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Tesla: Man Out of Time
In this “informative and delightful” ( American Scientist ) biography, Margaret Cheney explores the brilliant and prescient mind of Nikola Tesla, one of the twentieth century’s greatest scientists and inventors.
In Man Out of Time, Margaret Cheney explores the brilliant and prescient mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists and inventors. Called a madman by his enemies, a genius by others, and an enigma by nearly everyone, Nikola Tesla was, without a doubt, a trailblazing inventor who created astonishing, sometimes world-transforming devices that were virtually without theoretical precedent. Tesla not only discovered the rotating magnetic field -- the basis of most alternating-current machinery -- but also introduced us to the fundamentals of robotics, computers, and missile science. Almost supernaturally gifted, unfailingly flamboyant and neurotic, Tesla was troubled by an array of compulsions and phobias and was fond of extravagant, visionary experimentations. He was also a popular man-about-town, admired by men as diverse as Mark Twain and George Westinghouse, and adored by scores of society beauties.
From Tesla's childhood in Yugoslavia to his death in New York in the 1940s, Cheney paints a compelling human portrait and chronicles a lifetime of discoveries that radically altered -- and continue to alter -- the world in which we live. Man Out of Time is an in-depth look at the seminal accomplishments of a scientific wizard and a thoughtful examination of the obsessions and eccentricities of the man behind the science.
In Man Out of Time, Margaret Cheney explores the brilliant and prescient mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists and inventors. Called a madman by his enemies, a genius by others, and an enigma by nearly everyone, Nikola Tesla was, without a doubt, a trailblazing inventor who created astonishing, sometimes world-transforming devices that were virtually without theoretical precedent. Tesla not only discovered the rotating magnetic field -- the basis of most alternating-current machinery -- but also introduced us to the fundamentals of robotics, computers, and missile science. Almost supernaturally gifted, unfailingly flamboyant and neurotic, Tesla was troubled by an array of compulsions and phobias and was fond of extravagant, visionary experimentations. He was also a popular man-about-town, admired by men as diverse as Mark Twain and George Westinghouse, and adored by scores of society beauties.
From Tesla's childhood in Yugoslavia to his death in New York in the 1940s, Cheney paints a compelling human portrait and chronicles a lifetime of discoveries that radically altered -- and continue to alter -- the world in which we live. Man Out of Time is an in-depth look at the seminal accomplishments of a scientific wizard and a thoughtful examination of the obsessions and eccentricities of the man behind the science.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 466 reviews
June 5, 2012
I am a huge fan of Tesla. Whenever someone cannot comprehend how visionaries like Galileo or Copernicus where tormented for being "ahead of their time" all one has to do is look at Tesla's life for an example as to how it can happen. It wasn't until after his death that it was actually proved he was the true inventor of radio.
Unfortunately, Cheney's unbridled love/adoration for Telsa severely mars an otherwise well researched treatise. I've never read a biography where so many sentences begin with "I think..." and "It is obvious...". She doesn't know what Tesla thought/felt any more than his other biographers. And while history continues to find fault with Edison there is no reason to think him an idiot or an unworthy adversary for Tesla.
People seem to forget that Tesla, to his dying day, did not believe in the power of the atom (he was *certain* that nuclear power (from atom smashing) was pointless), that there was no such thing as "curved space", and of course he thought that Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity was total hogwash. Tesla was a bonafide genius but he was not infalible. Throughout his later life he continued to make claims of "completed experiments"/"finished devices" that simply never existed.
I'll probably read Marc Seifer's book as it appears to be less biased.
Unfortunately, Cheney's unbridled love/adoration for Telsa severely mars an otherwise well researched treatise. I've never read a biography where so many sentences begin with "I think..." and "It is obvious...". She doesn't know what Tesla thought/felt any more than his other biographers. And while history continues to find fault with Edison there is no reason to think him an idiot or an unworthy adversary for Tesla.
People seem to forget that Tesla, to his dying day, did not believe in the power of the atom (he was *certain* that nuclear power (from atom smashing) was pointless), that there was no such thing as "curved space", and of course he thought that Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity was total hogwash. Tesla was a bonafide genius but he was not infalible. Throughout his later life he continued to make claims of "completed experiments"/"finished devices" that simply never existed.
I'll probably read Marc Seifer's book as it appears to be less biased.
September 1, 2009
I few years ago I bought a really excellent album by The Handsome Family called "Last Days Of Wonder." One of the best songs on the album, and the song for which the album was named, was about Nikola Tesla. The song described Tesla's oddness, of course, but its true power came from the use of Tesla himself as a metaphor for the way that we used to think about science and scientists.
Of course I wasn't alive at the time, but from various sources I pick up the idea that, from the beginning of the scientific revolution up until around the time Tesla died, scientists and inventors were these extraordinary individuals who were somehow able to make sense out of the world's essential strangeness. At the same time, their discoveries did not seem to destroy the wonder implicit in the strangeness itself.
The song actually does a better job than I can of describing it, but as an example I would cite Newton's Principia. Anyone who has read it can not come away with feeling two simultaneous impressions of awe. One at the incredible motion of the planetary bodies which operate according to some unexplained magic in a very orderly dance. The other at the mind of someone able to so elegantly unlock the secret direction of their movements.
With all that in mind, I picked up this biography of Tesla. I wanted to know if he was really like the song. Ms. Cheney has made an admirable effort to capture the very bizarre nature of Mr. Tesla's life, as well as to capture the strange things, the wonderful things, that he did and that he claimed that he could do. She also does not fail to point out many things that he did that no one, even today, understands.
Those were the positive things about this book. There were some negative aspects, none of which were Ms. Cheney's fault. Mr. Tesla was a private man, a man given to grand pronouncements, and a man, apparently, with somewhat of a deficiency in follow-through. If he did not deserve all the skepticism with which some of his claims were meant, neither did he do enough to prove those who believed his claims correct.
There is no doubt that he was something of a showman. Nothing wrong with that. But even after securing money for various projects, the things he claimed that he would be able to do never materialized. Was it because his claims were false? Was it because he could not stay focused on the one project he was trying to bring to fruition? He demonstrated brilliance early on, then claimed brilliance throughout his life. But how much should we believe?
It was frustrating to keep seeing this pattern in the book. I think, however, that the portrait painted by Ms. Cheney accurately portrays what Tesla was like. To think about him is frustrating. He is an absolute enigma. I finished the book with more questions than I had before I started it. The man is dead. His papers have vanished. The discoveries he made are still being used in the world. The discoveries he claimed to have made, but never shared, would, if true, rock the foundations of what we call modern science. But were any of them true? No one knows. The ghost of Tesla sits stroking his pigeons.
To end with a line from the song: "He couldn't stand the touch of hair or of skin...but stroked feathers gently, on trembling wings."
Of course I wasn't alive at the time, but from various sources I pick up the idea that, from the beginning of the scientific revolution up until around the time Tesla died, scientists and inventors were these extraordinary individuals who were somehow able to make sense out of the world's essential strangeness. At the same time, their discoveries did not seem to destroy the wonder implicit in the strangeness itself.
The song actually does a better job than I can of describing it, but as an example I would cite Newton's Principia. Anyone who has read it can not come away with feeling two simultaneous impressions of awe. One at the incredible motion of the planetary bodies which operate according to some unexplained magic in a very orderly dance. The other at the mind of someone able to so elegantly unlock the secret direction of their movements.
With all that in mind, I picked up this biography of Tesla. I wanted to know if he was really like the song. Ms. Cheney has made an admirable effort to capture the very bizarre nature of Mr. Tesla's life, as well as to capture the strange things, the wonderful things, that he did and that he claimed that he could do. She also does not fail to point out many things that he did that no one, even today, understands.
Those were the positive things about this book. There were some negative aspects, none of which were Ms. Cheney's fault. Mr. Tesla was a private man, a man given to grand pronouncements, and a man, apparently, with somewhat of a deficiency in follow-through. If he did not deserve all the skepticism with which some of his claims were meant, neither did he do enough to prove those who believed his claims correct.
There is no doubt that he was something of a showman. Nothing wrong with that. But even after securing money for various projects, the things he claimed that he would be able to do never materialized. Was it because his claims were false? Was it because he could not stay focused on the one project he was trying to bring to fruition? He demonstrated brilliance early on, then claimed brilliance throughout his life. But how much should we believe?
