The Collected Works of Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla

Tuned Lightning

       Tesla's Wireless Torpedo

       Tesla's Tidal Wave to Make War Impossible

       Possibilities of Wireless

       My Apparatus, Says Tesla

       Mr. Tesla's Vision

       What Science May Achieve This Year - New Mechancial Principle for Conservation of Energy

       The Disturbing Influence of Solar Radiation On the Wireless Transmission of Energy

       How Cosmic Forces Shape Our Destinies

       Some Personal Recollections

       Wonders of the Future

       Electric Drive for Battle Ships

       A Lighting Machine on Novel Principles

       Electrical Oscillators

       Letters to Magazine Editors

       Mr. Nikola Tesla on Alternate Current Motors

       The Losses Due to Hysteresis in Transformers

       The Tesla Alternate Current Motor

       Tesla's New Alternating Motors

       Alternate Current Motors

       Electro-motors

       Phenomena of Currents of High Frequency

       Mr. Tesla on Thermo Electricity

       Nicola Tesla Objects

       The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla

My Inventions – Autobiography of Nikola Tesla

       Table of Contents

       I. My Early Life.

       II. My First Efforts At Invention

       III. My Later Endeavors

       IV. The Discovery of the Tesla Coil and Transformer

       V. The Magnifying Transmitter

       VI. The Art of Telautomatics

      I. My Early Life.

       Table of Contents

      The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain. Its ultimate purpose is the complete mastery of mind over the material world, the harnessing of the forces of nature to human needs. This is the difficult task of the inventor who is often misunderstood and unrewarded. But he finds ample compensation in the pleasing exercises of his powers and in the knowledge of being one of that exceptionally privileged class without whom the race would have long ago perished in the bitter struggle against pitiless elements.

      Speaking for myself, I have already had more than my full measure of this exquisite enjoyment, so much that for many years my life was little short of continuous rapture. I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labor, for I have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours. But if work is interpreted to be a definite performance in a specified time according to a rigid rule, then I may be the worst of idlers. Every effort under compulsion demands a sacrifice of life-energy. I never paid such a price. On the contrary, I have thrived on my thoughts.

      In attempting to give a connected and faithful account of my activities in this series of articles which will be presented with the assistance of the Editors of the ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTER and are chiefly addrest to our young men readers, I must dwell, however reluctantly, on the impressions of my youth and the circumstances and events which have been instrumental in determining my career.

      Our first endeavors are purely instinctive, promptings of an imagination vivid and undisciplined. As we grow older reason asserts itself and we become more and more systematic and designing. But those early impulses, tho not immediately productive, are of the greatest moment and may shape our very destinies. Indeed, I feel now that had I understood and cultivated instead of suppressing them, I would have added substantial value to my bequest to the world. But not until I had attained manhood did I realize that I was an inventor.

      This was due to a number of causes. In the first place I had a brother who was gifted to an extraordinary degree—one of those rare phenomena of mentality which biological investigation has failed to explain. His premature death left my parents disconsolate. We owned a horse which had been presented to us by a dear friend. It was a magnificent animal of Arabian breed, possest of almost human intelligence, and was cared for and petted by the whole family, having on one occasion saved my father's life under remarkable circumstances. My father had been called one winter night to perform an urgent duty and while crossing the mountains, infested by wolves, the horse became frightened and ran away, throwing him violently to the ground. It arrived home bleeding and exhausted, but after the alarm was sounded immediately dashed off again, returning to the spot, and before the searching party were far on the way they were met by my father, who had recovered consciousness and remounted, not realizing that he had been lying in the snow for several hours. This horse was responsible for my brother's injuries from which he died. I witnest the tragic scene and altho fifty-six years have elapsed since, my visual impression of it has lost none of its force. The recollection of his attainments made every effort of mine seem dull in comparison.

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