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Nikola Tesla

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1956. Contains lectures, patents and articles by the scientist and inventor who developed the AC current system and contributed greatly to science and humanity. This volume is a collection of documents chosen not only as precious evidence of Tesla's important scientific work, but they also provide a worthy signpost for the present and future generations of inventors of all fields of science and technics. Includes hundreds of diagrams and illustrations. This scarce work has four pages that have portions that are illegible.

552 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

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Nikola Tesla

361 books1,434 followers
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist. He is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.
Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla first studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree. He then gained practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884 he emigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed.
Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wirelessly controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it.
After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943. Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the International System of Units (SI) measurement of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s.

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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
Profile Image for Alexandra.
146 reviews17 followers
July 31, 2014
Nikola Tesla is the greatest man that have ever lived. Thank you for everything. :))))
Profile Image for Sheryl Sato.
Author 2 books4 followers
March 8, 2019
A fascinating autobiography filled with ideas and inventions.
Favourite passage:
Only through the annihilation of distance in every respect, as the conveyance of intelligence, transport of passengers and supplies and transmission of energy will conditions be brought about some day, insuring permanency of friendly relations. What we not want most is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth and the elimination of that fanatic devotion to exalted ideals of national egoism and pride, which is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism an strife. No league or parliamentary act of any kind will ever prevent such a calamity. There are only new devices for putting the weak at the mercy of the strong.
Profile Image for Rosa Ramôa.
1,570 reviews86 followers
February 8, 2017
“O dia em que a ciência começar a estudar os fenómenos não físicos, ela vai fazer mais progressos em uma década do que em todos os séculos anteriores de sua existência”.
Profile Image for EleneB.
58 reviews3 followers
August 9, 2019
ლეგენდა, რომელმაც მომავალი შექმნა...
Profile Image for Agostinho Paulo.
39 reviews16 followers
February 23, 2016
Allegedly Einstein was once asked, ‘How does it feel to be the smartest man alive?’, he responded, ‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Nikola Tesla.' This is probably not true, but Tesla's genius was far up there and yet he has been largely shunned in science hall of fame. Even Edison who jacked some of his ideas got shine. In spite of his bizarre eccentricities, I've always loved me some Tesla.
Profile Image for Paulino Silva.
47 reviews
February 3, 2019
Nikola Tesla revolucionou a engenharia elétrica com a energia alternada e já fazia projetos e projeções de tecnologias sobre transmissão sem fios, internet, drones, inteligência artificial no século 19. Obsessivo compulsivo e obstinado, não fazia qualquer divisão entre ciência e espiritualidade. Um livro dele por ele mesmo é um achado àqueles que souberem impor limites ao seu ego descritivo e mente imaginativa. Vale a pena ler.
Profile Image for David Irvine.
8 reviews1 follower
May 10, 2019
A master of creation. Telsas patents become easier to read and understand the more you look at them. At first, they seem complicated but this book has given me a great insight into the world of currents and electricity.
Profile Image for Brian Heck.
100 reviews
Read
June 24, 2020
Very interesting book on Tesla. The ideas and inventions paved the way for what we have now.
Profile Image for Angela.
94 reviews4 followers
July 13, 2013
This was an easy read. I read it in one evening and I am a slow reader. It was well written and thought provoking. Worth the read.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews

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