Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla by Marc J. Seifer (PDF)

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“The story of one of the most prolific, independent, and iconoclastic inventors of this century…fascinating.”—Scientific American Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), credited as the inspiration for radio, robots, and even radar, has been called the patron saint of modern electricity. Based on original material and previously unavailable documents, this acclaimed book is the definitive biography of the man considered by many to be the founding father of modern electrical technology. Among Tesla’s creations were the channeling of alternating current, fluorescent and neon lighting, wireless telegraphy, and the giant turbines that harnessed the power of Niagara Falls. This essential biography is illustrated with sixteen pages of photographs, including the July 20, 1931, Time magazine cover for an issue celebrating the inventor’s career. “A deep and comprehensive biography of a great engineer of early electrical science–likely to become the definitive biography. Highly recommended.”–American Association for the Advancement of Science “Seifer’s vivid, revelatory, exhaustively researched biography rescues pioneer inventor Nikola Tesla from cult status and restores him to his rightful place as a principal architect of the modern age.” –Publishers Weekly Starred Review “[Wizard] brings the many complex facets of [Tesla’s] personal and technical life together in to a cohesive whole….I highly recommend this biography of a great technologist.” –A.A. Mullin, U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command, COMPUTING REVIEWS “[Along with A Beautiful Mind] one of the five best biographies written on the brilliantly disturbed.”–WALL STREET JOURNAL “Wizard is a compelling tale presenting a teeming, vivid world of science, technology, culture and human lives.”-

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is a biography of Nicola Tesla, the late 19th, early 20th century inventor, widely credited with invention of the multi-phase alternating current motor, among many other things. He is perhaps best known for his sometimes contentious rivalry with the far more celebrated contemporary, Thomas Edison. In fact, Edison who invented the mono-filament light bulb, was a champion of utilizing direct current electricity. Tesla certainly won that round.This biography follows the life of Tesla in a purely chronological manner, from his birth in Eastern Europe through his ultimate death, eighty-six years later in the United States. It touches upon many of his revolutionary ideas, along with sometimes fascinating interaction with the preeminent scientists and theoreticians of the era. Harnessing electricity and radio waves were revolutionary pursuits, undertaken by many of brightest minds of Tesla’s generation.Patents flew fast and furious and lawsuits filled the courthouses with contesting claims of priority. Tesla has become almost a mythical figure, as one whose ideas were behind many of the most groundbreaking discoveries of the era, yet failing to achieve recognition or reward, in comparison to others such as Edison and Marconi. Much of this was his fault, due to poor business decisions and an inability or refusal to translate most of his theories and inventions into practical application.The book itself contains quite a bit of very enlightening personal and historical information regarding Tesla and his contemporaries, and while it frequently ventures into the realm of hagiography, not excessively so in comparison with most biographies. My biggest complaint lies in the amount of technical information provided to the readers. Given the fact that probably less than 0.1% of readers are electrical engineers, I found the level of technical specificity to be somewhat excessive. Also, the author provides frequent quack psychological analysis that is in no way helpful.From the standpoint of biographies, this is pretty much a second-rate effort when compared to many others I have read. David McCollough would have done a much better job.

⭐This book is a very thoughtful well researched and revealing work about Nicola Tesla and his theories. It is also an interesting look into the mans personal relationships and idiosyncrasies. Difficult at times to wade through, the end result is well worth the effort. Death rays, anyone?

⭐As a qualifier for this review, you should know that I am an engineer by training.This book is not so much a story, but a chronicle of Nikola Tesla’s life. It is also a detailed account of his inventions, at least as far as can be known as he became rather secretive in his later years. This is both a positive and a negative as the book often gets bogged down in the details of an invention or a complicated business relationship.All of that being said, this treatise is likely to be one of the most complete and informative books on his life and inventions. You will also learn much about his quirky personality and it is through that bent that it became apparent to me why he didn’t get the credit he deserved and the acclaim in the science field. If you are not a technical person, you may find the book extremely tedious as it delves so very deeply into some of his most prominent failures.

⭐I got this book a long time ago and really enjoyed it but it shredded into bits over time. After getting the Kindle version I gave it a second go. It’s not a bad book at all, it’s still very good, but you’re going to have to get a few more if you want a complete image of Tesla. Or at least, a more complete image.

