Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla : Biography of a Genius (Citadel Press Book)

Rating:
Summary: About time for the Facts.
Review: Bravo, Bravo.
What a great find. I have been through this book twice and still find myself overwhelmend by the accomplishments of Tesla. The Author was detailed and objective in his writing. Considering the family ties he writes about. What I especially found interesting is the later chapters, addressing the so called occult theory's about Tesla and his works. For the most part, he laid them to rest. Again Bravo! However I am a bit disapointed that there wasn't more on his Invention's and Patent's. I was hoping for a detailed list or drawings on his invetion's. Still, the pictures and accounts of his life, is one of the best I have seen. Over all a must to read.

Rating:
Summary: Tesla is a valuable target of study
Review: I really got a lot out of Seifer's book. The detail is excrutiating. The book flows as Tesla's life did, and it truly gives powerful insight.

The book is lucid to the point that the reader is able to understand Tesla as a man, as an inventor and as a mortal demigod.

Truly interesting, well worth the price and time.

Rating:
Summary: This was AWESOME!
Review: If anyone has ever been interested in a the fascinating inventions of Tesla, this book will satisfy this interest and do so much more. It tells of his intellectual genius, and egotistical and financial failings. Tesla was his best and worst enemy, and this book does a nice job of proving both points. A really interesting read, with no slow parts as you might think. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: Very accurate, the most comprehensive book on N.Tesla
Review: Marc did great job covering life and work of Nikola Tesla, a serbian-american inventor who made great contributions to modern science and engineering. Book covers all of the important aspects of Tesla's inventions and scientific discoveries. It covers the broader historical background and explains the importance of Tesla's work to a great detail. It is also very good at explaining "mysteries" surrounding Tesla's personal life. It presents Tesla both as one of the greatest scientist ever as well as a human being. This book is so good since it makes the right balance between technical information (very accurate, with rich bibliography) and Tesla's personal life and social interactions. Therefore it is interesting for both serious scientists who would like to learn from Tesla's work as well as for general population who would like to learn about this extraordinary personality.

Overall, this is the number one book on Tesla so far. The best starting point and reference regarding Tesla's life and work.

Rating:
Summary: Change the title to "Men of Electricity"
Review: Seifer did a comprehensive job of documenting Tesla's life but failed in appraising the contributions he made to science. From an engineers point of view, I feel that Seifer either did not have the technical knowledge to judge Tesla's endeavors or he was determined to undertake a crusade to make a scientific saint out him and ignored Tesla's follies.

Tesla did make significant advancements in alternating current machinery and in his work with coils and oscillators. But Tesla's concepts on the propagation of electromagnetic waves, as well as Seifer's interpretation was greatly lacking. Tesla believed that electromagnetic waves traveled as compression waves through the ether. Seifer, on page 102 refers to the 1881 Michelson and Morely experiments as "unsuccessfully tried to measure the ether..." Those experiments proved that, as far as electromagnetic propagation is concerned, there is no ether. Tesla claimed that he could communicate throughout the whole world from one location and went through hundreds of thousands of dollars in attempts to develop this. All one has to do is to look atTesla's Wardenclyffe tower as described and shown in the book to realize that if Tesla were the only one working on wireless communication we might not even have it today. On page 475, Seifer tells of a coil "50 miles in length or one forth the wavelength of light ...." The wave length of light is less than one millionth of a meter. The book describes many other concepts that Tesla raised money for but never brought to fruition. Tesla, as described in the book, was a showman and, perhaps a con artists promising his investors, such as Astor and Morgan, large returns but never accomplishing anything of merit for them. Tesla and Seifer seemed to believe that there was conspiracy against him and used that as an excuse for his lack of success in any of his endeavors after his original contributions to AC machinery.

The author, Seifer, attempts to credit Tesla's half baked concepts to everything we have today from communications to guided missiles, vertical take off airplanes, space defense, plus many other things. Unfortunately, many who read this book with a lack of technical knowledge may believe this. Tesla did contribute to alternating current technology but he was far from the genius Seifer tried to make of him.

Rating:
Summary: DEFINITIVE, REVELATORY, UTTERLY ABSORBING, HIGHLY RECOMMENDE
Review: Seifer expresses that the key reason he wrote Wizard was to try and answer many of the questions left unanswered by the other authors. In particular he focuses in on why Tesla's name dropped into obscurity, whether or not he really received signals from Mars, how his magnifying transmitter really worked, what exactly happened to cause his failure with JP Morgan,what happened to his top secret papers and also the book explains exactly how his particle beam weapon have really worked.

One of the book's strengths is that it is set up completely
chronologically. Thus you can cue into any year and oftentimes particular months of Tesla's life. Every chapter also begins with a neat quote. I turned to the back and counted over 1400 endnotes including 400 personal letters. This is the real deal, much of it in Tesla's actual words.

One of the neatest sections was a discussion of of how Tesla's
early lectures in the 1890's pre-dated Rutherford, Bohr and Einstein in theories on the structure of the atom and on what came to be called Quantum physics. Jumping ahead 20 years, Seifer reveals that during WWI, Franklin Roosevelt, as Secretary of the Navy, used Tesla's priority patents in wireless to combat Marconi's contention that the Navy was stealing Marconi's
invention.

Seifer goes on to show that Tesla was selling wireless technology to the Germans during WWI and that this apparatus was used to coordinate submarine movements at that time. Later, during WWII, Tesla also apparently worked with the US war department to give them the invention of the particle beam
weapon.

