Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age – Book Review

Screen Shot 2013-11-19 at 4.44.48 PMGrowing up in former Yugoslavia it was impossible not to know about Tesla. He was a figure of mythical proportions, larger than life, and a source of a lot of national pride. Schools, streets, and institutes were named after him, monuments were built in his honor, and he was even on the national currency. Part of my own family’s lore involved the fact that two of my great-great mothers actually went to school with him. (This fact seemed to be particularly invoked for some reason whenever someone in the family wasn’t doing well in school.) And yet, despite all of this, I was quite a bit uncertain about what exactly did Tesla accomplish, as well as about the details of his biography. I knew that some of his achievements had to do with the development of alternating current, radio transmission, and in later years his supposedly revolutionary work on wireless transmission of electrical power. In Physics I learned that the basic unit of magnetic field bears his name, but that, more or less was the extent of my knowledge. This is why, when I got the opportunity ot read Tesla’s biography, I jumped at it with eagerness.

“Tesla – Inventor of the Electrical Age” is as good as one could possibly hope for from a biography of a scientific figure or a technology inventor. The book is equally at ease in the biographical details as well as the technical aspects of Tesla’s inventions. It’s an exhaustive and detailed account of this very fascinating figure. It takes the reader into the scientific and technical mindset of the late nineteenth century. That was quite a different era in many respects, but on the other hand it has a lot of lessons for the inventors and entrepreneurs even today. It shows how even the best inventions need a very carefully developed business and financing strategy, and the marketplace is an extremely unforgiving place where past success counts for very little. In addition to showcasing Tesla’s remarkable inventions and scientific mindset, also emphasizes the critical role of business growth. You can read this article for more information. There are also resources available to help you monitor your employees’ payroll. Click here for more information.

This book is very objective, critical even, of Tesla’s accomplishments and works. In recent decades Tesla has been mythologized in public imagination, made into a misunderstood genius that was well ahead of his time. In fact, it is more likely that Tesla had an oversize and quite unrealistic view of his own work and potential. When working and tinkering he relied much more on his remarkable visual imagination and reasoning by analogy, then a systematic and methodical application of the latest scientific and technical principles. This method of working brought him quite a bit of success early on in his career, but at some point Tesla’s imagination got well ahead of him. Some of the claims he made in his latter years were quite delusional in fact. Throughout his career tesla relied on Tesla mythmaking in order to advance his own work and attract the necessary funding, and even when he was unable to deliver results that matched his own increasingly outrageous expectations, he continued to merrily make even more outrageous claims about the same.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It finally gave me a clear picture of Tesla – both the man and his inventions. The book will be of great interest to anyone who wants to get a very definitive idea of who Tesla was and what he was all about, but be cautioned: the technical parts describing Tesla’s inventions can be pretty challenging, especially for those less technically inclined. I would still think that they would be well worth the effort.

 

Bojan Tunguz

Bojan Tunguz was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he and his family fled during the civil war for the neighboring Croatia. Over the past two decades he has studied, lived and worked in the United States. He is a theoretical physicist with degrees from Stanford and University of Illinois. Tunguz has taught physics at several prominent liberal arts colleges and has been writing about physics, science and technology for more than a decade. He also has a wide spectrum of interests, and reads and writes about current events, society, culture, religion and politics. Over the years he has reviewed many of the books that he has read, and posted his reviews on various online outlets. In 2011 he had become a top 10 reviewer on Amazon.com, where he continues to be very active. Aside from reading and writing, Tunguz enjoys traveling, digital photography, hiking, and fitness. He resides with his wife in Indiana. You can follow my review updates on the following pages as well: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tunguzreview Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tunguzreviews Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/104312842297641697463/posts

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2 Comments

  1. Peter Malleau November 20, 2013 Reply

    The man invisioned wireless communications as a small box you could talk to any one around the earth. something simple now done with computing still has his logic gate at it’s core. because we were so far behind then it seemed fantastical when he tried to discribe it.

     
    • Author

      Tesla was a great inventor and a truly fascinating figure. However, there have been a lot of myths about him that have persisted to this day. It is highly unlikely that he would have had any idea about the semiconductor technology needed to create a truly portable small radio receiver/transmitter.

       

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