It was frustrating to keep seeing this pattern in the book. I think, however, that the portrait painted by Ms. Cheney accurately portrays what Tesla was like. To think about him is frustrating. He is an absolute enigma. I finished the book with more questions than I had before I started it. The man is dead. His papers have vanished. The discoveries he made are still being used in the world. The discoveries he claimed to have made, but never shared, would, if true, rock the foundations of what we call modern science. But were any of them true? No one knows. The ghost of Tesla sits stroking his pigeons.
To end with a line from the song: "He couldn't stand the touch of hair or of skin...but stroked feathers gently, on trembling wings."
April 19, 2013
After slogging through over 300 pages of this, I checked the weather forecast yesterday and found it was nice enough to ride my bike to work. "Good," I thought, "I won't have to read that Tesla book on the streetcar this afternoon." Upon thinking this, and realizing how little I was enjoying this book, I returned it to the library unfinished this morning.
The author perhaps tries her best to provide a critical viewpoint of Tesla's life, but it comes across more as a very long fan letter. There are several phrases in the book gushing about pseudo-science (like acupuncture, perpetual motion machines, and so on) which led me to question the veracity of most other statements. It's not a fun way to read a book, being skeptical of every statement the author makes, sometimes forcing yourself to pretend you believe her just so you can get through the page.
Besides some of the questionable claims (though admittedly I did no independent research... I just didn't care enough), the book is boring. With chapter-long reprinted conversations (written or recalled) between Tesla and his rich friends or frustrated investors, I felt like I had stepped into the middle of a dinner party I had no business being in, no interest in, and every desire to get out now.
I honestly thought I would find Tesla fascinating, but he was just a smart man who invented a bunch of things and didn't know how to commercialize them (or was struck by another idea and moved on before he could), and so spent much of his life feeling like the underdog whose ideas were stolen right out from under him.
The author perhaps tries her best to provide a critical viewpoint of Tesla's life, but it comes across more as a very long fan letter. There are several phrases in the book gushing about pseudo-science (like acupuncture, perpetual motion machines, and so on) which led me to question the veracity of most other statements. It's not a fun way to read a book, being skeptical of every statement the author makes, sometimes forcing yourself to pretend you believe her just so you can get through the page.
Besides some of the questionable claims (though admittedly I did no independent research... I just didn't care enough), the book is boring. With chapter-long reprinted conversations (written or recalled) between Tesla and his rich friends or frustrated investors, I felt like I had stepped into the middle of a dinner party I had no business being in, no interest in, and every desire to get out now.
I honestly thought I would find Tesla fascinating, but he was just a smart man who invented a bunch of things and didn't know how to commercialize them (or was struck by another idea and moved on before he could), and so spent much of his life feeling like the underdog whose ideas were stolen right out from under him.
November 13, 2019
A solid biography of Nikola Tesla. Cheney’s book filled in many details I didn’t know about Tesla, such as how he lived much of his adult life in New York City hotel rooms and his friendship with the poet Robert Underwood Johnson and his wife Katharine. Cheney also discusses Tesla’s love of Serbian poetry. I’ve long been fascinated by his brief foray to Colorado Springs where he conducted large-scale experiments he couldn’t conduct in the city and she gives good information about that time period. Overall, I found this a compelling and breezy read.
August 3, 2019
Prva biografija o Tesli koju sam pročitao. Autorica umjesto da pokuša razjasniti ili demistificirati dosta stvari vezano za život Nikole Tesle, dodatno mistificira samog znanstvenika.
Tesla je bio i pjesnik, koji je prevodio pjesme svojih omiljenih pjesnika sa naših područja,a volio je i društvo pisaca i pjesnika.
"The soul wears out the body", rekao je Napoleon, a misao savršeno odgovara stilu života koji je vodio Tesla. U mladosti nekoliko puta na rubu smrti, u djetinjstvu obiteljska tragedija i pogibija starijeg brata u nerazjašnjenim okolnostima, njegova veza sa majkom, povezanost sa mističnim, definitivno su utjecali na osamljenički i u nekim periodima mučan život ovog znanstvenika. Vrhunac znanstvenog uspjeha dostiže krajem 19. i početkom 20.tog stoljeća. Kasnije njegovi poslovni uspjesi su u padu, borba oko dugova, nemilosrdna konkurencija. Tesla je bio vizionar,sanjar,pjesnik koji je maštao za cijelo čovječanstvo, a praktični i lukavi ljudi su iskorištavali njegove ideje radi vlastitih interesa. Može se reći da je bio i megaloman, ali i kontroverzna ličnost. Tesla je bio tip svestranog znanstvenika koji je radio na mnogo polja i ima zasluge za dosta izuma (izmjenična struja, radio, robotika), ali sa specijalizacijom znanstvenih područja takav tip znanstvenika se teško nosio sa konkurencijom tj.nije mogao pratiti takav tempo. Zanimljiva je herojska upornost Tesle u propovijedanju vlastitih ideja, i kad je bio u velikim dugovima i nevoljama. Neumoran i odvažan do kraja.
Tesla je bio i pjesnik, koji je prevodio pjesme svojih omiljenih pjesnika sa naših područja,a volio je i društvo pisaca i pjesnika.
"The soul wears out the body", rekao je Napoleon, a misao savršeno odgovara stilu života koji je vodio Tesla. U mladosti nekoliko puta na rubu smrti, u djetinjstvu obiteljska tragedija i pogibija starijeg brata u nerazjašnjenim okolnostima, njegova veza sa majkom, povezanost sa mističnim, definitivno su utjecali na osamljenički i u nekim periodima mučan život ovog znanstvenika. Vrhunac znanstvenog uspjeha dostiže krajem 19. i početkom 20.tog stoljeća. Kasnije njegovi poslovni uspjesi su u padu, borba oko dugova, nemilosrdna konkurencija. Tesla je bio vizionar,sanjar,pjesnik koji je maštao za cijelo čovječanstvo, a praktični i lukavi ljudi su iskorištavali njegove ideje radi vlastitih interesa. Može se reći da je bio i megaloman, ali i kontroverzna ličnost. Tesla je bio tip svestranog znanstvenika koji je radio na mnogo polja i ima zasluge za dosta izuma (izmjenična struja, radio, robotika), ali sa specijalizacijom znanstvenih područja takav tip znanstvenika se teško nosio sa konkurencijom tj.nije mogao pratiti takav tempo. Zanimljiva je herojska upornost Tesle u propovijedanju vlastitih ideja, i kad je bio u velikim dugovima i nevoljama. Neumoran i odvažan do kraja.
February 9, 2010
I think Tesla may be one of the most brilliant and unique minds that this country has ever seen. I have been fascinated with Tesla ever since I heard about Tesla coils (which are devices that make artificial lightening). He is probably the greatest inventor of last century; Edison was simply a technician and a businessman, but Tesla was a visionary who foresaw a new, electrified world. He developed the system by which we generate most of our electricity, built the hydropower plant at Niagara Falls, invented radio and remote control, and may very well have split the atom at the turn of the century. Mainstream science is STILL investigating some of his most prescient theories. My only problem with this book is that I would have liked it to explain the science a bit better; I am not an electrical engineer, and do not understand the the finer points of electricity. The author breezes over very complicated concepts, and it was frustrating; I really wanted to understand some of the things that Tesla was doing, and Cheney sometimes doesn't even give us the broad strokes. I was also extremely annoyed when, for a few pages, she delved into some ridiculous Freudian theory to explain Tesla's obsessive compulsive disorder. Given the flaws, though, it's still a very good biography, and the only one that is at all recent, so I would recommend it to anyone with the faintest interest in science, just because the subject is so mesmerizing.
June 17, 2012
While Nikola Tesla is an interesting man, this book did not live up to the man's genius. First off, the writing is not very good, it feels very haphazard and lacking in forethought. This sometimes reads like a list of accomplishments, Nikola Tesla did this, invented that, came up with this idea and so on. Secondly, this biography totally glorifies the man without ever viewing him in a critical way or with a critical approach. The main feeling I got from this book is that Tesla had a lot of ideas, some good, some brilliant, some not all that great or interesting. All those ideas were not experimented with, for lack of financing or impossibility to test them because the equipment available at the time was not sufficiently advanced. And the book seems to read a lot into those non-tested ideas. In some cases Tesla just came up with peremptory statements and predictions, stating that he could do certain things without ever having proof that he could. And from there the author goes on to say that something that was invented decades later was actually what Tesla had in mind all this time. This is a bit like Nostradamus, be vague & mysterious enough and your statements can be interpreted according to what the future happens to be.
