This book is about a man many have called the father of the modern world. His imagination led him to dare to dream about inventions that for many seemed impossible.
In 1882 Nikola Tesla was struck by a vision of a working motor that produced an electric alternating current. He had suggested direct current generators could be modified to produce alternating current seven years previously whilst attending college, but he was ridiculed by his professor and he left college a year later.
To make his dream of an alternating current motor a reality, he moved to Paris from Budapest, taking a job at the Continental Edison Company, installing lighting systems. During his time in the job he built a prototype of his motor and tried to get a wealthy businessman to become an investor in his invention. He was rejected by all the businessmen he spoke to as they didn't understand the device and didn't see the value in it. Eventually, Tesla decided that another extraordinary mind would appreciate his work and travelled by boat to New York City to meet with Thomas Edison.
Edison and his financial backer, J.P. Morgan were making large amounts of money from their direct current so when Tesla described his alternating current solution, claiming it was the future of electricity, Edison dismissed the idea as unnecessary. He did however like Tesla and hired him to work on repairing lighting systems initially. A few months later Tesla became one of Edison's most valuable engineers.
In 1885 Edison promised Tesla $50,000 if he could back up his claim that he could redesign elements of Edison's direct current generators and improve efficiency and durability. Tesla delivered on his promise but when he asked for payment, Edison claimed to have been only joking about the financial reward and instead offered him a raise of $10 a week. Tesla resigned immediately and so began a feud that would last a lifetime.
Tesla was forced to take a job digging ditches for $2 a day (he was previously on $18 a week). When people learnt that a genius was digging ditches to survive, several investors approached Tesla and asked him to develop an arc lighting system. In return they would finance his new company, the Tesla Electric Company. He accepted their offer. The company would start making a profit but Tesla was swindled out of most of the money and eventually ejected from the company.
Two other men approached Tesla and agreed to invest in his alternating current project, building him a laboratory in New York. Here Tesla built complete systems of generators, motors and lighting. He filed and was issued with seven patents for his inventions. He split the profits 50-50 with his investors.
Tesla was asked to lecture at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and his visionary presentations caught the eye of businessman George Westinhouse, who wanted to provide electricity for the entire United States of America. He believed Tesla's alternating current system was the way to do it.
Westinghouse offered Tesla $25,000 in cash and $50,000 in stock in his company for his patents as well as a royalty of $2.50 per horsepower of alternating current motors sold. Tesla agreed and spent the money building a new lab and researching radiant energy. His research led to his discovery of X-rays and how to use them. He didn't make his discoveries widely known which eventually led to X-rays being attributed to somebody else at a later date.
Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan knew that if Tesla's alternating current network took off it would kill their own direct current network, and the money they were making from it. They launched a huge propaganda campaign saying alternating current in a home would kill a customer in six months. Edison also electrocuted animals to demonstrate the danger of Tesla's work. Tesla countered these exhibitions by demonstrating the lighting of lamps by letting alternating current flow through his body.
Tesla continued with his research and invented what became known as the Tesla coil. He used this to invent a high-frequency fluorescent lamp which was also highly efficient. Tesla tuned two of his coils to resonate at the same frequency and it enabled him to send and receive signals. This was the world’s first radio transmitter and transmission.
In 1891 Tesla discovered that energy could be transmitted through the air and proved it by lighting lamps wirelessly. He believed that high frequency energy could provide free electricity to the entire world.
The direct and alternating current battle came to an end when Tesla and Westinghouse were offered the contract to illuminate the Chicago World Fair in 1893. Tesla used fluorescent tubes which he bent to spell people’s names and as a result created the first neon signs in the world. The crowds were amazed at the 100,000 lamps switched on by the president and Tesla himself wowed the crowds by firing lightning bolts from his coils.
Seeing that alternating current was the future of electricity, J.P. Morgan tried to strike a deal with Westinghouse to control the electricity but the offer was rejected. Morgan responded by spreading rumours about Westinghouse’s company which led it to near bankruptcy. On hearing this, Tesla spoke to Westinghouse saying that the $1 million he owed him in royalties and any future royalties could be waved and this allowed Westinghouse to stay in business. If Tesla has received all the royalties owed to him in his lifetime, he would have been the world’s first billionaire.
Further work from Tesla led to him inventing spark plugs for engines and in 1898 he discovered a way to remotely control machines using radio waves. He demonstrated this by driving a small boat remotely, causing people to think he was controlling it with his mind. Another time the people did not believe him was when his powerful radio receiver picked up strange signals that he concluded were communications from the stars.
Tesla’s genius and ability to think big meant that many others could not comprehend some of the plans he had for the future. In 1900 he wrote an article for a magazine stating his objectives to tap into the sun’s energy, control the weather with electricity, use machines to make war impossible, transmit power and radio signals around the world wirelessly, participate in interplanetary communications and build robots that could behave independently of any operators. The most amazing piece of the article claimed that as well as believing all this could be accomplished, he already knew how to do it.
Tesla was again contacted by J.P. Morgan who wanted him to build a worldwide wireless communication system. Tesla agreed to work with Morgan who loaned him money to build a power station and equipment but the money ran out before Tesla’s complex designs were completed and the facility was shut down leaving Tesla bankrupt due to taxes he owed. He spent much of his time after this nursing injured pigeons to health in New York parks and the public thought he’d lost his mind.
In the First World War, Tesla proposed using radio waves to detect German U-boats and other ships. His ideas were again described as absurd and the world had to wait nearly twenty years before radar was invented, using Tesla’s principles.
In 1928 at 72 years of age, Tesla received his last patent, this time for Equipment for aerial transportation. He had designed a flying machine that was a cross between a helicopter and aeroplane that could take off vertically and then swivel its engines to fly horizontally. Unfortunately, Tesla did not have the funds to build any sort of prototype but it was a precursor for what is now known as Vertical Short Take-off and Landing planes such as the Harrier Jump Jet or the F-35.
At the age of 75, Tesla claimed to have discovered a new source of energy. The following year he was commissioned to build an electric motor for a car. He built a black box 40 inches by 30 inches in size, connected to a small 12-volt battery. The car reached speeds of 90mph in testing but Tesla did not allow anyone to inspect the black box. After claims of some sort of black magic from the public, Tesla returned to New York City with his box and didn’t mention it again.
Tesla then focused on creating a super weapon to end war. It consisted of an invisible wall that sent concentrated particle beams through the air. It was claimed that it could bring down 10,000 aeroplanes from a distance of 250 miles. After more criticism for Tesla and little interest in funding for a prototype, he decided to send the plans to allied nations prior to the Second World War. No one wanted to fund the project but the USSR did test part of Tesla’s plan and sent him a cheque for $25,000 despite not revealing details of their tests or taking the work any further.
In 1937, Tesla claimed to have finalised a dynamic theory of gravity while also criticizing Einstein’s theory of relativity but ultimately it was never revealed to the world. On 5th January 1943, Tesla put the “do not disturb” sign on his hotel room door in New York and two days later was discovered passed away in his bed due to a blood clot in his heart. He was 86. The FBI ordered Tesla’s belongings to be seized and many of his papers were pronounced top secret.
In his lifetime Tesla received over 800 patents and was the inventor of several inventions that changed the world. He was a true visionary, far ahead of his time and his ground-breaking scientific discoveries indicate just what a genius he was.