My Later Endeavors Summary and Analysis

Tesla enjoys his studies at the Real Gymnasium for the most part. He excels at math, and is able to do quite complex computations in his head by visualizing them. He is attracted by the mechanical models and attributes his early interest in invention to them, fired by his experience with the fire engine. He makes an early attempt at inventing a perpetual motion machine by partly surrounding a carefully-constructed wooden cylinder with a vacuum. His machine seems to work in principle as the cylinder rotates slightly. Later he realizes that it moves because there is a leak in the device, and is devastated.

One of the requirements of the curriculum is drawing, and this Tesla finds he has no talent for at all. This is worrisome, because drawing is a requirement for advanced study under the...