September 24, 2015
"Dok sam tamo ležao bespomoćno", pisao je u svojim autobiografskim prisećanjima, "mislio sam na to da će mi majka, ako umre dok sam udaljen od njene postelje, sigurno dati neki znak... Ja (sam bio) u Londonu u društvu moga prijatelja ser Vilijema Kruksa kada se raspravljalo o spiritizmu, i bio sam potpuno u tim razmišljanjima... Mislio sam da su uslovi da se pogleda u onostrano sasvim povoljni, jer moja je majka bila genijalna žena krajnje obdarena intuitivnim moćima."
Tokom te noći um mu je napeto iščekivao, no ništa se nije dogodilo sve do ranog jutra. U lakom snu ili "nesvestici", veli, video je "oblak koji je nosio anđeoske figure čudesne lepote, od kojih je jedna stalno gledala u mene i postepeno poprimala oblik moje majke. Prikaza je polako plovila duž sobe i nestala, a mene je probudila neopisivo lepa pesma u mnogo glasova. To je bila trenutna spoznaja, koju reči ne mogu opisati, da mi je majka upravo umrla. To je bila istina..."
Od svih odlomaka iz knjige ovaj mi se učinio najverodostojnijim. Svaki put kada ga pročitam obuzme me jeza.
Koga interesuje život i delo Nikole Tesle, ovo je prava knjiga za njega.
Studiozno, dokumentovano, znalački, ozbiljno, prvoklasno.
Šta više reći.
Tokom te noći um mu je napeto iščekivao, no ništa se nije dogodilo sve do ranog jutra. U lakom snu ili "nesvestici", veli, video je "oblak koji je nosio anđeoske figure čudesne lepote, od kojih je jedna stalno gledala u mene i postepeno poprimala oblik moje majke. Prikaza je polako plovila duž sobe i nestala, a mene je probudila neopisivo lepa pesma u mnogo glasova. To je bila trenutna spoznaja, koju reči ne mogu opisati, da mi je majka upravo umrla. To je bila istina..."
Od svih odlomaka iz knjige ovaj mi se učinio najverodostojnijim. Svaki put kada ga pročitam obuzme me jeza.
Koga interesuje život i delo Nikole Tesle, ovo je prava knjiga za njega.
Studiozno, dokumentovano, znalački, ozbiljno, prvoklasno.
Šta više reći.
March 29, 2021
Bırakın gerçeği gelecek söylesin, herkesi işlerine ve başarılarına göre değerlendirsin. Bugün onların ; uğrunda gerçekten çok çalıştığım gelecek ise benimdir. Sayfalarda gezerken icatlarıyla dünyayı değiştirmiş bir dâhinin hayatını okurken, aslında tüm mekanik dehasını sakat bir güvercini tekrar uçurmak için kullanan naif bir insanla da tanışacaksınız.
February 15, 2019
This book has by far, the most information on Tesla. The amount of detail is phenomenal and her ability to refrain from passing judgement on the main characters shows a strong restraint. ( you’ll understand if you read the book*) She includes just enough history to really give you a sense of time. I actually learned several things about history that I had never known before.
If you are interested in reading about a genius, a man who, in the 1890’s, talked about “ a small machine everyone will carry in their pockets that will immediately connect them to information all over the world” ; be prepared to have your mind blown.
Unfortunately even electricity, radar and radio were a hard sell; no one knew what they were good for. The short sightedness of average minds can be heart wrenching. M
An unforgettable read.
I noticed that some people gave this book 1 and 2 stars.
I’d like to refute some of their complaints against it.
People said that the author had Tesla on a pedestal. That she could not be relied upon to give an accurate account of his sometimes questionable behavior.
I did not find this to be the case. The author was clear in what Tesla said he was working on vs what he actually demonstrated. As I read the book, I saw a brilliant man. By the middle of the book he was a man making more and more puzzling and questionable decisions. By the end he was either nutty as a fruitcake or outright lying. The author presents facts and lets the reader sort it all out.
People said she did not address negative things about Tesla, like his lack of belief in atomic power and his disagreeing with Einstein. The author DOES cover this.
People say the book is dry. It’s a bit of a tough read; it’s very full of facts; but I would NOT call this book dry.
* the author was nonjudgmental in her descriptions of various people and their attempts to sabotage Tesla and his work.
If you are interested in reading about a genius, a man who, in the 1890’s, talked about “ a small machine everyone will carry in their pockets that will immediately connect them to information all over the world” ; be prepared to have your mind blown.
Unfortunately even electricity, radar and radio were a hard sell; no one knew what they were good for. The short sightedness of average minds can be heart wrenching. M
An unforgettable read.
I noticed that some people gave this book 1 and 2 stars.
I’d like to refute some of their complaints against it.
People said that the author had Tesla on a pedestal. That she could not be relied upon to give an accurate account of his sometimes questionable behavior.
I did not find this to be the case. The author was clear in what Tesla said he was working on vs what he actually demonstrated. As I read the book, I saw a brilliant man. By the middle of the book he was a man making more and more puzzling and questionable decisions. By the end he was either nutty as a fruitcake or outright lying. The author presents facts and lets the reader sort it all out.
People said she did not address negative things about Tesla, like his lack of belief in atomic power and his disagreeing with Einstein. The author DOES cover this.
People say the book is dry. It’s a bit of a tough read; it’s very full of facts; but I would NOT call this book dry.
* the author was nonjudgmental in her descriptions of various people and their attempts to sabotage Tesla and his work.
March 18, 2020
Gelmiş geçmiş en büyük mucit olarak gördüğüm Nikola Tesla'yı en ayrıntılı olarak anlatan kitap Tesla'yı çocukluğundan beri anlatırken okuduktan sonra gerçekten Tesla'nın gerçekten Anlaşılamamış Dahi olup günümüzün ilerisinde bir zekaya sahip olduğunu anlıyorsunuz. İlk olarak 1981 yılında yayınlanan kitapta tek sıkıntı genel olarak Tesla'ya ve yaşadıklarına odaklanılırken icatlarına o kadar yer verilmemesidir.
Bilmediğimiz icatlarından da bahsedilen kitapta en beğendiğim kısım San Fransisco'da uzay ile bağlantı kuracak derecede radyo dalga belirtisi alması olurken en canımı sıkan kısım daha önceden de bildiğimiz araştırmalarının öldükten sonra kaybolması.
Bilmediğimiz icatlarından da bahsedilen kitapta en beğendiğim kısım San Fransisco'da uzay ile bağlantı kuracak derecede radyo dalga belirtisi alması olurken en canımı sıkan kısım daha önceden de bildiğimiz araştırmalarının öldükten sonra kaybolması.
January 22, 2016
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) truly was a man ahead of his time. He was born into an era when the materials that would prove his designs had yet to be invented. Even the words needed to convey his ideas had not been coined. Many of his designs are still classified seventy-three years after his death.
Tesla was a magician who held people spellbound while conjuring up his amazing discoveries. Margaret Cheney was clearly in his thrall, evidenced by her resolute championship of Tesla against Edison. The awe of the man in the street on seeing the lights in Chicago in 1893 must have been akin to my awe when I hear a voice – controlled by an object miles above my head – tell me to turn left in one quarter of a mile. (How do they DO that?) Tesla’s inventions include (but are not limited to) the alternating current system of electricity, cryogenic engineering, early radar, and the remote control of vehicles and missiles.
In 1981 when this biography was first published, Tesla’s claim that wireless transmission of power was possible over long distances had yet to be validated. Has he been proved right yet? I would have thought so. How else could Voyager 1 have traveled those billions of miles into intergalactic space? Or the rovers been guided from Earth to Mars to land in the precise areas designated by our scientists?
Flamboyant and charismatic, ever a showman when in the public eye, Tesla was the opposite where his work was concerned. He worked virtually alone, with one or two trusted assistants who remained his lifelong friends. Although acclaimed for the discovery of the rotating magnetic field, and in spite of the staunch support of George Westinghouse, he never received his just deserts and much of his later life was spent seeking funding for his inventions. He died alone and impoverished in an unpaid hotel room.
If ever a man deserved a Nobel Prize, that man was Tesla, but although nominated for one, the prize went instead to Professor W.H. Bragg and his son. Recognition came posthumously when the International Electrotechnical Commission in Munich made his name an international scientific unit. One tesla (symbol T) is the SI-derived unit of magnetic flux density.