The focus of the book, however, is Wardenclyffe, Tesla's world wireless communication system that was backed by JP Morgan, who at the time, was the most powerful man on the planet. Every other biography that I read on Tesla leaves it as a mystery as to why Morgan pulled funding of this venture. Seifer paints almost a day by day account of the partnership, explains
exactly what happens, and backs his findings with something like 40 letters between Tesla and Morgan. The story is dynamite, because had Tesla succeeded in harnessing the enterprise, we would have had wireless and cellular technology by 1905 instead of 20 to 90 years later.

This has to be one of the most amazing books I have ever read. I didn't just learn about Tesla, but also about the rise of corporate America, the role of technology in shaping social events and about many of Tesla's friends, enemies and colleagues like Tom Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, JP Morgan, Stanford White, John Jacob Astor and Franklin Roosevelt. But what sets this book apart is how well all this information is conveyed in narrative form. This is a biography, mystery, and electrical engineering book all in one. Very entertaining.



Rating:
Summary: Superb Biography of a Man ahead of his Time
Review: Seifer's comprehensive look at Nikola Tesla is unexpected. It is neither dry, formulaic or predictable - even for those familiar with the enigmatic genius. Simply put, it is fascinating, exciting reading. Tesla was credited with the invention of modern AC power generation, remote control, fundamental advances in radio, wireless voice- and data-transfer, the first laser, advanced flight concepts, and a myriad of other inventions. Yet he died without ever achieving the financial rewards one would expect for a man who was truly ahead of his time.

Taking advantage of ill-defined intellectual property laws and the vagaries of international court systems, other well-known inventors such as Pupin, Marconi, and Steinmetz either "borrowed" his discoveries or helped write him out of the history books. While many rode Tesla's coattails to public recognition and, often, staggering financial success - the great man was left penniless and alone.

Seifer pulls no punches. Tesla made a series of startling gaffes. From ill-conceived contracts with Westinghouse (leaving him with no ongoing revenue from his discovery of the AC polyphase system) to poor management of critical projects backed by J.P. Morgan, Tesla disappointed his financiers time and time again. Lack of prioritization, spinning off in too many directions simultaneously, poor project management - all contributed to Tesla's inability to achieve the breakthrough he needed (and deserved) for true financial independence.

Seifer covers Tesla's life in exceptional detail. His bizarre work habits (often sleeping only two hours a night), his odd social life (never married and apparently a lifelong celibate), and his many other idiosyncrasies are described with fascinating anecdotes. You don't need to be an Electrical Engineer, or a Scientist, or even technically savvy to thoroughly enjoy _Wizard_. In a nutshell: superb.

Rating:
Summary: Superb Biography of a Man ahead of his Time
Review: Seifer's comprehensive look at Nikola Tesla is unexpected. It is neither dry, formulaic or predictable - even for those familiar with the enigmatic genius. Simply put, it is fascinating, exciting reading. Tesla was credited with the invention of modern AC power generation, remote control, fundamental advances in radio, wireless voice- and data-transfer, the first laser, advanced flight concepts, and a myriad of other inventions. Yet he died without ever achieving the financial rewards one would expect for a man who was truly ahead of his time.

Taking advantage of ill-defined intellectual property laws and the vagaries of international court systems, other well-known inventors such as Pupin, Marconi, and Steinmetz either "borrowed" his discoveries or helped write him out of the history books. While many rode Tesla's coattails to public recognition and, often, staggering financial success - the great man was left penniless and alone.

Seifer pulls no punches. Tesla made a series of startling gaffes. From ill-conceived contracts with Westinghouse (leaving him with no ongoing revenue from his discovery of the AC polyphase system) to poor management of critical projects backed by J.P. Morgan, Tesla disappointed his financiers time and time again. Lack of prioritization, spinning off in too many directions simultaneously, poor project management - all contributed to Tesla's inability to achieve the breakthrough he needed (and deserved) for true financial independence.

Seifer covers Tesla's life in exceptional detail. His bizarre work habits (often sleeping only two hours a night), his odd social life (never married and apparently a lifelong celibate), and his many other idiosyncrasies are described with fascinating anecdotes. You don't need to be an Electrical Engineer, or a Scientist, or even technically savvy to thoroughly enjoy _Wizard_. In a nutshell: superb.

Rating:
Summary: interesting book, yet muddled
Review: This book's strongest suit is its history of Tesla's business dealings, and his meetings with other famous individuals of his era. The author obviously conducted a great deal of research. On the other hand, I found myself wishing for a clearer explanation of which of Tesla's ideas were clearly scientific advances, and which were fantasy or unworkable. Unfortunately, the author sometimes discusses his own belief in ESP and other pseudoscience, which calls into question his overall credibility.

Rating:
Summary: Good Profile
Review: This is a well written piece of work by Seifer. It is not as detailed an autobiography as say Cheney's "Tesla: Man Out of Time" but if offers many other aspects that other works do not. What is most beneficial about this read is that the author is a professor of psychology as well as a handwriting expert. This allows him to analyze the habits, writings, and many other idiosyncrasies about Tesla. Another plus is it goes more into detail about Tesla's work than other biographies. A very worthwhile read for future engineers like myself, historians, or people interested in learning more about where many of the devices we use all the time today originated.