Tesla : inventor of the modern

Format:

Book

Title:

Tesla : inventor of the modern

Author:

Munson, Richard author

ISBN:

9780393635447

Edition:

First edition.

Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2018]

Physical Description:

306 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Contents:

Introduction: Everywhere is energy -- Born between today and tomorrow -- A glorious dream -- Reverberation of Heaven's artillery -- A whirling field of force -- As revolutionary as gunpowder was to warfare -- Order of the flaming sword -- Divine organ of sight -- Earthquakes and friends -- Fire and robots -- Like a god controlling nature's power -- Sheer audacity -- Too much of a poet and visionary -- So far ahead of his time -- Epilogue: Boldness of ignorance -- Appendix: The marvel of electricity.

Summary:

"Nikola Tesla invented the radio, robots, and remote control. His electric induction motors run our appliances and factories, yet he has been largely overlooked by history. In Tesla, Richard Munson presents a comprehensive portrait of this farsighted and underappreciated mastermind."--Publisher's description.

Personal Subject:

Tesla, Nikola, 1856-1943.

Tesla, Nikola, 1856-1943. (OCoLC)fst00028173

Subject(s):

Electrical engineers -- United States -- Biography.

Inventors -- United States -- Biography.

Electrical engineering -- History.

Inventors. -- United States -- Biography.

Geographic Term:

United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

History.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Silver Falls Library	921 TESLA	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Lyons Public Library	921 TESLA	Searching... Unknown
Searching... McMinnville Public Library	926 Tesla, Nikola	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Salem Main Library	921 Tesla, Nikola 2018	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Nikola Tesla invented the radio, robots, and remote control. His electric induction motors run our appliances and factories, yet he has been largely overlooked by history. In Tesla, Richard Munson presents a comprehensive portrait of this farsighted and underappreciated mastermind.

When his first breakthrough--alternating current, the basis of the electric grid--pitted him against Thomas Edison's direct-current empire, Tesla's superior technology prevailed. Unfortunately, he had little business sense and could not capitalize on this success. His most advanced ideas went unrecognized for decades: forty years in the case of the radio patent, longer still for his ideas on laser beam technology. Although penniless during his later years, he never stopped imagining. In the early 1900s, he designed plans for cell phones, the Internet, death-ray weapons, and interstellar communications. His ideas have lived on to shape the modern economy.

Who was this genius? Drawing on letters, technical notebooks, and other primary sources, Munson pieces together the magnificently bizarre personal life and mental habits of the enigmatic inventor. Born during a lightning storm at midnight, Tesla died alone in a New York City hotel. He was an acute germaphobe who never shook hands and required nine napkins when he sat down to dinner. Strikingly handsome and impeccably dressed, he spoke eight languages and could recite entire books from memory. Yet Tesla's most famous inventions were not the product of fastidiousness or linear thought but of a mind fueled by both the humanities and sciences: he conceived the induction motor while walking through a park and reciting Goethe's Faust.

Tesla worked tirelessly to offer electric power to the world, to introduce automatons that would reduce life's drudgery, and to develop machines that might one day abolish war. His story is a reminder that technology can transcend the marketplace and that profit is not the only motivation for invention. This clear, authoritative, and highly readable biography takes account of all phases of Tesla's remarkable life.

Author Notes

Richard Munson is the author of several books, including From Edison to Enron and Cousteau: The Captain and His World. Based in Chicago, Illinois, he directs Environmental Defense Fund's clean-energy efforts in the Midwest.