I think it fitting that Elon Musk, another young man who is ahead of his time, is keeping Tesla’s name alive while carrying out his own far-reaching, futuristic ideas. If only Elon and Nikola could have been alive at the same time. Who knows what they could have dreamed up between them.
Tesla was a magician who held people spellbound while conjuring up his amazing discoveries. Margaret Cheney was clearly in his thrall, evidenced by her resolute championship of Tesla against Edison. The awe of the man in the street on seeing the lights in Chicago in 1893 must have been akin to my awe when I hear a voice – controlled by an object miles above my head – tell me to turn left in one quarter of a mile. (How do they DO that?) Tesla’s inventions include (but are not limited to) the alternating current system of electricity, cryogenic engineering, early radar, and the remote control of vehicles and missiles.
In 1981 when this biography was first published, Tesla’s claim that wireless transmission of power was possible over long distances had yet to be validated. Has he been proved right yet? I would have thought so. How else could Voyager 1 have traveled those billions of miles into intergalactic space? Or the rovers been guided from Earth to Mars to land in the precise areas designated by our scientists?
Flamboyant and charismatic, ever a showman when in the public eye, Tesla was the opposite where his work was concerned. He worked virtually alone, with one or two trusted assistants who remained his lifelong friends. Although acclaimed for the discovery of the rotating magnetic field, and in spite of the staunch support of George Westinghouse, he never received his just deserts and much of his later life was spent seeking funding for his inventions. He died alone and impoverished in an unpaid hotel room.
If ever a man deserved a Nobel Prize, that man was Tesla, but although nominated for one, the prize went instead to Professor W.H. Bragg and his son. Recognition came posthumously when the International Electrotechnical Commission in Munich made his name an international scientific unit. One tesla (symbol T) is the SI-derived unit of magnetic flux density.
I think it fitting that Elon Musk, another young man who is ahead of his time, is keeping Tesla’s name alive while carrying out his own far-reaching, futuristic ideas. If only Elon and Nikola could have been alive at the same time. Who knows what they could have dreamed up between them.
May 24, 2007
An excellent biography of a visionary, eccentric man given to strange obsessions and scientific genius. Well written, well researched, and well worth your time.
Briefly for flavor:
People speak of decades as if they form natural endings, when in fact they seldom end anything cleanly. Human survivors are dragged into new slices of time with which they feel no harmony and in which they are exposed to rasping change. So it was for Tesla in the Roaring Twenties. [p 275].
Briefly for flavor:
People speak of decades as if they form natural endings, when in fact they seldom end anything cleanly. Human survivors are dragged into new slices of time with which they feel no harmony and in which they are exposed to rasping change. So it was for Tesla in the Roaring Twenties. [p 275].
August 29, 2012
Tesla was a misunderstood and eccentric genius who was far ahead of his time, and this book did an admirable job in portraying the man and his work. It held my interest throughout; highly recommended.
October 1, 2018
Rekoh već da volim biografije...o Teslinom liku i delu sam vrlo malo znala i upravo zato uzeh ovo štivo. Družili smo se svaki dan na plaži :) i zajedno dočekali ledeni početak jeseni.
Dobra je knjižica, nije naporna...za moje pojmove možda i previše detaljna...no dobro...reč je o životu pronalazača a ne modne blogerke :D
Od izuma i patenata me svakako više zaintrigirala Nikolina privatna, introvertna crta.
Verovatno ću zbog toga biti pristrasna i dati četvorku :)
Dobra je knjižica, nije naporna...za moje pojmove možda i previše detaljna...no dobro...reč je o životu pronalazača a ne modne blogerke :D
Od izuma i patenata me svakako više zaintrigirala Nikolina privatna, introvertna crta.
Verovatno ću zbog toga biti pristrasna i dati četvorku :)
July 3, 2015
Originally posted here: http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/06/...
Nikola Tesla is one of those historical figures who seems to have been born to play a mad scientist. Besides his well-known cameo appearance in The Prestige by Christopher Priest, he has appeared in countless steampunk works, such as the Five Fists of Science and War of the Worlds: Goliath. He was a scientist, an inventor, a visionary and on top of all that he was just enough on the wrong side of the thin line between genius and insanity to make him interesting. My beautiful and wonderful wife, knowing how much I admired the Serbian pioneer, picked up Tesla: Man Out of Time by Margaret Cheney as a gift, which I was happy to sit down and read almost immediately. No, its not fiction, but Tesla was an inspiration to many early science fiction writers, like Hugo Gernsback (founder of Amazing Stories*) that I think everyone who calls themselves a “geek” or “nerd” should learn about Telsa to gain a better understanding of their favorite genre..
So Tesla: Man Out of Time is a pretty straight forward biography. We learn about Tesla’s early life growing up among the Serbian minority of Croatia, immigrating to America for work. his battles with Edison over AC/DC and his research into such fields as radio, radar and lasers. We also learn about Tesla the man and how he became more neurotic with age, his growing (and bizarre) fascination with pigeons and how his poor business decisions coupled with an extravagant lifestyle also led him to him almost dying in poverty. Surprisingly, Tesla’s visions of the future were far more intriguing than his practical inventions. For example, he constantly sought funding to create a wireless network that he predicted would allow people all over the globe to access information with devices they could easily fit in their pockets. Hmm, doesn’t that sound familiar?
The subtitle of Cheney’s book is “Man Out of Time” and that is a major theme of the biography. Cheney presents Tesla as someone who never fit into the time period he belonged to. He was at heart a Victorian and thus had trouble accepting the increasing independence of women or that atomic energy was a worthwhile theory of study. Yet many of his theories would not be proven to be correct or else at least confirm he was on the right path until the late 20th century or early 21st century when technology caught up enough to finally be able to test him. Whether Tesla would enjoy our present day remains to be seen. On social issues he may find our world hard to accept as he held anti-Semitic views and was sympathetic to fascism, which was rather disappointing to learn.
I thought Cheney did a good job overall in presenting this information. From her perspective it was difficult to write a biography on Tesla since the scientist rarely wrote anything down and embellished many of his ideas and discoveries. Much of what he did write down was sent back to Yugoslavia near the end of his life and those became lost to the West after the Cold War began. On top of that, there is alleged tampering by the United States government with Tesla’s files supposedly while searching for confirmation of Tesla’s “death ray” and misconceptions created by admirers who saw Tesla as some sort of divine figure or else a Venusian in disguise. Personally I though Cheney took some of these bizarre claims about Tesla a little too seriously (including one where he may or may not have confirmed the existence of ghosts) that I began to wonder whether the author believed it herself.
From a technical point of view Tesla: Man Out of Time was well written although the author often jumped around so much on a page it was like watching an episode of Family Guy. Chapter 1, however, is not written in this style. Instead it is written as a third person narrative featuring a sort of day in the life of Tesla as gets dinner and shows off his new inventions to friends, such as Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain. Honestly I really enjoyed this chapter and almost wished the whole book was written like this. A historical fiction of Tesla’s life would be something I would pay money to read.
Then there was Cheney’s choice to refer to science fiction writers, like the aforementioned Hugo, as “science writers”. It is an odd choice of words in my opinion. The term “science fiction” was first used in 1851, which predates the birth of Tesla, and the term was used at the time Cheney published her book in 1981. So why not use it? Was it because serious authors looked down so much on “sci-fi” they couldn’t even write it down? Admittedly this is sort of a nitpick, but one that was still a head scratcher for me.
So is Tesla: Man Out of Time worth reading? Sure, I finished it and learned a lot of interesting stuff about Nikola Tesla. Notwithstanding Cheney’s non-sequitur writing style and odd choice words, I think I can recommend it. That being said, with such an increased interest in the works of Tesla in the 21st century, you may want to take a look at some more recent books on Tesla’s life.
Nikola Tesla is one of those historical figures who seems to have been born to play a mad scientist. Besides his well-known cameo appearance in The Prestige by Christopher Priest, he has appeared in countless steampunk works, such as the Five Fists of Science and War of the Worlds: Goliath. He was a scientist, an inventor, a visionary and on top of all that he was just enough on the wrong side of the thin line between genius and insanity to make him interesting. My beautiful and wonderful wife, knowing how much I admired the Serbian pioneer, picked up Tesla: Man Out of Time by Margaret Cheney as a gift, which I was happy to sit down and read almost immediately. No, its not fiction, but Tesla was an inspiration to many early science fiction writers, like Hugo Gernsback (founder of Amazing Stories*) that I think everyone who calls themselves a “geek” or “nerd” should learn about Telsa to gain a better understanding of their favorite genre..