⭐Nikola Tesla was without a doubt a genius when it came to electricity and engineering. Have you ever been in wonder at the electric power produced by Niagara Falls? Well, this was a product of Tesla’s insights and work.The book traces nicely the trajectory of Tesla’s career. We learn of his youth and his formative influences. He moved to the United States and began his work inventing devices. Early on, he came up with an electrical system–A.C.–as opposed to Thomas Edison’s D.C. The two ended up–at best–as frenemies, and often sniped with one another. The same with Guglielmo Marconi.When one considers Tesla’s discoveries, it is clear that he was a major figure in his field. He gained the support of major figures, such as George Westinghouse. But, with time, he began to deliver less and less, as some of his eccentricities took center stage. At one point, he thought he was receiving signals from Mars. His eccentricity did not work in his favor.And he liked to live well. But he met with reverses. He created Wardenclyffe, an enormous effort to develop wireless communication that could cover stupefying distances. Because of his poor business model, all was lost.The book well covers his genius–and his shortcomings and stubbornness.Want to learn more about a genuine genius? Take a look at this work. It is not always the most elegantly written, but the work is still quite readable. Documentation is solid.

⭐I’ve given this biography of Nikola Tesla four stars to distinguish it from Tesla: Man Out of Time, as this is without doubt the better biography. Mark Seifer gives us much more detail than the earlier book, having access to better sources, and really makes it possible to understand the complex financial situation in the US in which Tesla was trying to finance his mind-boggling ideas. But there is still a big problem with this book.Tesla wasn’t just a crackpot. One of the SI units is named after him – and for a good reason. He was a superb engineer and he single-handedly designed the AC system that we use today, including inventing the first serious AC motors, and the basis for practically every AC motor since. He also invented the fluorescent light (though never commercially developed it, as he had already moved onto his next excitement).However, and it’s a big however, Tesla also was an over-the-top showman, who delighted in showing off by lighting up fancy bulbs with electricity that had been passed through his body – and, on the whole, he was nowhere near as good a scientist as an engineer.Specifically, he rejected both relativity and quantum theory for decades after they were widely accepted in the scientific community, and he had a strange hangup about radio. He believed that the ‘Hertzian waves’ used by the likes of Marconi were a piffling use of electromagnetism for communication, and that instead it was possible to use ‘Tesla waves’ – mysterious longitudinal waves (compression waves like sound) he believed also exhibited by electromagnetism, and which he believed could be pumped through the Earth, using the Earth’s resonant frequency is such a way that amplitude grew with distance rather than falling off. With a big enough tower and enough electricity he believed he could communicate to the whole world at once – or distribute power wirelessly through the same mechanism.He was also given to lavish over-exaggeration of his inventions. So, for instance, he developed the first radio controlled boat – an excellent invention. But he claimed that this would soon be extended to be able to act on its own, thinking for itself. He did not distinguish between remote control and AI-driven robots – a bizarre exaggeration.Although the historical context is great, this book needs to be read carefully as Seifer frequently shows that he doesn’t understand the science Tesla was using (or claimed to be using). So, for example, Seifer refers to 25,000 volts being ‘[stepped] down to usable frequencies when they reached the exposition’, clearly confusing voltage and frequency. He tells us that ‘Electricity in its natural state is alternating,’ whatever that means. He tells us that John Herschel discovered Uranus (it was actually his father, William). Most remarkably, we hear that Tesla was capable of something that would shock modern physicists: ‘Tesla also appears to have come close to the idea of breaking up the electron into subatomic particles.’ It’s hard to know where to begin on how wrong that statement is.Tesla was a fascinating, wonderful, wild character. But we need to distinguish his very real engineering genius from his scientific flights of fancy. This is the best of the book about him – but really we need a Tesla bio from someone who understand physics.

⭐I’ve only got into first chapter but, despite Tesla being one of the most flamboyant scientists and interesting inventors of the last 150 years, this book really struggles to engage. Early on it just feels like the content has been lifted from different sources and copy and pasted together. It just seems to lack flow as a biography – it almost feels like the author is attempting to show off how much he knows about Tesla. It must be hard to write about an inventor that was in his prime 100 years ago as lots of blanks. I’m gonna skip to chapters later on. Tesla’s college years onwards maybe. Hopefully it will pick up.

⭐Very easy book to read . I wanted the book to give more about what he did to invent his creations. Ie. More facts on Tesler. It tends to give a lot about his struggle with finanacers and backers and social problems. I just wanted more on the man who did so much.

⭐This is a very thorough account of the life of Tesla. The author traces his life from childhood to his death with great detail paid to his business affairs as well as his inventions. This helps to explain some of the anomalies about Tesla’s life that are glossed over in other accounts.

⭐I found this a bit more about the research needed and references to others who had written about Tesla. Rather than about the subject, but more about the author. I do not doubt that it has been very difficult to get all the information required, but that is what a biography is.

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