Reviews (3)

Kirkus Review

A lucid, expertly researched biography of the brilliant Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), a contemporary and competitor of Thomas Edison who was equally celebrated during his life.Munson (From Edison to Enron: The Business of Power and What It Means for the Future of Electricity, 2005, etc.), who directs the Environment Defense Fund's clean energy work in the Midwest, emphasizes that Tesla was a prodigy starting from his childhood in Serbia. Coming to the United States in 1884, he worked for Edison, whose company was installing the first electric lighting in American cities using complex direct current generators, which were limited to transmitting short distances and suitable only for electric lighting. An eccentric workaholic who knew far more science than the uneducated Edison, Tesla had been working on an efficient alternating current system. Edison rejected it, but George Westinghouse hired Tesla; after a bitter, decadelong "war of currents," Tesla emerged victorious. His AC "dramatically expanded the potential market for electricity, allowing it to be sold not just at night for lighting but also during the day for factories, appliances, and streetcar lines. For the first time, [AC] could be pumped for hundreds of miles and efficiently power machines as well as lamps." By the 1890s, Tesla was a wealthy celebrity whose lectures thrilled audiences with demonstrations of spectacular electrical phenomena. Although he continued to invent and patent essential features of radio, wireless telegraphy, and even computers, he grew obsessed with visionary, expensive megaprojectse.g., wireless power transmissionmost of which never panned out. Investors stopped investing, and he spent his final decades entertaining journalists and the public with sometimes-accurate, often wacky predictions but producing little of commercial value. As the author notes, "he believed the joy of inventing went beyond the accumulation of profits."Readers will share Munson's frustration at this seeming frittering of a magnificent talent, but they will absolutely enjoy his sympathetic, insightful portrait. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

For his many popular groundbreaking inventions, from motion pictures to record players, Thomas Edison rightfully earned his place in the history books as one of the world's greatest inventors and entrepreneurs. Yet, garnering less attention while he was alive and ultimately dying in poverty, Nikola Tesla, Edison's contemporary, is often deemed by today's scientists and engineers particularly Elon Musk, who named a car after him as the greater prodigy. In this celebratory, comprehensive profile of Tesla, author and clean-energy-activist Munson, in contrast to previous Tesla biographers, turns the spotlight onto the inventor's inner world, tracing the roots of Tesla's uncanny resourcefulness to his early family life. Born in Serbia, allegedly during a midnight thunderstorm, Tesla grew up in the shadow of his polymath father and gifted older brother, fueling both his later career, Munson argues, as a flamboyant showman, and his almost-obsessive passion to push his inventive creativity to extremes of impracticality. A well-written, insightful addition to the legacy of this still-underappreciated visionary genius.--Hays, Carl Copyright 2018 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) is well revered by today's entrepreneurs for his moonshot visions of the future. As the inventor of alternating current (AC) power systems and one of the primary contributors to radio technology, his work has only recently been recognized. Munson (George Fabyan) affirms the myth of the Serbian American inventor and engineer as an isolated genius willing to reshape the present into the future, if only given the opportunity and the financial support. Munson capably describes Tesla as a man before his time, often misunderstood because few shared his imagination and insight. He presents Tesla as the "true inventor of radio," a claim disputed by those favoring Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. Since Tesla lived and died between the ages of lone and corporate invention, it is unsurprising that some of the credit due him has been questioned. As an earnest proponent of Tesla, Munson may be accused of hyperbole-if Tesla were not so worthy of it. -VERDICT Entrepreneurs, inventors, engineers, and futurists will find this biography inspiring.-Ricardo Laskaris, York Univ. Lib., -Toronto © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Introduction: Everywhere Is Energy	p. 1
1 Born Between Today And Tomorrow	p. 9
2 A Glorious Dream	p. 35
3 Reverberation Of Heaven's Artillery	p. 47
4 A Whirling Field Of Force	p. 67
5 As Revolutionary As Gunpowder Was To Warfare	p. 73
6 Order Of The Flaming Sword	p. 87
7 Divine Organ Of Sight	p. 97
8 Earthquakes And Friends	p. 119
9 Fire And Robots	p. 137
10 Like A God Controlling Nature's Power	p. 151
11 Sheer Audacity	p. 167
12 Too Much Of A Poet And Visionary	p. 191
13 So Far Ahead Of His Time	p. 207
Epilogue: Boldness Of Ignorance	p. 237
Appendix: The Marvel Of Electricity	p. 253
Acknowledgments	p. 261
Notes	p. 263
Index	p. 291

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (3)

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

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