So Tesla: Man Out of Time is a pretty straight forward biography. We learn about Tesla’s early life growing up among the Serbian minority of Croatia, immigrating to America for work. his battles with Edison over AC/DC and his research into such fields as radio, radar and lasers. We also learn about Tesla the man and how he became more neurotic with age, his growing (and bizarre) fascination with pigeons and how his poor business decisions coupled with an extravagant lifestyle also led him to him almost dying in poverty. Surprisingly, Tesla’s visions of the future were far more intriguing than his practical inventions. For example, he constantly sought funding to create a wireless network that he predicted would allow people all over the globe to access information with devices they could easily fit in their pockets. Hmm, doesn’t that sound familiar?
The subtitle of Cheney’s book is “Man Out of Time” and that is a major theme of the biography. Cheney presents Tesla as someone who never fit into the time period he belonged to. He was at heart a Victorian and thus had trouble accepting the increasing independence of women or that atomic energy was a worthwhile theory of study. Yet many of his theories would not be proven to be correct or else at least confirm he was on the right path until the late 20th century or early 21st century when technology caught up enough to finally be able to test him. Whether Tesla would enjoy our present day remains to be seen. On social issues he may find our world hard to accept as he held anti-Semitic views and was sympathetic to fascism, which was rather disappointing to learn.
I thought Cheney did a good job overall in presenting this information. From her perspective it was difficult to write a biography on Tesla since the scientist rarely wrote anything down and embellished many of his ideas and discoveries. Much of what he did write down was sent back to Yugoslavia near the end of his life and those became lost to the West after the Cold War began. On top of that, there is alleged tampering by the United States government with Tesla’s files supposedly while searching for confirmation of Tesla’s “death ray” and misconceptions created by admirers who saw Tesla as some sort of divine figure or else a Venusian in disguise. Personally I though Cheney took some of these bizarre claims about Tesla a little too seriously (including one where he may or may not have confirmed the existence of ghosts) that I began to wonder whether the author believed it herself.
From a technical point of view Tesla: Man Out of Time was well written although the author often jumped around so much on a page it was like watching an episode of Family Guy. Chapter 1, however, is not written in this style. Instead it is written as a third person narrative featuring a sort of day in the life of Tesla as gets dinner and shows off his new inventions to friends, such as Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain. Honestly I really enjoyed this chapter and almost wished the whole book was written like this. A historical fiction of Tesla’s life would be something I would pay money to read.
Then there was Cheney’s choice to refer to science fiction writers, like the aforementioned Hugo, as “science writers”. It is an odd choice of words in my opinion. The term “science fiction” was first used in 1851, which predates the birth of Tesla, and the term was used at the time Cheney published her book in 1981. So why not use it? Was it because serious authors looked down so much on “sci-fi” they couldn’t even write it down? Admittedly this is sort of a nitpick, but one that was still a head scratcher for me.
So is Tesla: Man Out of Time worth reading? Sure, I finished it and learned a lot of interesting stuff about Nikola Tesla. Notwithstanding Cheney’s non-sequitur writing style and odd choice words, I think I can recommend it. That being said, with such an increased interest in the works of Tesla in the 21st century, you may want to take a look at some more recent books on Tesla’s life.
September 23, 2019
Choosing a biography about nikola Tesla I came in with high expectations. Here was an individual whose intelligence and ingenuity are common knowledge but whose inner motivations and personality are obscured by the shroud of mysticism that is placed upon his genius. Despite Tesla being someone whose achievements have been the motivation and namesake for generations of engineers and Silicon Valley startups Tesla is rarely looked at as an individual. It was, therefore, the hope of better understanding both the genius and the man who was Nikola Tesla that led me to Margaret Cheney’s telling of his life.
I can gratefully say that Tesla: Man Out of Time provides a rounded and in depth look at Tesla’s personality and his inventions worthy of a four star review. She skillfully analyzes the writings and testimonies of Tesla’s era without bias to paint the clearest picture of the inventor’s life. Cheney describes the functions and mechanisms of Tesla’s many patents and inventions from primary sources including the creators own writings and lectures, managing still to keep the descriptions accessible to her audience and free from most incredibly complex and unreadable jargon. This clear and unbiased writing makes Tesla: Man out of Time a great choice of reading for anyone who is interested in learning about the Inventor, even those who don't share the same level of technical expertise as the individuals whose careers he has inspired.
The use of primary sources in an unbiased manner have also allowed Cheney to shed light on the personal irregularities of Tesla’s character; from his seemingly endless string of obsessive impulses that led him to calculate the total volume of any meal he ate to the lengths he took to distance himself from any attempts at affinity. Cheney also describes the often overlooked downturn in Tesla's later life, how as the aging inventor became increasingly senile he began putting out less and less innovative ideas. Coinciding with this lack in output was another impact of Tesla’s senility, it was at this time in his life that he began making increasingly bold claims about his work and the projects he was working on. This period culminated in the incident that Cheney describes in which the inventor told a large crowd that he had been working in secret on a death ray and a small machine capable of creating earthquakes that could topple skyscrapers, despite producing no evidence that he had developed either of these devices, nor any of the others he would claim to create in his later life. These countless claims that would continue to go unsubstantiated after Tesla’s death remain some of the biggest mysteries surrounding the intrepid inventor. The questions of the reality, either physical or theoretical, for such devices continue to plague his legacy.
Unfortunately Cheney’s objective writing style leaves out any sort of connected overarching theme or narrative, even leading most opinions on the inventor to the audience themselves. But for an inventor whose patents were for decades wrongly attributed to others and whose genius had been glorified at the expense of his humanity a purely neutral writing was the best way to illustrate the life of the old inventor.
I can gratefully say that Tesla: Man Out of Time provides a rounded and in depth look at Tesla’s personality and his inventions worthy of a four star review. She skillfully analyzes the writings and testimonies of Tesla’s era without bias to paint the clearest picture of the inventor’s life. Cheney describes the functions and mechanisms of Tesla’s many patents and inventions from primary sources including the creators own writings and lectures, managing still to keep the descriptions accessible to her audience and free from most incredibly complex and unreadable jargon. This clear and unbiased writing makes Tesla: Man out of Time a great choice of reading for anyone who is interested in learning about the Inventor, even those who don't share the same level of technical expertise as the individuals whose careers he has inspired.
The use of primary sources in an unbiased manner have also allowed Cheney to shed light on the personal irregularities of Tesla’s character; from his seemingly endless string of obsessive impulses that led him to calculate the total volume of any meal he ate to the lengths he took to distance himself from any attempts at affinity. Cheney also describes the often overlooked downturn in Tesla's later life, how as the aging inventor became increasingly senile he began putting out less and less innovative ideas. Coinciding with this lack in output was another impact of Tesla’s senility, it was at this time in his life that he began making increasingly bold claims about his work and the projects he was working on. This period culminated in the incident that Cheney describes in which the inventor told a large crowd that he had been working in secret on a death ray and a small machine capable of creating earthquakes that could topple skyscrapers, despite producing no evidence that he had developed either of these devices, nor any of the others he would claim to create in his later life. These countless claims that would continue to go unsubstantiated after Tesla’s death remain some of the biggest mysteries surrounding the intrepid inventor. The questions of the reality, either physical or theoretical, for such devices continue to plague his legacy.
Unfortunately Cheney’s objective writing style leaves out any sort of connected overarching theme or narrative, even leading most opinions on the inventor to the audience themselves. But for an inventor whose patents were for decades wrongly attributed to others and whose genius had been glorified at the expense of his humanity a purely neutral writing was the best way to illustrate the life of the old inventor.
September 24, 2022
Just like the fascination of the local people of Colorado Springs during his exciting, for-frontal, and top-secret experiments in the late 1890s, I simply couldn't put down this book, nor could I skim through as much as I tried. Each page strengthened my deep interest in this man.
It gave me insight into the story behind the infamous events in his life; his presentations at Columbia College, the AC-DC war with Thomas Edison, The 1983 World's Fair at Chicago, the pioneering development to use Niagara Falls as a hydroelectric power plant to provide energy to a whole city, and much more. Margaret Cheney provides a detailed, empathetic, and transparent view over Tesla's life covering his personal life, his inventions, his financial feuds and dealings, his aspirations, as well as his personality itself.
