Tesla : inventor of the electrical age / W. Bernard Carlson.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The definitive account of Tesla's life and work

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.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Born in 1856, in the town of Smiljan, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Nikola Tesla rose to great intellectual prominence with an array of inventions that included fluorescent lighting, the Tesla coil, the alternating current induction motor, wireless communication, and the laser beam. Carlson (history, Sch. of Engineering & Applied Science, Univ. of Virginia; Technology in World History) presents a new interpretation of Tesla, not as the eccentric that he has long been portrayed, but as a "theoretical inventor" similar to Alexander Graham Bell, torn by an internal struggle "between ideal and illusion" and not always successful in transforming his theoretical genius into profit. In impressive scholarly detail, Carlson's biography examines not only Tesla's amazing inventions but also his motivations for invention and his incredible drive to see his ideas come to fruition. VERDICT This is a fascinating glimpse into the life of a monumental inventor whose impact on our contemporary world is all too unfamiliar to the general public. Carlson relates the science behind Tesla's inventions with a judicial balance that will engage both the novice and the academic alike. Highly recommended to serious biography buffs and to readers of scientific subjects.-Brian Odom, Birmingham, AL (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

The flamboyant Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), as famous as Thomas Edison during his heyday, is now remembered largely for his eccentricities and his eponymous science museum staple, the Tesla coil. Here, University of Virginia tech and history professor Carlson (Technology in World History) sheds light on the man and plenty of his inventions. A Serbian-born engineer, Tesla came to the U.S. in 1884 to work for Edison Machine Works, whose namesake was then doggedly pioneering direct-current (DC) generators and attacking the work of his rival and alternating-current (AC) champion, George Westinghouse. Nevertheless, Tesla's prodigious talents resulted in a watershed invention for the other team and helped pave the way for AC to become today's electrical standard. Fascinated with wireless power transmission, Tesla also invented key components of telegraphy, radio, and television while making headlines with spectacular public demonstrations. Sadly, investors gradually lost interest-Tesla lacked the business acumen of Edison. But he was quite the showman-he regaled reporters with claims of wild inventions, like a superpowerful "particle beam weapon" that could blast planes from the sky, and drew the curious attention of Mark Twain. More technical than previous biographies, Carlson's electric portrait might turn off casual readers, but scholars will find it illuminating. 56 photos & 32 illus. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), inventor and visionary, both pioneered the technology on which modernity is based and inspired a cult following that has distorted his true legacy. Until now, his biographers tended to play up the dramatic and eccentric aspects of his career. While biographies such as Margaret Cheney's Tesla: Man Out of Time (1981) are entertaining, they generally fail to examine Tesla's technical contributions in depth. Historian Carlson (Univ. of Virginia), editor of the award-winning multivolume Technology in World History (2005), has at last written a balanced and nuanced scholarly treatment of Tesla in the technical and social contexts of his times. Carlson conducted extensive archival research to portray Tesla's outstanding technical prowess as well as his love of publicity, which led eventually to a loss of credibility with both the engineering community and his financial backers. Carlson's easy-to-read style and almost flawless exposition of technical matters will make this book attractive for everyone from general readers to engineers and historians. It is well illustrated and indexed with extensive footnotes. This book is likely to become the standard scholarly biography of Tesla for decades to come. Summing Up: Essential. All library collections. K. D. Stephan Texas State University--San Marcos

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Nikola Tesla once noted that the men who worked for him sometimes thought I was some kind of magician or hypnotizer. Like Tesla's assistants, biographer Carlson sees the magician and hypnotizer in the astonishing inventor. Readers, too, will perceive the magic-working wizard in the Serbian-born genius as he translates intensely conceived imaginative ideals into world-changing technologies such as the alternating-current motor and the radio-controlled boat. And they will recognize something of the hypnotizer in the flamboyant showman who dazzles lecture-hall audiences and potential backers with electric flames passing through his body. Carlson even has something to teach readers familiar with Seifer's dissection of Tesla's tortured psyche in Wizard (1996) and O'Neill's much earlier chronicle of Tesla's childhood and early career in Prodigal Genius (1944). Carlson provides not only a more detailed explanation of Tesla's science but also a more focused psychological account of Tesla's inventive process than do his predecessors. Carlson also surpasses his predecessors in showing how Tesla promoted his inventions by creating luminous illusions of progress, prosperity, and peace, illusions so strong that they finally unhinge their creator. An exceptional fusion of technical analysis of revolutionary devices and imaginative sympathy for a lacerated ego.--Christensen, Bryce Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

A scholarly, critical, mostly illuminating study of the life and work of the great Serbian inventor. Nikola Tesla (18561943) is so central a figure in the annals of modern science, writes Carlson (Science, Technology and Engineering/Univ. of Virginia; Technology in World History, 2005, etc.), that he has come to be regarded as "second only to Leonardo da Vinci in terms of technological virtuosity" and is sometimes portrayed as the single-handed inventor of the modern age, thwarted by the envious likes of Thomas Edison and Guglielmo Marconi. The truth is more complicated, and though Tesla's innovations figure in the everyday technology of the present day, he seems to have had more failures than successes, as well as a singular knack for having his thunder stolen by his competitors. Carlson examines Tesla's processes of invention, experimentation and confirmation, as well as how he brought (or failed to bring) his inventions to market. Though the author protests early on that he will work from documentary evidence and not speculation, he hazards a few smart guesses from time to time ("I suspect that this willingness to seek the ideal grew out of the religious beliefs he acquired from his father and uncles in the Serbian Orthodox Church"; "I don't think Tesla was at all worried as he had full confidence in his abilities as an inventor"). One, central if sometimes overlooked in other more celebratory studies, is the origin of Tesla's notions of a rotating magnetic field, which may or may not have come from the work of a British contemporary--or, alternately, from an insight garnered from a between-the-lines reading of Goethe. Carlson also offers insight into Tesla's urge to create disruptive technologies and to pursue "the grander and more difficult challenges." Carlson tends to academic dryness and to a fondness for the smallest of details. Though Tesla deserves such serious treatment, his book is likelier to appeal to specialists than general readers.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

W. Bernard Carlson is professor of science, technology, and society in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and professor of history at the University of Virginia. His books include Technology in World History and Innovation as a Social Process: Elihu Thomson and the Rise of General Electric, 1870-1900 .