Nikola Tesla, Electrical Genius

Electrical engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) was indeed an electrical genius. In language suitable for both young and old, author Arthur J. Beckhard describes all aspects of Tesla’s personal and professional life, including Tesla’s childhood and his education at primary school, at the Higher Real Gymnasium, and at the Polytechnic Institute; his years working for the telegraphic engineering department of Austria, then as an engineer in Paris, and then as an employee of Thomas Edison in America; his substitution of alternating current for direct current—a simpler and more economical method of converting electrical into mechanical energy; his rotary magnetic field, which was used in transmitting the power of Niagara Falls to nearby cities; his independent research at his own electrical laboratories in New Your City; and much more. Originally published in 1959 as part of Messner Publications' "Men of Science" series.