As you read the book you very quickly understand why Cheney titled the book 'Man out of time'. It's incredible to think the impact Tesla would have made to the world if he was given more time on this planet, let alone the impact he had already made in his short life.
What a character he was - a germaphobe, isolated, single, constantly had nightmares and vivid dreams, had photographic memory (supposedly a gift and curse), very direct to the point and yet, a gentleman, a grand entertainer and lecturer, known as a "wizard". He would explain his inventions and their abilities with such magnificence in a dream-like and ethereal way that makes you wonder with fascination the infinite potential of science. His explanations would supposedly not only be easy to understand, but would also be enjoyable for the audience.
I myself very much enjoyed reading through the chapters that covered aspects like this, an almost 'behind the scene' look at how he was different to other inventors at the time and how he personally prepared himself for the daily, in many cases, deadly, challenge.
Aside from the man himself, how great it is the read and imagine a time of such creation and change. The late 19th century was a period to truly marvel at. Tesla, on multiple occasions had interactions with the likes of J.P Morgan, George Westinghouse, Lord Rayleigh, Lord Kelvin, Marconi, Mary Curie, Sir Ian Bell, John Bardeen, Micheal Pupin, Andrew Carnegie, and of course, Thomas Edison. What a time. The modern age of the technological world was literally being created by these people, and Nikola Tesla was most definitely among them.
Everyone should be more well-read about Nikola Tesla - he, in contrast to other scientists who laid the foundations of their fields through their inventions and experiments, I believe, isn't as appreciated, respected, or learned about today. The full scope of what he provided to the world and the sacrifices he made to achieve them needs to be better understood in our current education system, in my opinion.
It gave me insight into the story behind the infamous events in his life; his presentations at Columbia College, the AC-DC war with Thomas Edison, The 1983 World's Fair at Chicago, the pioneering development to use Niagara Falls as a hydroelectric power plant to provide energy to a whole city, and much more. Margaret Cheney provides a detailed, empathetic, and transparent view over Tesla's life covering his personal life, his inventions, his financial feuds and dealings, his aspirations, as well as his personality itself.
As you read the book you very quickly understand why Cheney titled the book 'Man out of time'. It's incredible to think the impact Tesla would have made to the world if he was given more time on this planet, let alone the impact he had already made in his short life.
What a character he was - a germaphobe, isolated, single, constantly had nightmares and vivid dreams, had photographic memory (supposedly a gift and curse), very direct to the point and yet, a gentleman, a grand entertainer and lecturer, known as a "wizard". He would explain his inventions and their abilities with such magnificence in a dream-like and ethereal way that makes you wonder with fascination the infinite potential of science. His explanations would supposedly not only be easy to understand, but would also be enjoyable for the audience.
I myself very much enjoyed reading through the chapters that covered aspects like this, an almost 'behind the scene' look at how he was different to other inventors at the time and how he personally prepared himself for the daily, in many cases, deadly, challenge.
Aside from the man himself, how great it is the read and imagine a time of such creation and change. The late 19th century was a period to truly marvel at. Tesla, on multiple occasions had interactions with the likes of J.P Morgan, George Westinghouse, Lord Rayleigh, Lord Kelvin, Marconi, Mary Curie, Sir Ian Bell, John Bardeen, Micheal Pupin, Andrew Carnegie, and of course, Thomas Edison. What a time. The modern age of the technological world was literally being created by these people, and Nikola Tesla was most definitely among them.
Everyone should be more well-read about Nikola Tesla - he, in contrast to other scientists who laid the foundations of their fields through their inventions and experiments, I believe, isn't as appreciated, respected, or learned about today. The full scope of what he provided to the world and the sacrifices he made to achieve them needs to be better understood in our current education system, in my opinion.
February 19, 2010
Tesla was the only real Leonardo da Vinci of our age (1856-1943). His genius was in the field of electricity. He was quirky, he was feared as a “mad scientist” an image that he developed and encouraged, he ended his years sitting on a park bench in Central Park covered with pigeons, but, in spite of all that, his incredible accomplishments were real and verifiable. Many of his inventions have been credited to others in the popular mind and his chief rivals, such as Thomas Edison and Marconi, won the public relations battle. But Tesla had a visual imagination for electricity unlike any other. For, example, he invented the electric motor in his mind, set it to work for a few weeks in a corner of his mind to work out the kinks and then drew the final blueprint for the electric motor as we know it today on the first try. Today the main item associated with his name is the Tesla Coil which remains primarily a toy for physics students and electrical engineers to demonstrate high voltage electricity, but do you realize that he developed and used a Tesla Coil that threw lightening bolts twenty miles across the Colorado prairie prior to 1900 and scared the hell out of the residents of Colorado Springs. Considering that it takes 18,000 volts to jump a gap of one inch, he pumped out a lot of power. He harnessed alternating current and developed the three phase electrical system. The Supreme Court determined that he invented radio before Marconi but the decision was not rendered until the last year of his life. Almost everything in the modern electronic world is dependent to some extent upon something that Tesla invented except for the incandescent light bulb which is properly credited to Edison.
Everyone should read this biography to see how much he shaped the world as we know it today. Some of the electronic devices Tesla invented and demonstrated have not been duplicated since.
In other areas, his mental talents raised issues that were bound to offend. For example, he decided to determine whether humans had a soul or whether everything they did was the result of cause and effect. To decide this, he recalled every incident in his life from an early age and concluded that every action he had taken was a reaction to a cause, i. e., we are all “meat machines.” Sorry about that. I didn't mean to ruin it for you.
Margaret Cheney did a great job. You don't have to know a thing about electricity or physics to appreciate what Tesla accomplished.
Everyone should read this biography to see how much he shaped the world as we know it today. Some of the electronic devices Tesla invented and demonstrated have not been duplicated since.
In other areas, his mental talents raised issues that were bound to offend. For example, he decided to determine whether humans had a soul or whether everything they did was the result of cause and effect. To decide this, he recalled every incident in his life from an early age and concluded that every action he had taken was a reaction to a cause, i. e., we are all “meat machines.” Sorry about that. I didn't mean to ruin it for you.
Margaret Cheney did a great job. You don't have to know a thing about electricity or physics to appreciate what Tesla accomplished.
September 25, 2008
Here's to a real genius who was derailed by the monopolies who were threatened by him. He discovered free energy and was brilliant beyond comprehension. You have to read this book to see and understand the infinite possibilities of physics and science and their application.
March 3, 2016
Tesla was definitely a man ahead of his time. He also seems to be a man that was screwed over by a lot of people.
Some parts of the writing seemed to drag, but overall it was an interesting book about a great man.
Some parts of the writing seemed to drag, but overall it was an interesting book about a great man.
May 22, 2018
Procurei saber, mas não descobri se em algum momento o ilustrador Carl Barks contou qual foi sua inspiração para criar Gyro Gearloose para os estúdios Disney em 1952. Mas não ficaria surpreso de saber que, até por conta de Lampadinha, o companheiro do personagem que no Brasil ficou conhecido como Professor Pardal, Barks não teria levado em conta a vida de Nikola Tesla como referência para criar seu personagem inventor.
O fato é que, ouvindo a biografia escrita pela professora e matemática Margaret Cheney - "Tesla: Man out of Time" -, pensei no divertido, excêntrico, genial e generoso inventor dos quadrinhos. A vida de Nikola Tesla, que nasceu na Sérvia e adotou os Estados Unidos como morada, parece mesmo uma obra de ficção.
Em seus 86 anos de vida, Tesla criou mais de 200 inventos, entre eles o uso da corrente alternada que mudou a indústria, patentes que viabilizaram a criação do rádio, do raio-x e sistemas de iluminação eficientes. Suas soluções para o uso produtivo da eletricidade poderia ter feito de Tesla um milionário, mas trocou tudo para dedicar-se à paixão de sua vida, a ciência.
Com um texto saboroso, fluido e leve, Margaret Cheney faz um resumo da vida e do trabalho de Tesla. Ouvindo o audiolivro na voz do bom narrador Arthur Morey, em alguns momentos parecia estar em uma aula de Física. Mas, no geral, a narrativa dos momentos de tensão, em que Tesla luta por patrocínio para seus projetos, alternam-se com traços de sua personalidade, que iam da obsessão pelos números divisíveis por três ao seu amor pela poesia e a frustrada vida amorosa.
