New York : W.W. Norton & Co., [2018]
306 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
I've wanted to read about Nikolai Tesla for a while now. Someone told me how Tesla had developed plans for harnessing and distributing low-cost (if not free) energy - and so had his career quashed by powerful oil/gas interests and even had his papers seized by the government after he died. Given Tesla's revolutionary inventions and discoveries, I had to wonder if there was something to this.
This biography does a great job of conveying just how brilliant and visionary Tesla was in both his thinking and his development of applied science. He is the towering figure behind the modern use of electricity in industry and in its wide distribution. By figuring out how to harness and use alternating current (AC) through generators and AC motors, he triumphed over the Edison devotees of direct current.
However, much of his life was spent pursuing fruitless dreams of using high-frequency electric current to send and receive wireless energy and signals through the earth. In spite losing himself in the pursuit of these earthbound visions, he also developed the airborne transmission of signals and has been credited with the invention of radio - though Marconi became its most famous developer and inventor.
This biography led me to believe that there is not a lot of substance to the belief that special interests shut down Tesla's potential. Instead his own visionary brilliance seems to have trumped a more practical approach that would have greatly benefited Tesla. He was terrible with money and contracts and did not reap the fabulous riches that his work should have earned for him. Nevertheless, he did have years of great fame and huge financial backing, but was unable to develop that into a lifelong success with research and income.
All in all, it is a fascinating biography that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in late 19th century science and technology - especially electricity and wireless communication.
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