Nikola Tesla was a major contributor to the electrical revolution that transformed daily life at the turn of the twentieth century. His inventions, patents, and theoretical work formed the basis of modern AC electricity, and contributed to the development of radio and television. Like his competitor Thomas Edison, Tesla was one of America's first celebrity scientists, enjoying the company of New York high society and dazzling the likes of Mark Twain with his electrical demonstrations. An astute self-promoter and gifted showman, he cultivated a public image of the eccentric genius. Even at the end of his life when he was living in poverty, Tesla still attracted reporters to his annual birthday interview, regaling them with claims that he had invented a particle-beam weapon capable of bringing down enemy aircraft. Plenty of biographies glamorize Tesla and his eccentricities, but until now none has carefully examined what, how, and why he invented. In this groundbreaking book, W. Bernard Carlson demystifies the legendary inventor, placing him within the cultural and technological context of his time, and focusing on his inventions themselves as well as the creation and maintenance of his celebrity. Drawing on original documents from Tesla's private and public life, Carlson shows how he was an "idealist" inventor who sought the perfect experimental realization of a great idea or principle, and who skillfully sold his inventions to the public through mythmaking and illusion. This major biography sheds new light on Tesla's visionary approach to invention and the business strategies behind his most important technological breakthroughs.

The Electric Information Age Book explores the nine-year window of mass-market publishing in the sixties and seventies when formerly backstage players-designers, graphic artists, editors-stepped into the spotlight to produce a series of exceptional books. Aimed squarely at the young media-savvy consumers of the "Electronic Information Age," these small, inexpensive paperbacks aimed to bring the ideas of contemporary thinkers like Marshall McLuhan, R. Buckminster Fuller, Herman Kahn, and Carl Sagan to the masses. Graphic designers such as Quentin Fiore (The Medium Is the Massage, 1967) employed a variety of radical techniques-verbal visual collages and other typographic pyrotechnics-that were as important to the content as the text. The Electric Information Age Book is the first book-length history of this brief yet highly influential publishing phenomenon.

A comprehensive and fascinating account of electrical and electronics history Much of the infrastructure of today's industrialized world arose in the period from the outbreak of World War I to the conclusion of World War II. It was during these years that the capabilities of traditional electrical engineering—generators, power transmission, motors, electric lighting and heating, home appliances, and so on—became ubiquitous. Even more importantly, it was during this time that a new type of electrical engineering—electronics—emerged. Because of its applications in communications (both wire-based and wireless), entertainment (notably radio, the phonograph, and sound movies), industry, science and medicine, and the military, the electronics industry became a major part of the economy. Dawn of the Electronic Age?explores how this engineering knowledge and its main applications developed in various scientific, economic, and social contexts, and explains how each was profoundly affected by electrical technologies. It takes an international perspective and a narrative approach, unfolding the story chronologically. Though a scholarly study (with sources of information given in endnotes for engineers and historians of science and technology), the book is intended for the general public.?Ultimately, it tells the story of the development of a new realm of engineering and its widespread applications during the remarkable and tragic period of two world wars and the decades in between.

La découverte scientifique et la maîtrise de l'électricité ont bouleversé notre société au même titre que l'invention de l'écriture alphabétique durant l'Antiquité et de l'imprimerie à caractères mobiles au XVe siècle. Il ne s'agit pas seulement d'un phénomène naturel mis au service de l'homme par la science, mais d'un élément central de l'épistémè moderne : l'électricité a inspiré des écrivains et des artistes, a servi de force d'impulsion au monde de l'industrie et de l'innovation et a redéfini les comportements sociaux. En explorant l'incidence de l'électricité sur le savoir, les pratiques sociales, les médias, la vie sociale et les expériences personnelles, cet ouvrage tente d'en saisir les aspects techniques et culturels dans toute leur complexité. -- The scientific discovery and mastery of electricity created as many important changes in modern society as did the invention of alphabetical writing in antiquity and movable type in the fifteenth century. It is more than a natural phenomenon that science has harnessed for human use; it is a central feature of the modern episteme. It has inspired writers and artists, propelled industry and innovation, and reshaped human social behaviour. Looking at a variety of topics including film, politics, and contemporary art, this volume explores the impact of electricity on knowledge, social practices, media, community life, and subjective experience.