Customer Reviews

Tesla: Master of Lightning

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

How could Margaret Cheney (Tesla : Man Out Of Time) and Robert Uth (Tesla : Master Of Lightning) improve upon their past individual works (a book and documentary video, respectively)? By combining their efforts to produce this wonderful book, that's how. The informative text is interspersed with 250 b&w and duotone images that show Tesla and the era in which he excelled (truly a man out of time). Also included are 36 sidebars that explain some of the technical aspects of Tesla's works. After reading several other books on Tesla, I thought I knew it all. I'm happy to say that this one proved me wrong. Not to be missed by true Tesla fans.

Fascinating. Tesla was born Serbian Orthodox in what is now Croatia (formerly part of Yugoslavia). Came to New York as a young man and lived and worked in the U.S. from the 1890s into the 1930s. He is often described as being "ahead of his time": He envisioned, designed, and even patented electronic devices some of which are only today being practically realized. The supporting technology or scientific knowledge did not yet exist for many of them, though he accurately theorized that they would be possible.

Various circumstances contributed to his being little known in America today (and not credited, even by scholars, with all that he accomplished). These include his unwillingness to work with wealthy corporate sponsors (as did Edison and Marconi) and the fact that much of his later work dealt with weaponry and thus was classified after his death. Also, his papers were returned to his native land and the ensuing Cold War prevented Western researchers from accessing them until recently. Many of his inventions-such as radio, AC electrical power, and radar-have long been credited to others. He foresaw-and his work contributed to the invention of-telephones, television, X-rays, satellite transmission, and directed energy weapons. He was also eccentric, probably suffered from OCD, and lived much of his life in poverty. This book downplays his eccentricities and paints him with an honest but very admiring brush.

I found this book to be an excellent overview of Tesla's work and life. It's also a quick read. The book successfully conveys the image of Tesla as a remarkable inventor whose work and ideas were at the very forefront of the practical application of electromagnetic theory.

The book plays along uncritically, however, with Tesla's apparently self cultivated image of being a Wizard / Scientist. Many of Tesla's more controversial ideas and clams that were never, and have never been substantiated through experiment, can be dismissed as poppycock. By contrast all of Tesla's successful ideas rest on very firm scientic foundations. The Author makes no attempt to discriminate one from the other. Instead, unsubstantiated claims are sprinkled liberally with vague references to missing documents and political intrigue.

One excellent example of Tesla's tendancy for hyperbole is his claim of having built and tested an oscillator cable of creating earthquakes. Such a claim would have elicited knowing smirks even from 19th century scientists. Anyone doubting the foolishness of such a claim would do well to stay away from earth compactors and jackhammers, lest the Earth itself split in two! The Author(s)' failure to address Tesla's penchant for embellishment and hyperbole, and other odd aspects of Tesla's character (Other than frequent idle speculation on his sexual orientation) makes for a rather flat and onesided presentation.

This is a very highly illustrated biography of Nikola Tesla. There are photographs on virtually every page, ranging from patent drawings, photos of Tesla and others mentioned in the book and photos of his experiments and experimental apparatus. This is, however, not just a picture book, it also contains a reasonable, but somewhat superficial, biography. (One reviewer mentioned a video; my book did not come with one.)

Tesla is perhaps one of the most enigmatic inventors/engineers of the past 200 years. He was responsible for some of the most important inventions of the 19th century, but outside of the engineering community is largely unknown for this. For instance, he was the inventor of the AC motor, high frequency electronics, the inventor of remotely controlled vehicles, and the true inventor of radio. He, not Edison, was responsible for our modern electrical system. Edison cheated him out of a well disserved bonus when he worked for him, leading to his leaving the Edison General Electric Company and going to Westinghouse Electric, where he championed AC power and was responsible for harnessing Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, Edison was a better promoter of himself, resulting on our knowing about Edison and not Tesla. While Edison has become the prototype inventor, Tesla (actually much more creative and a much more important inventor) is now largely known as an inventor of "death rays" and machines that could "split the world". This aspect of his career is based on actual work that he did, but work that has been blown out of all proportion by modern science fiction writers. Late in his career Tesla did study lightening and resonant behavior and did allude to this it terms of "death rays" and "earth splitting" devices, but these inventions never became a reality as "death rays" or "earth shattering" devices. Some writers have proposed that they were successful but that the secrets of the extreme technology died with him or were suppressed by the government. The truth is probably that while his experiments were real and based on solid science, they never rose to the extraordinary heights that hoped they would. There are those who believe that by the time he was working on them he was starting to show the signs of mental instability that got progressively worse as he aged. He never married or apparently had any close romantic relationship and died alone and almost unknown. He was a highly principled, but eccentric man, who was more interested in his work than in money - he turned down royalties that would have made him very rich in order to save Westinghouse Electric and as a result died almost penniless. This is all discussed, but not critically or in great depth.

I liked this book - it was informative and a quick read. It would be a great choice for someone who knows nothing about Tesla. Those who know a lot about him may like the pictures, but they may be a little disappointed if they want a critical, in depth, treatment of his life and inventions.

an excellent introduction to one of the most incredible inventors we have ever had. His accomplishments are too long to list. Great condition, great price on the book...
A+++

This book about Tesla does not offer a very definitive overview about the man and the scientist.I thought this particular biography on the life of Tesla was rather weak.There are much better ones around.The best one being,'The Wizard'.The pictures are quite interesting,showing many of his inventions and social situations concerning the work and exhibits by Nikola Tesla.Yet,from a scientific technical point-of-view this book is light-weight on formulas and construction.Die-hard fans of the Tesla genre,would all agree,that this book could be better.Maybe the authors wanted to attract more readers ,by not scaring them off with too much scientific jargon. I would still recommend this Tesla book.

So the Brooklyn Dogers were named because the denizens of Brooklyn were dodging the electricity in the trolley tracks and not the trolleys themselves; The American Expeditionary Force in WWI was named that because the citizens of the US couldn't get their heads around the fact that the country was going to war; and the V1 buzz bomb of WWII was radio guided. These are just three of the "factoids" that we learn from Tesla: Master of Lightning, when the authors aren't fawning over their hero and giving him credit for every advancement in science since 1880.
The book is poorly written and researched.