Nikola Tesla

The author and the subject of the autobiography, Nikola Tesla is born in Smiljan, Croatia, in the late 19th century. His father is a professor of mathematics and his uncle a high-ranking clergyman in the Serbian Orthodox church. Tesla is educated in Gospic and Carlstadt, Croatia, with his father insistent that he enter the church for a career. Tesla himself is fascinated by physics and electricity and eventually convinces his father to allow him to study engineering. He completes his education in Gratz and in Prague.

Tesla finds his first steady job helping construct a new telephone system in Budapest, then moves to Paris where he makes connections with Americans who convince him to go to America. He is hired by Thomas Edison to help design electric motors, and later starts his own laboratory.

Tesla is an innovative inventor whose major contributions to electrical engineering are the...