Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age

517 Pages·2013·5.6 MB·English

by  W. Bernard Carlson

Inventor of the eleCtrICal age
W. Bernard Carlson
PrInCeton UnIversItYP rPIrneCseston and oXford
Copyright © 2013 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey
08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock,
Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
Jacket and frontispiece photograph: Nikola Tesla, c.1894. Bain News Service. USA
Reproduction Number: LC- DIG- ggbain- 04851 (digital file from original neg.):
LC- B2- 1026- 9 [P&P]. Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Carlson, W. Bernard.
Tesla : inventor of the electrical age / W. Bernard Carlson.
pages cm
Summary: “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-p romoter 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-b eam 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”—P rovided by publisher.
Summary: “This is a biography of one of the major 20th- century scientists, Nikola
Tesla. It is interdisciplinary, containing accounts of U.S. manufacturing in the early
1900s and other contemporary cultural materials”— Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 691- 05776- 7 (hardback : acid- free paper)
1. Tesla, Nikola, 1856– 1943. 2. Electrical engineers— United States- - Biography. 3.
Inventors— United States— Biography. I. Title.
TK140.T4C37 2013 621.3092— dc23
[B] 2012049608
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
This book has been composed in Baskerville 10 Pro and Outage Cut
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Jane, who has believed from the very beginning
For Tom Hughes, to whom the debt can never be repaid

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction
Dinner at Delmonico’s 1
Chapter one
An Ideal Childhood (1856– 1878) 12
Chapter two
Dreaming of Motors (1878– 1882) 34
Chapter three
Learning by Doing (1882– 1886) 60
Chapter four
Mastering Alternating Current (1886– 1888) 76
Chapter five
Selling the Motor (1888– 1889) 100
Chapter six
Searching for a New Ideal (1889– 1891) 117
Chapter seven
A Veritable Magician (1891) 129
Chapter eight
Taking the Show to Europe (1891– 1892) 143
viii © Contents
Chapter nine
Pushing Alternating Current in America (1892– 1893) 158
Chapter ten
Wireless Lighting and the Oscillator (1893– 1894) 176
Chapter eleven
Efforts at Promotion (1894– 1895) 193
Chapter twelve
Looking for Alternatives (1895– 1898) 214
Chapter thirteen
Stationary Waves (1899– 1900) 262
Chapter fourteen
Wardenclyffe (1900– 1901) 302
Chapter fifteen
The Dark Tower (1901– 1905) 331
Chapter sixteen
Visionary to the End (1905– 1943) 368
epilogue 396
Note on Sources 415
Abbreviations and Sources 421
Notes 423
Acknowledgments 473
Index 477
Illustrations
figure 0.1. “Showing the Inventor [Tesla] in the Effulgent
Glory of Myriad Tongues of Electric Flame After He Has
Saturated Himself with Electricity.” 2
figure 1.1. Tesla’s father, Milutin. 15
figure 1.2. Tesla’s birthplace in Smiljan in Lika. 16
figure 2.1. Faraday’s principle of electromagnetic induction. 36
figure 2.2. Diagram illustrating the right- hand rule. 36
figure 2.3. Hippolyte Pixii’s magneto with the first
commutator from 1832. 38
figure 2.4. Simplified view of an electric generator. 39
figure 2.5. Simplified view of a commutator in an electric
generator. 40
figure 2.6. Gramme generator for classroom
demonstrations. 42
figure 2.7. Arago’s spinning disk and Babbage and
Hershel’s modification. 53
figure 2.8. Eddy currents in a disk spinning in a magnetic
field. 54
figure 2.9. Baily’s electric motor from 1879. 56
figure 3.1. First transformers developed by Zipernowsky,
Bláthy, and Déri in 1884– 85. 62
figure 3.2. Tesla when he was in Paris in 1883. 63
ix