The Truth About Tesla is one of the first books to set the record straight, tracing the origin of Tesla's "genius" to scientists and ideas that far predated him.
Tesla Carlson, W. Bernard
2013., 20130507, 2013, 2013-06-30
eBook
Nikola Tesla was a major contributor to the electrical revolution that transformed daily life at the turn of the twentieth century. His inventions, patents, and theoretical work formed the basis of ...modern AC electricity, and contributed to the development of radio and television. Like his competitor Thomas Edison, Tesla was one of America's first celebrity scientists, enjoying the company of New York high society and dazzling the likes of Mark Twain with his electrical demonstrations. An astute self-promoter and gifted showman, he cultivated a public image of the eccentric genius. Even at the end of his life when he was living in poverty, Tesla still attracted reporters to his annual birthday interview, regaling them with claims that he had invented a particle-beam weapon capable of bringing down enemy aircraft.
Plenty of biographies glamorize Tesla and his eccentricities, but until now none has carefully examined what, how, and why he invented. In this groundbreaking book, W. Bernard Carlson demystifies the legendary inventor, placing him within the cultural and technological context of his time, and focusing on his inventions themselves as well as the creation and maintenance of his celebrity. Drawing on original documents from Tesla's private and public life, Carlson shows how he was an "idealist" inventor who sought the perfect experimental realization of a great idea or principle, and who skillfully sold his inventions to the public through mythmaking and illusion.
This major biography sheds new light on Tesla's visionary approach to invention and the business strategies behind his most important technological breakthroughs.
In 1893 Nikola Tesla oversaw the writing and publication of this book that details his pioneer electrical inventions and impressive range of thought at that time. It covers the results of ten full ...years and includes his lectures, miscellaneous articles and discussions, and notes of all his inventions with a particular emphasis on those dealing with polyphase motors and the effects obtained with currents of high potential and high frequency.
"6 In his reply7 dated 28 August, under "Industry" section, Clemens penned a candidate described as "The Wireless Man." Since Nikola Tesla was a vastly dominant figure in that area, it is highly ...likely that he was just the man Clemens had in mind when writing these lines. "48 Getting the correct high-frequency currents with multipole generators49 depended on the regularity of the rotation of certain mechanical parts and it often varied from case to case. ...the operation of his generators was based on the oscillatory, and not the rotational movement of the moving parts. According to her, the first one to visit Tesla was an English journalist called Chauncey McGovern, followed by Samuel Clemens and Joseph Jefferson;55 and the reference in her book implies that the experiment was reported on in McGovern's article published in May 1899.56 However, upon comparing the texts, at least two discrepancies emerge: firstly, O'Neill never mentioned McGovern or Jefferson; and secondly, McGovern's article was published only four years later and didn't contain a single word about Clemens, the mechanical oscillator, or the event. ...his work and further research were halted and the emergence of another momentous discovery prevented.
