As a child, Nikola Tesla saw a picture of a waterfall and imagined an invention that would harness the water's energy. Decades later, he invented the water wheel. Learn about the innovative inventor who changed the world of electricity.

A biography of Nikola Tesla, physicist, inventor, and electrical engineer.

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856, in what is now Croatia. His father was a priest, an intellectual who prodded his son to develop unusual mental discipline. His mother was an inventor of many time-saving devices used for domestic tasks. Nikola Tesla became one of the greatest scientists and inventors that have ever lived. His experiments were far beyond his time, which left much of his work underappreciated until after he passed away. While in the United States, his showmanship and inventions earned him the reputation of 'mad scientist,' and he was the creator of many things essential to modern life. Some of Tesla's greatest achievements are: Alternating current; First hydro-electric power plant, X-rays, Tesla's induction motor, Measurement of flux density, Wireless transmission, and many other. In this honest autobiography the reader can learn about the life and work of this brilliant scientist called Nikola Tesla, in his own words.

Никола Тесла – легендарный изобретатель в области радиотехники и электроники, великий учёный, который "изобрёл XX век". "Мои изобретения" – это биография Теслы, написанная им самим, с долей самоиронии, но в то же время с чётким пониманием своей значимости. Книга содержит множество любопытных фактов, технических предвидений и размышлений о том, как изобретения могут повлиять на политику и устройства мира в целом. Читайте зарубежную литературу в оригинале!

Who was Nikola Tesla? Find out in this comprehensive volume that includes Tesla’s autobiography and scientific writings, as well as other works that examine his life and career in detail. Nikola Tesla came from a humble upbringing in what is now Croatia and reached the heights of science and technology in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla and Other Works gives readers a compelling insight into the man whose ideas revolutionized the fields of electrical and mechanical engineering, and who continues to be a source of inspiration for modern inventors. This volume includes Tesla’s autobiography My Inventions (1919), articles and diagrams that he published in scientific magazines—including “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy,” in which he discusses the potential of solar power—and Thomas Commerford Martin’s The Inventions, Researches, and Writings of Nikola Tesla. A scholarly introduction examines Tesla’s life and career, and the impact that he has had on generations of inventors up to the present day.

" The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain. Its ultimate purpose is the complete mastery of mind over the material world, the harnessing of the forces of nature to human needs. This is the difficult task of the inventor who is often misunderstood and unrewarded. But he finds ample compensation in the pleasing exercises of his powers and in the knowledge of being one of that exceptionally privileged class without whom the race would have long ago perished in the bitter struggle against pitiless elements. Speaking for myself, I have already had more than my full measure of this exquisite enjoyment, so much that for many years my life was little short of continuous rapture. I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labor, for I have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours. But if work is interpreted to be a definite performance in a specified time according to a rigid rule, then I may be the worst of idlers. Every effort under compulsion demands a sacrifice of life-energy. I never paid such a price. On the contrary, I have thrived on my thoughts..." N. T.

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.