Tesla book

I enjoyed this one when I read it many years ago, though it's not about Tesla exclusively:

Incidentally this patent of George Westinghouse's was pretty clever for

The emergency lighting in my building's stairwells works about the same way in 2022, glad some later folks invented a diode, though.

The fortunes and fates of the three men are so entangled after a certain point it's hard to write about one without bringing in the other two.

The Wikipedia article is actually quite good:

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Joe Gwinn

One of the more accurate biographies (with good technical information for context) is: "Wizard: the Life and Times of Nikola Tesla : Biography of a Genius" by Marc J Seifer, Kensington Publishing Corp., ISBN 978-0806535562, 678pp. This is essentially Seifer's published PhD thesis.

For books that also cover technical details, two books come to mind:

1. "The Inventions, Researches, and Writings of Nikola Tesla: With Special References to his Work in Polyphase Currents and High Potential Lighting" by Thomas Commerford Martin, D. Van Nostrand, 1894, 518pp Get an inexpensive reprint edition such as the one from Barnes and Noble. Covers Tesla's early work (before 1894)

1. "Nikola Tesla Colorado Springs Notes - 1899-1900", Manuscript prepared by Nolit Press, by the Tesla Museum, Beograd, 1978. Used book often available on eBay or used book marketplace (search via
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These look like good references. If they are not cited in the Wiki, they should be.

Thanks.

Joe Gwinn

Oh, not so! He was a kind of genius, but the kind that cannot communicate well. His designs all got reworked and improved with Steinmetz's math methods, but he had a lot of the basics before his competition: Marconi's radio patent was rule invalid because of prior work by Tesla. Even if the prior work wasn't 'a usable mainstream product', it had good value.

He was also a self-promoter in his later years; huckster is a single facet, not the whole.

They call it "failing upwards", being white and heir to a South African emerald mine can help with the process.

Interesting to note that Musk has never stated apartheid in South Africa was a bad idea, just that the practice wasn't "worth his time" to support there.

IMO it gets clearer with time that he felt supporting apartheid in the US was a more appropriate goal, the apple don't fall far from the tree.

Let's see; Tesla was awarded over 700 patents, which would make him a REMARKABLE huckster to pull the wool over the eyes of SO MANY examiners. He also licensed polyphase power transmission to Westinghouse, which is STILL in use today and for the foreseeable future, making his powers of hucksterism absolutely OUT OF THIS WORLD!