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The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla's Electricity Unplugged is a unique anthology of hand-picked Tesla articles, arranged historically, which presents overwhelming and convincing evidence for the reality of Tesla's high efficiency, low cost wireless power transmission. Following in the footsteps of the editor's first book in the series, Harnessing the Wheelwork of Nature, Dr. Tom Valone's book chronologically traces the original intention that Nikola Tesla had for his wireless electricity and how he updated and expanded upon it later on, with reprints of his key articles, to the recent genius engineers and physicists who are now finally bringing this last and most elusive, highly advanced Tesla technology into reality. The Corum article (along with the Peterson article) on the Zenneck wave transmission experiments culminates the viewpoints of all of the book's contributors. Its purposeful placement as the last chapter of the book, is because this exclusive article publication is a major scientific breakthrough, as testified by the book's endorsement from Brigadier General Michael Miller, and foretells the understandable, visionary road to the corporate formation of wireless power utilities. Furthermore, this is the first and only book in the world which explains how an electromagnetic wave traveling across the electrically conductive surface of the earth, was predicted by Tesla and Zenneck (two pictures in the book show them together on pages 74 and 381) and why it is the essential missing link of any Tesla wireless transmission theory. Many of the contributors also nicely explain the "surface wave phenomenon" as well as "resonant earth-ionosphere" modes of electrical transmission without wires that compliments the surface wave theory and experiment. Nikola Tesla's Electricity Unplugged therefore is a treasure compared to any other Tesla reference book currently in print, since it is jam-packed with personal stories of Tesla, such as one reprinted from the prestigious Smithsonian magazine, along with great illustrated slideshows adapted for the book format, the "secret" history of Tesla's wireless, the real Tesla electric car, high Q resonant power transfer examples being used today by Qualcomm, "Tesla unplugged" explained in an easy-to-understand presentation by a Brookhaven National Lab scientist, wireless electricity article based on scalar waves, even including a couple amazing rigorous equation articles with wireless solutions for the tech audience, a unique and evocative Foreword by Nikola Tesla's last living direct descendant, all presented in a 457-page paperback book, suitable as a college or high school reader, or simply as an eye-opening, optimistic window onto the electrical genius regarded as the "Master of Lightning," with a priceless collection of nineteen (19) contributors not available anywhere else.
324 pages, Paperback
First published June 30, 1993
33 people are currently reading
1,049 people want to read
About the author
Nikola Tesla
301 books1,376 followersNikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist. He is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.
Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla first studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree. He then gained practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884 he emigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed.
Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wirelessly controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it.
After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943. Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the International System of Units (SI) measurement of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s.
Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla first studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree. He then gained practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884 he emigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed.
Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wirelessly controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it.
After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943. Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the International System of Units (SI) measurement of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 10, 2016
No one doubts that Tesla was a genius and his uncountable inventions still inflame imagination.
However, this book is far beyond reliability, no matter how open minded one may be – time travel, teleportation, antigravity – really, if all these were possible, we would be populating at least this solar system in its entirety. The cherry on the cake was that he and Marconi fake their deaths and are still alive in a subterranean city in South America…
But I guess it’s worth skimming through, at least for the glimpse in his life and his credited inventions.
However, this book is far beyond reliability, no matter how open minded one may be – time travel, teleportation, antigravity – really, if all these were possible, we would be populating at least this solar system in its entirety. The cherry on the cake was that he and Marconi fake their deaths and are still alive in a subterranean city in South America…
But I guess it’s worth skimming through, at least for the glimpse in his life and his credited inventions.
February 26, 2010
woah.......tesla might still be alive!!!!!! some people think that he invented a time machine or teleporter and faked his death!!!!! others think that he was actually a reincarnation of and atlantean! and my friend thinks im a reincarnation of him......
