Tesla: Inventor of the Modern

by Richard Munson

Overview

"[A] penetrating biography…Munson makes vivid the genius’s eventful life." —Barbara Kiser, Nature

Nikola Tesla invented radio, robots, and remote control. His electric induction motors run our appliances and factories. In the early 1900s, he designed plans for cell phones, the Internet, death-ray weapons, and interstellar communication. His ideas have lived on to shape the modern economy, yet he has been largely overlooked by history. In Tesla, Richard Munson presents a comprehensive portrait of this farsighted and underappreciated mastermind. Drawing on letters, technological notebooks, and other primary sources, Munson pieces together the magnificently bizarre personal life and mental habits of the enigmatic inventor whose most famous inventions were the product of a mind fueled by both the humanities and sciences—Tesla conceived the induction motor while walking through a park and reciting Goethe’s Faust. Clear, authoritative, and highly readable, Tesla takes into account all the phases of Tesla’s remarkable life and career.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393358049
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/15/2019
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	625,297
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 4.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Richard Munson is the author of several books, including Tesla: Inventor of the Modern. He lives in the Midwest.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Everywhere Is Energy 1

1 Born Between Today And Tomorrow 9

2 A Glorious Dream 35

3 Reverberation Of Heaven's Artillery 47

4 A Whirling Field Of Force 67

5 As Revolutionary As Gunpowder Was To Warfare 73

6 Order Of The Flaming Sword 87

7 Divine Organ Of Sight 97

8 Earthquakes And Friends 119

9 Fire And Robots 137

10 Like A God Controlling Nature's Power 151

11 Sheer Audacity 167

12 Too Much Of A Poet And Visionary 191

13 So Far Ahead Of His Time 207

Epilogue: Boldness Of Ignorance 237

Appendix: The Marvel Of Electricity 253

Acknowledgments 261

Notes 263

Index 291

Editorial Reviews

"A detailed and vivid glimpse of the competitive world of electrical innovation at the end of the 19th century."

Spectator - Christopher Priest

"Tesla’s life was rich in fascinating incident and characters—and, above all, spectacle.… Munson tells the story engagingly."

Times Literary Supplement - Thomas Morris

"An entertaining, sympathetic glimpse into the life of the under-appreciated genius."

Washington Independent Review of Books

"Nikola Tesla, though one of the great heroes of recent history, is rarely given his due. In this book Munson brings Tesla to life, not as a superhero but as a man. His inventions, fortitude, and foibles are explained in clear and accessible language so that nonspecialists can easily understand what distinguished his undertakings from those of his peers and competitors. Late nineteenth and early twentieth century America comes to life as Tesla makes his way through it, inventing it (literally) as it also shapes him. Without Tesla’s work, we would scarcely recognize our world."

Gretchen Bakke

"Penetrating … Munson makes vivid the genius’s eventful life."

Nature

"A well-written, insightful addition to the legacy of this still-underappreciated visionary genius."

Booklist

"Tesla is an exactingly researched history and wonderfully crafted tale of one of the most important and fascinating visionaries of the technological age. Tesla’s inventiveness spans the second and third industrial revolutions. As the genius behind alternating-current electrical transmission and the electric system, he created the foundational infrastructure for the twentieth-century economy. As a pioneer visionary behind wireless communications technology, his legacy helped establish the framework for the digital age. This is an important narrative for what it reveals about the culture of inventiveness. Its teachings have never been more relevant than in today’s world of digital transformation."

Anne Pramaggiore

"Penetrating … Munson makes vivid the genius’s eventful life."

Nature Lib

★ 2018-03-05
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 megaprojects—e.g., wireless power transmission—most 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.

Kirkus Reviews