"Tesla: Man out of Time" é uma boa biografia para conhecer a vida de um inventor genial que sonhava em melhorar a vida da humanidade oferecendo eletricidade de graça, comunicação de longa distância sem fios e até acabar com as guerras. Chamado por Thomas Edison - seu patrão por seis meses, de "poeta da ciência", acabou esquecido por quase todos que não são ligados ao estudo da Física. Hoje é lembrado por um dos projetos mais ousados de carro elétrico que homenageia seu nome.
O fato é que, ouvindo a biografia escrita pela professora e matemática Margaret Cheney - "Tesla: Man out of Time" -, pensei no divertido, excêntrico, genial e generoso inventor dos quadrinhos. A vida de Nikola Tesla, que nasceu na Sérvia e adotou os Estados Unidos como morada, parece mesmo uma obra de ficção.
Em seus 86 anos de vida, Tesla criou mais de 200 inventos, entre eles o uso da corrente alternada que mudou a indústria, patentes que viabilizaram a criação do rádio, do raio-x e sistemas de iluminação eficientes. Suas soluções para o uso produtivo da eletricidade poderia ter feito de Tesla um milionário, mas trocou tudo para dedicar-se à paixão de sua vida, a ciência.
Com um texto saboroso, fluido e leve, Margaret Cheney faz um resumo da vida e do trabalho de Tesla. Ouvindo o audiolivro na voz do bom narrador Arthur Morey, em alguns momentos parecia estar em uma aula de Física. Mas, no geral, a narrativa dos momentos de tensão, em que Tesla luta por patrocínio para seus projetos, alternam-se com traços de sua personalidade, que iam da obsessão pelos números divisíveis por três ao seu amor pela poesia e a frustrada vida amorosa.
"Tesla: Man out of Time" é uma boa biografia para conhecer a vida de um inventor genial que sonhava em melhorar a vida da humanidade oferecendo eletricidade de graça, comunicação de longa distância sem fios e até acabar com as guerras. Chamado por Thomas Edison - seu patrão por seis meses, de "poeta da ciência", acabou esquecido por quase todos que não são ligados ao estudo da Física. Hoje é lembrado por um dos projetos mais ousados de carro elétrico que homenageia seu nome.
July 3, 2020
Eğer bir şeyi icat edenin kim olduğunu bilmiyorsanız tahmin ederken Tesla deyin.Çünkü tahmininiz %50 doğrudur. Diye bir söz vardır. Kitabı okurken bu sözün ne kadar da doğru bir söz olduğunu anladım. Zaten hala Tesla'nın 'öldürücü ışınlar' hakkında yazdığı yazıların kamuoyuna paylaşılmaması da gösteriyor ki Tesla zamanının çok ötesindeki bir dehaydı. Kitabı çok beğendim. Okumanızı öneririm. Güzel bir alıntıyla incelememi sonlandırıyorum:
'Geçmiş zaferlerin bastırılması, ezilmesi ve alaya alınması bunların daha kuvvetli bir şekilde yeniden uyanmalarına yol açar.'
'Geçmiş zaferlerin bastırılması, ezilmesi ve alaya alınması bunların daha kuvvetli bir şekilde yeniden uyanmalarına yol açar.'
May 10, 2017
Brilliant man, who was ahead of his time!
The book wasn't easy to read, but I enjoyed it non the less. It was a first book about Tesla I read.
The book wasn't easy to read, but I enjoyed it non the less. It was a first book about Tesla I read.
July 29, 2019
Fascinating character but such a boring read. I was picking up the book three times a day and was never able to make significant progress. Gave up halfway, after fifteen days.
April 22, 2018
Great biography of a legend. The author did a great job of trying to clear up some of the mysteries around Tesla, while still explaining sob of the some of the stranger behaviors of the inventor of the 20th century.
April 26, 2020
The hero we needed, but not the hero we deserved
June 8, 2015
Even 65 years after his death, Tesla still stirs such intense emotions that he seems less a scientist than a spiritual leader. Some consider him the greatest mind in science with near-mythical powers of observation and ratiocination; others dismiss him as a fuzzy-minded thinker who envisioned great things but executed on few of them. This sharp disconnect clouds Cheney's biography, which introduces the reader to both sides of Tesla but clearly leans toward the worshipful respect and the dismissal of critics as conspiratorial cranks.
Bare facts: Tesla's ideas were instrumental in the invention and practical application of AC electric power generation, transmission, and distribution, and of wireless radio broadcasting (confirmed by the U. S. Supreme Court shortly after he died). He bested Edison technically in proving the superior benefit of AC (vs DC) power.
He announced ground-breaking theories in many other areas, but was both perennially short of funds and psychologically unprepared to do the research and development to bring these ideas to practical fruition. From this monetary misery and method of madness arises much of the dichotomy of feelings about Tesla's place in science. Those who worship Tesla place the blame for these unfulfilled theories on parsimonious money men unwilling to fund the future or on shadowy conspiratorial enemies (governments or competing monopolies) who wanted to live in the past. Those who take a more traditional view of science credit Tesla for his theories, but are disappointed by his failures to experiment and to publish and present his ideas in traditional professional scientific refereed venues.
What to do? Many of Tesla's wildest ideas have since been proven out and implemented by others. Some of his documented experiments have yet to be replicated, indicating that he was a thinker ahead of his time. The idea of wireless transmission of electricity seemed fantastic on the face of it, until I googled it and found this web site from June 2007 reporting on a successful test of "witricity" (a name Tesla would have loved):
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/07/mi...
And in 2008 Tesla continues to surprise, as Intel successfully demonstrates a wireless electricity system:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080821/...
On the other hand, especially as he advanced in years, his amazing mental powers seemed to diminish to the point that his unexamined ideas appeared to be less valid theories than frantic ravings of an old man obviously losing his ability to reason. Communications to and from Mars and death Rays that could surround the borders of the United States and melt enemy World War II planes in mid air have yet and are likely never to be taken seriously.
Much is made of the disappearance of his papers after his death in 1943. Cheney considers options, but makes the mistake of crediting conspiracy in the absence of firm knowledge.
In any case, Tesla was an amazing individual, whose life, even in the most even-handed of tellings, seems as fantastic as his craziest ideas. He was truly a "man out of time" in all its possible meanings--a man who belonged to the ages like Lincoln, a man ahead of his time like Da Vinci, a man who ran out of time to finish so much of what he started.
See my review of the new novel "The Invention of Everything Else" by Samantha Hunt that adds a fictional gloss on many of the events from Tesla's life that Cheney documents here. I was surprised, having read the novel first, how much I thought was fantasy turned out to factually based; while it adds nothing new to the biography, the novel does capture the mind of Tesla and the way he affected the world he created.
Bare facts: Tesla's ideas were instrumental in the invention and practical application of AC electric power generation, transmission, and distribution, and of wireless radio broadcasting (confirmed by the U. S. Supreme Court shortly after he died). He bested Edison technically in proving the superior benefit of AC (vs DC) power.
He announced ground-breaking theories in many other areas, but was both perennially short of funds and psychologically unprepared to do the research and development to bring these ideas to practical fruition. From this monetary misery and method of madness arises much of the dichotomy of feelings about Tesla's place in science. Those who worship Tesla place the blame for these unfulfilled theories on parsimonious money men unwilling to fund the future or on shadowy conspiratorial enemies (governments or competing monopolies) who wanted to live in the past. Those who take a more traditional view of science credit Tesla for his theories, but are disappointed by his failures to experiment and to publish and present his ideas in traditional professional scientific refereed venues.
What to do? Many of Tesla's wildest ideas have since been proven out and implemented by others. Some of his documented experiments have yet to be replicated, indicating that he was a thinker ahead of his time. The idea of wireless transmission of electricity seemed fantastic on the face of it, until I googled it and found this web site from June 2007 reporting on a successful test of "witricity" (a name Tesla would have loved):
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/07/mi...
And in 2008 Tesla continues to surprise, as Intel successfully demonstrates a wireless electricity system:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080821/...
On the other hand, especially as he advanced in years, his amazing mental powers seemed to diminish to the point that his unexamined ideas appeared to be less valid theories than frantic ravings of an old man obviously losing his ability to reason. Communications to and from Mars and death Rays that could surround the borders of the United States and melt enemy World War II planes in mid air have yet and are likely never to be taken seriously.
Much is made of the disappearance of his papers after his death in 1943. Cheney considers options, but makes the mistake of crediting conspiracy in the absence of firm knowledge.