January 2, 2008
Aren't there any good books written about Nikola Tesla?? This is the second one I've read, and both have been below par. "Fantastic Inventions" has entire chapters consisting of Tesla's patent drawings, none of which I can understand, being that I know nothing about how electricity works. But even if I did, there are no explanations accompanying the drawings, so what good are they? Other chapters seem to be lectures or articles he wrote. The Appendix is a partial transcript of a trial -just the part where witnesses are trying to describe the conditions of Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower before it was demolished. Some reprints of newspaper articles and photographs of the laboratories liven things up, but this books was very disappointing overall.
I took out of this two things of interest; One, that in his article of March 5, 1904 (Electrical World and Engineer) he states "... A cheap and simple device, which might be carried in one's pocket, may then be set up somewhere on sea or land, and it will record the world's news or such special messages as may be intended for it. Thus the entire earth will be converted into a huge brain, as it were, capable of response in every one of its parts." (Sounds like cell phones w/Internet access to me!) Two, that the mad scientist in the very first Max Fletcher "Superman" cartoons of the early 1940's were most likely patterned after Tesla, who believed that he had created a "Death-Beam" in 1934.
I took out of this two things of interest; One, that in his article of March 5, 1904 (Electrical World and Engineer) he states "... A cheap and simple device, which might be carried in one's pocket, may then be set up somewhere on sea or land, and it will record the world's news or such special messages as may be intended for it. Thus the entire earth will be converted into a huge brain, as it were, capable of response in every one of its parts." (Sounds like cell phones w/Internet access to me!) Two, that the mad scientist in the very first Max Fletcher "Superman" cartoons of the early 1940's were most likely patterned after Tesla, who believed that he had created a "Death-Beam" in 1934.
September 14, 2012
The narrative was mainly drawn from lectures Tesla gave. So, we get to hear his thoughts in his own words. The addition of patent illustrations and photos were a nice touch. There are even excerpts of court proceedings wherein Tesla was the defendant.
The end of the book gets weird and creepo. Apparently the 'author' draws conclusions about secret societies, UFOs, and visits to Mars...This was a huge leap from where the book began.
This is NOT a biography of Tesla. I'm still on the lookout for a solid one of those.
The end of the book gets weird and creepo. Apparently the 'author' draws conclusions about secret societies, UFOs, and visits to Mars...This was a huge leap from where the book began.
This is NOT a biography of Tesla. I'm still on the lookout for a solid one of those.
August 11, 2016
Impressive book, but not understandable outside a deep Electrical Engineer and Mechanical Engineering background. The additional content leans toward the mystical and fantastic rather than likely explanation of Tesla's brilliance shifting to imagination, which enabled the future-facing predictions to be inline with reality to some degree. I recommend reading The Wizard by Marc Seifer for a comprehensive and 5-star experience.
August 25, 2021
This book records the pictures of inventions made by Tesla, with some (insufficient) explanations. This might be better if there is another writer who can "decode" these raw patent graphs into explanations of what novelty each innovation has, and how it can inspire future innovators, like how Walter Isaacson decoded Leonardo da Vinci's notes which are tens of thousands of pages.
Main categories of Tesla's innovations by time:
1. First Biographical Sketch (1691)
2. The First Patents (1666 to 1606)
3. Experiments With Alternate Current Of High Potential & High Frequency (1691)
4. More Patents (1689 to 1900)
5. Transmission of Electric Energy Without Wires (1904)
6. Tesla's Amazing Death-Ray
7. The Most Unusual Inventions
8. The Last Patents (1913 to 1928)
9. Tesla & the Pyramids of Mars
Main categories of Tesla's innovations by time:
1. First Biographical Sketch (1691)
2. The First Patents (1666 to 1606)
3. Experiments With Alternate Current Of High Potential & High Frequency (1691)
4. More Patents (1689 to 1900)
5. Transmission of Electric Energy Without Wires (1904)
6. Tesla's Amazing Death-Ray
7. The Most Unusual Inventions
8. The Last Patents (1913 to 1928)
9. Tesla & the Pyramids of Mars
January 8, 2011
Just got done with this. the first third or half is pretty interesting. Biographical sketch of tesla coupled with some of his own papers regarding his AC power system and schematics of some of his inventions was pretty interesting. Some of it, in fact, far too detailed to understand, but i appreciate it coming from him. The second half of this book or maybe the last third, sucks. It gets boiled down to a kind of conspiracy theory/sci-fi jumble where the editor basically shoots his mouth off and makes some wild conjectures with no proof. Further, the last 2 chapters seemed to be more about conspiracies of time travel and interplanetary travel regarding marconi and his limited exposure to tesla--that isn't cited so i'm skeptical--and marconi's inventions! ahhhh what a horrid way to end a book. Crap. I'd say, go read the papers of tesla and leave the sci-fi/conspiracy garbage where it belongs: fiction.
