Authors Margaret Cheney and Robert Uth created a masterpiece on the life of Nikola Tesla, in my opinion the greatest mind the world has ever known. This book should be required reading in schools. What I find incredible is that how far ahead of his time he was many of his concepts are being researched and pursued today. This is an interesting story about a fascinating man. But despite his countless inventions and patents, he was not a businessman, and he ended up dying penniless. It sounds like science fiction, and his thinking was so far ahead of much of the world that he could often make claims that people would believe, even if he meant them in jest. He understood its implications so completely that he was planning on using it for a jumping-off point for wireless energy, worldwide communication (and even communication to other planets), and had plans for a death ray that would shoot down hundreds of planes from 250 miles away. Perhaps his invention that still hasn’t been completely understood is the Tesla coil. He took the first step that led to inventions like the wireless telegraph, the x ray, remote control, and was solely responsible for alternating current and the AC motor, which revolutionized industry. And because he could understand its nature, he could apply it in ways that people like Edison and Marconi and Roentgen (the inventor of the x-ray) could only guess at.

From the very beginning, he had a grasp on the nature of electricity that no one else alive had, or perhaps even anyone today. And reading this book helps you really understand how much of a genius he was. Genius is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot, and most of the time we’re just talking about someone who is a tick or two smarter than the rest of us.

Nikola tesla margaret cheney