Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla
By Marc Seifer
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), credited as the inspiration for radio, robots, and even radar, has been called the patron saint of modern electricity. Based on original material and previously unavailable documents, this acclaimed book is the definitive biography of the man considered by many to be the founding father of modern electrical technology. Among Tesla’s creations were the channeling of alternating current, fluorescent and neon lighting, wireless telegraphy, and the giant turbines that harnessed the power of Niagara Falls.
This essential biography is illustrated with sixteen pages of photographs, including the July 20, 1931, Time magazine cover for an issue celebrating the inventor’s career.
“A deep and comprehensive biography of a great engineer of early electrical science--likely to become the definitive biography. Highly recommended.”--American Association for the Advancement of Science
“Seifer's vivid, revelatory, exhaustively researched biography rescues pioneer inventor Nikola Tesla from cult status and restores him to his rightful place as a principal architect of the modern age.” --Publishers Weekly Starred Review
“[Wizard] brings the many complex facets of [Tesla's] personal and technical life together in to a cohesive whole....I highly recommend this biography of a great technologist.” --A.A. Mullin, U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command, COMPUTING REVIEWS
“[Along with A Beautiful Mind] one of the five best biographies written on the brilliantly disturbed.”--WALL STREET JOURNAL
“Wizard is a compelling tale presenting a teeming, vivid world of science, technology, culture and human lives.”-
Marc Seifer
Marc J. Seifer, Ph.D., author of more than 100 articles and a dozen books, including the acclaimed Wizard: The Life & Times of Nikola Tesla, has lectured at Brandeis University, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, West Point, and the United Nations. He has been featured in The Washington Post, Scientific American, MIT Technology Review, New York Times, The Economist, Nature, and New Scientist and has appeared on Coast to Coast AM, the BBC, NPR’s All Things Considered, and the History Channel. He lives in Rhode Island.
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Reviews for Wizard
61 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I could write a book about the author's failings, but his archival research provides great material on the social connections and personal side of the man. There was no need for the repetitive, unconvincing psychoanalysis, handwriting analysis, or defenses against claims of his homosexuality. His personal involvement in the narrative is frequently distracting. I was never sure if the organization was chronological or thematic either. Not a good source for understanding the science, inventions or engineering (my impression was the author didn't understand himself but perhaps he didn't want to explain things from later knowledge?). A quick Wikipedia search with links to the patents and web page discussions was much better at helping me to understand the inventions themselves.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5-very good education in all aspects, but had problems - gambled and quit school. -Interesting how the forefront of civilization changes, when he grew up in (present day) Croatia and Budapest (the Austro-Hungarian empire) in the 1850-80s, that was arguably among the most cutting-edge places in science, arts, etc. -had to do business with his inventions, not only make them. Same thing with Edison, for whom he briefly worked. Maybe having to do that was not so bad? -technology optimist. Worked on others to improve technology and progress so people could invent even more.-so much resources put into patent dealings...-said of Edison that with a little theory and learning he could have done much of what he did much quicker. Edison was man if trial and error.-Realized finite resources. Believed in transferring energy through the ether. If managed could transfer energy from falls etc to where needed. From Niagara Falls. -Turned increasingly eccentric. Claimed to be able to split the world in two with an oscillator generating the resonance of the earth, thereby creating eventually splitting it in two. But he did relate his ideas to science, and the author is perhaps too quick in dismissing as false those ideas and those of Newton and others on their time of making gold. First of all, at the time it may have been much less clear than now whether they were feasible, but even now we cannot claim to know them to be false. It may well be that one of the traits that do make great scientists great is an ability to entertain possibilities that seem far-fetched at first, but do so from a scientific viewpoint. -Tesla’s ideas important for Marconi’s radio.