February 3, 2010
I really liked that this book had all the patents and drawings of Tesla himself! I loved being able to read his own words, and read the papers he wrote or spoke himself at many various public functions.
More than reading his biographies, this book gave me a feel for what an educated and eloquent gentleman he was. I have great respect for him as a person, and a great awe for everything he discovered.
He truly is the Father of the technology of our modern era! Too bad more people don't know about his work!
More than reading his biographies, this book gave me a feel for what an educated and eloquent gentleman he was. I have great respect for him as a person, and a great awe for everything he discovered.
He truly is the Father of the technology of our modern era! Too bad more people don't know about his work!
September 9, 2014
When I grabbed this book at the library I thought it would be good to learn about Tesla. I did not realize that he was the author. This book is a few of his talks and lectures and I didn't understand a lot of the technical info. What I did get was that this man has a fantastic mind, wanted to help the world through easily accessible and cheap/free electricity and with wireless technology. He seemed to love what he did and was excited about his work. I feel cheated that we didn't learn more about him in school and his forward thinking.
October 20, 2007
There are likely far better books on the subject of Nikola Tesla but this is the one that I initially received during my late middle school/early high school time that made me enraptured with this particular scientist. He was one of the first people working on what we now take for granted, wireless technology. Deeply subversive, shrouded in a certain amount of myth and mystery for being a real scientist with hundreds of patents.
April 5, 2008
This book is amazing. Tesla, the original mad scientist, is depicted through his lectures, newspaper articles and other accounts. He was the creator of AC (alternating currents) elecricity which we still use today. Electromagnetics, Earth as a huge capacitor, death rays, UFOs, it's all here. It borders on metafiction in its accounts of his later experiments and modern mysterious phenomena. Part of a series, I definitely plan to read more.
January 26, 2016
I read this book in 1996, while studying quantum entanglement theory, and it's still fascinating. Although this book can't lift the veil on every mystery surrounding Nikola Tesla and his life, it does a great job providing a little of everything, including providing several diagrams of his inventions.
September 9, 2012
I have quite a few books on Tesla. This one did not contain any new information. That doesn't mean it's not worth reading. If you're interested in Tesla there are incredible number of books on him. This is just one and I believe it's mediocre when compared to some of the others.
October 15, 2012
Completely horrible book. I have no idea how anyone could have liked it. In many parts it is unreadable photo copies. The story line is meandering and repetitive. I am not sure how someone was paid money to produce it.
November 12, 2013
Essentially a lecture by Nikola Tesla which is great but lacks the visible component which would have existed at lecture which makes visualizing what is being described a challenge. A good number of pictures but still a challenge in some cases.
July 11, 2015
very good book about Tesla. It goes through his inventions in detail with some original source material copied into the book like patent drawings. Also covers some things I did not find in the biography I read a few years back.
May 10, 2007
This is a very hard Read But for the things that Make Sense Its Worth it. I dont know anything about Science But i really did enjoy this book. Tesla RULES!
March 28, 2008
Very informative, but not interesting reading.
October 29, 2008
Learn about his concepts. Free energy, mind control (for realz). He was the maddest scientist ever.
February 26, 2018
A great book about Tesla and his many inventions, revolving around electricity and engineering... It is a testament to Tesla's greatness as an inventor.
May 7, 2017
it was very hard for me to understand the drawings from the book. I have some electricity knowledge, but it was still hard to understand all the details.
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September 3, 2018Majority of the Projects and Inventions presented appears true and unfettered. However, no specific mention of the underlying engineering principles and core setup.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews