works at an intuitive level, able to bend and twist these dynamics to create new tools. The book conveys the full opportunity and tragedy of the character's life, his desire to ultimately be recognised as the master of E&M, while many see him as a strange magician, a showoff, an antisocial grump.
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nonfiction, famous-persons, inventions, inventors, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, cultural-heritage, 19th-century, 20th-century, 21st-century, visionary, biography*****

Tesla was a genius inventor more than a century ahead of his time who worked on many projects that he wanted to create an atmosphere where there was no more war. He worked on his projects through numerous European wars including The Great War and WW2. His projects include automatons, binary code, mixed radio frequencies, and remote control. Millennials have a smaller sense of wonder about many of his visionary projects because they have no idea how we managed to survive with transistor radios, landlines, no TV or garage door remotes. And some of the information has only been declassified in the last decade. There are many high-profile money people showcased as his backers and even a nod to Hedy Lamarr, the actress/inventor. While the aspect of his naval/military war contributions comprises only a part of the book, I found it more than interesting!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Kensington Books/Citadel via NetGalley. Thank you!… (mehr)

Wizard: Life and Times of Nikola Tesla Audiobook
 
I listened to this in my vehicle over many weeks. I have always been fascinated by Nicola Tesla and also aware that he has been "cultified" to a great extent and that some of his biographies are questionable in terms of veracity.
 
This biography claims to be the most truthful it terms of the author having accessed much of the original material available and not having relied on previous biographers. I guess in this way some of the myths about Mr Tesla get debunked along the way.
 
He did invent wireless as we know it and Marconi's patent was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1943 thereby acknowledging Tesla as the inventor of wireless. Notwithstanding that, I was brought up with the belief that Marconi was the man. Just goes to show that a well repeated lie beats the truth hands down on most days.
 
This biography is nothing if not comprehensive. It pretty much starts at the beginning and ends at the end and in between those points not many stones are left unturned in the attempt to portray this genius. Does it succeed? Well, I'd have to say yes to that. Did I enjoy it? Maybe, it was very long and very repetitive in places and sometimes the format got in the way of the material.
 
But you don't pick up a biography for entertainment so the criteria for review are somewhat different. It is a well researched and put together piece of work. I don't think the author is impartial, I think he is a complete fan of Mr Tesla and has had to temper his enthusiasm in places. I think being a fan of the subject is not a bad thing in a biographer.
 
There were a couple of bits that I struggled with, the author's Freudian analysis of Tesla's celibacy stretched my credibility and patience but I feel curmudgeonly in saying that because that piece of criticism is like saying that there was a speck of dust on the cover. If you want to know more about Nicola Tesla this is the book.
 
He also covers the conspiracy theorists' subject of his "missing papers" and the "death ray".
 
I guess I could list all the things that we owe to Nicola Tesla, like our AC power system that is used globally and say that he didn't just come up with the idea of how to make AC power but he presented all of it complete in one go, the generation, distribuition and deployment. And that in the face of mathematicians with "conclusive" proof that AC electricity was an impossibility. That IBM, when patenting the ideas and technology in their mainframe computer, found that they could not take out some patents because Nicola Tesla had already patented the ideas 50 years earlier.
 
The man was a genius, flawed maybe but a genius nonetheless and this book will illuminate and illustrate that completely.
 
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The biography of Nikola Tesla. I wish someone would tell me why we learn about Thomas Edison in school, but not Nikola Tesla. NOTHING we have in our current society would be possible without the inventions and research this great man did. He is responsible for AC current which powers virtually every home and business in the world. Edison was in business making DC current and fighting a battle with Tesla (which Edison lost, thankfully) to have his vastly inferior form of electricity (because DC voltage and current drop over distance and can't be distributed for more than a few miles from where it is generated, while AC current can go for hundreds of miles). Tesla invented the florescent light (Edison did incandescent). Tesla invented remote control boats and vehicles. Tesla invented the oscillators which are the basis of radio transmission which Marconi pirated illegally and took the credit for (this was proven in court and Tesla was vindicated as the true inventor of radio transmission). These are but the tip of the iceberg. Tesla is without any doubt the greatest inventor in the history of mankind. He was also pretty flakey and had a huge ego and an inability to make sound financial decisions, but that does not take away from the greatness of his intellect and ability to see the potential of things that others had never given any thought to. The book is well written, though be aware that by it's nature, it does deal with science and inventions which the average person may be unaware of. I did not have any problem following most of the content.… (mehr)