In any case, Tesla was an amazing individual, whose life, even in the most even-handed of tellings, seems as fantastic as his craziest ideas. He was truly a "man out of time" in all its possible meanings--a man who belonged to the ages like Lincoln, a man ahead of his time like Da Vinci, a man who ran out of time to finish so much of what he started.
See my review of the new novel "The Invention of Everything Else" by Samantha Hunt that adds a fictional gloss on many of the events from Tesla's life that Cheney documents here. I was surprised, having read the novel first, how much I thought was fantasy turned out to factually based; while it adds nothing new to the biography, the novel does capture the mind of Tesla and the way he affected the world he created.
June 26, 2017
Thomas Edison is usually the first name that comes to mind when thinking of great inventors. Fuhgetaboutit! Nikola Tesla was far more prescient. A Serbian born in Croatia in 1856, coincidentally the same country my maternal grandfather was born in 1905. Both wound up in New York, Tesla in Manhattan, and my grandfather, Ivan Kirincic, in Queens. Ivan came here with very little formal education, and yet, he built a house by himself, including all the electrical and plumbing. I’m lucky if I can screw in a light bulb. Tesla’s father was a minister and expected his son to follow in his footsteps. From his mother, Tesla inherited a photographic memory where he had visions of futuristic inventions in his mind which were later created, often without blueprints. College education ended when he ran out of money in Prague. Tesla used the library to learn as much as possible. While still in his early 20’s, he envisioned what would later become the first alternative current motor by drawing the idea in the dirt with a stick. He also had the sketch of a flying machine. It was 1882 and off to Manhattan where he was hired by Thomas Edison. After a dispute over money, they part ways. Edison’s direct current was wrong and soon replaced by Tesla’s AC, which is still in use today, 120 years later. This occurred despite a dirty tricks campaign by Edison that would make Richard Nixon blush. Tesla developed the first versions of the x-ray, wireless radio, fluorescent lights, and the atom smasher, all before 1900. Marconi’s radio became famous in 1895. Tesla had already demonstrated it, in public, in 1893. In addition to his scientific brilliance, Tesla spoke seven languages fluently and was a poet and philosopher. He suffered from OCD. Some of the symptoms were repetitive counting and a severe germ phobia. Pearl earrings terrified him. J.P. Morgan’s daughter Anne wore them to a dinner and Nikola escaped her flirtations and he most likely remained celibate his entire life. The Chicago World’s Fair and the selection 0f AC for the Niagara Falls power station, both in 1893, were the watershed events in Tesla’s life. In 1895, a fire destroyed Tesla’s lab on South Fifth Ave. A lifetime worth of work was lost. By 1899, at a new lab on Houston Street, Tesla continued to work on wireless radio and electricity. He built an oscillator and attached it to an iron beam and when he turned it on it caused a small earthquake in the neighborhood. Tesla commented that he could bring down the Brooklyn Bridge with the device. The first wireless remote controlled boat was exhibited at Madison Square Garden in 1898. William Shockley won the Nobel prize for the transistor in 1956. Tesla had three patents on earlier versions in 1893. In need of isolation for his experiments, he moved from NYC to Colorado in 1899. He created man made lightning from a 200 foot tower which knocked out the power in nearby cities. The mad scientist in Frankenstein seems to be based on Tesla. By 1900, it was back to NYC and a tower built on Long Island for wireless radio transmissions. In 1902, he spoke of the importance of conservation and the future of wind and solar power. Although he made millions in his lifetime, the money was either given away to friends, or put into further scientific research. His blue prints were used to develop radar for military use and he envisioned a phone carried in one’s pocket 100 years before the Iphone. The book is from 1981 and also predates cell phones. As he grew older, Tesla’s eccentricities became more pronounce. He was a fixture at Bryant Park, feeding the pigeons and taking injured birds back to his hotel room. At one point, the birds covered him from head to toe. It made me think of St. Francis. On January 7, 1943, Nikola Tesla died alone, with the exception of his beloved pigeons.
November 22, 2009
"Perhaps it is better in this present world of ours that a revolutionary idea or invention instead of being helped and patted, be hampered and ill-treated in its adolescence - by want of means, by selfish interest, pedantry, stupidity, and ignorance; that it be attacked and stifled; that it pass through bitter trials and tribulations, through the strife of commercial existence. So we do get our light. So all that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combatted, suppressed - only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle."
- Nicola Tesla
It is very true that want of means, selfish interest, pedantry, stupidity, and ignorance has cost Tesla the recognition he rightly deserves. Many of his inventions are only just becoming valued. Inventors of modern computer technology have been repeatedly surprised, for example, when seeking patents, to find Tesla's basic ones already on file. In an age when the Wright Brothers were just struggling to fly, he invented not just a better airplane, but a type of flight (VTOL) that would not be fully understood and utilized until the 1980s. A prophet of the future, he invented the technology for newspapers to be delivered "wirelessly" to our homes, the i-phone: "Small vest-pocket instruments...amazingly simple compared to our present telephone" on which "we shall be able to witness and hear events...just as if we were actually present". Virtually every major modern-day convenience or necessity can trace its ancestry to the mind of Tesla. And even today, our scientists are unable to duplicate many of Tesla's documented accomplishments.
Thomas Edison holds the undeserved title as "America's Greatest Inventor". In point of fact, Edison didn't "invent" much of anything. Most of what he produced was invented by other men - he merely tinkered with their inventions and took the patents out in his own name. His skills did not lie with true origination, but in experimentation and research. His ideas were rarely if ever new. His famous "invention" of the light bulb, for instance, was not not a new invention at all. In 1820, prior to Edison's 1879 breakthrough of a lasting incandescent light bulb, Warren De la Rue produced the first known incandescent light bulb. If anything, Edison hampered true scientific progress. Threatened by Tesla's brilliance, he used his not-inconsiderable skill at manipulation, intimidation, and propaganda to discredit and destroy Tesla's reputation and invention. Edison sunk to his lowest point when he paid children to kidnap neighbors' pets so that he could electrocute them (using Tesla's superior alternating current) as a demonstration of how "unsafe" this brilliant (and completely new) current was. Tesla's contribution to science was major rather than incremental. His alternating current triumphed only after it had overcome the resistance of an entire industry.
Who was the true genius of invention?
"If you mean the man who really invented, in other words, originated and discovered - not merely improved what had already been invented by others - then without a shade of a doubt Nicola Tesla is the world's greatest inventor, not only at present but in all history." - Hugo Gernsback
- Nicola Tesla
It is very true that want of means, selfish interest, pedantry, stupidity, and ignorance has cost Tesla the recognition he rightly deserves. Many of his inventions are only just becoming valued. Inventors of modern computer technology have been repeatedly surprised, for example, when seeking patents, to find Tesla's basic ones already on file. In an age when the Wright Brothers were just struggling to fly, he invented not just a better airplane, but a type of flight (VTOL) that would not be fully understood and utilized until the 1980s. A prophet of the future, he invented the technology for newspapers to be delivered "wirelessly" to our homes, the i-phone: "Small vest-pocket instruments...amazingly simple compared to our present telephone" on which "we shall be able to witness and hear events...just as if we were actually present". Virtually every major modern-day convenience or necessity can trace its ancestry to the mind of Tesla. And even today, our scientists are unable to duplicate many of Tesla's documented accomplishments.
Thomas Edison holds the undeserved title as "America's Greatest Inventor". In point of fact, Edison didn't "invent" much of anything. Most of what he produced was invented by other men - he merely tinkered with their inventions and took the patents out in his own name. His skills did not lie with true origination, but in experimentation and research. His ideas were rarely if ever new. His famous "invention" of the light bulb, for instance, was not not a new invention at all. In 1820, prior to Edison's 1879 breakthrough of a lasting incandescent light bulb, Warren De la Rue produced the first known incandescent light bulb. If anything, Edison hampered true scientific progress. Threatened by Tesla's brilliance, he used his not-inconsiderable skill at manipulation, intimidation, and propaganda to discredit and destroy Tesla's reputation and invention. Edison sunk to his lowest point when he paid children to kidnap neighbors' pets so that he could electrocute them (using Tesla's superior alternating current) as a demonstration of how "unsafe" this brilliant (and completely new) current was. Tesla's contribution to science was major rather than incremental. His alternating current triumphed only after it had overcome the resistance of an entire industry.
Who was the true genius of invention?
"If you mean the man who really invented, in other words, originated and discovered - not merely improved what had already been invented by others - then without a shade of a doubt Nicola Tesla is the world's greatest inventor, not only at present but in all history." - Hugo Gernsback
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