My Inventions : The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla

Book Cover of My Inventions - The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla

My Inventions- The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla: Book Review

‘My Inventions- The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla’ is a unique story telling about the life and times of one of the greatest and finest minds and talents of the by gone century that concentrates on the inventions by the person rather than his own personal in-depth life.

While autobiographies of great personalities concentrate on their minute aspects of life and achievements in a proud prose, this book primarily concentrates on the inventions and the process & constraints that Nikola Tesla faced during his experiments and research.

Nikola Tesla was an Engineer and inventor during his lifetime from 1856 to 1943.  The world considers his discovery and invention of the rotating magnetic field that went on to become the crucial support system of all alternating current technology, as the most significant contribution to science from his side. His other key inventions that changed the way humans lived included the creation of the three-phase electric power transmission system, Tesla Coil that went on to be utilized extensively in radio technology.

One would undoubtedly, come across plethora of narrations and stories about the life and times of Nikola Tesla in media, books, magazines, and archives. What this book distinguishes itself from the other ones is the first- person narrative by the inventor himself and surprisingly, the book concentrates more on the imperfections, constraints, failures, de-motivations of the person himself rather than his success. Of course, there are a whole lot mention of his inventions in each of the chapters but those are only the end products of these chapters. What the body and text of the chapters contain is pure learning for the current generation who are in pursuit of discovery and inventions in any particular field.

The book is short and has a prose that can be said to be a quick read which describes the key events that took place during the inventions, particularly concentrating on his early experimental inventions, the invention of the rotating magnetic field, the creation of the Tesla Coil and transformer, the magnifying transmitter and the finale chapter dedicated to the art of Telautomatics.

The first part of the book narrates the early life of Nikola Tesla that primarily showcases his curiosity, his love to ask questions on everything, the naturally gifted scientific mind and the key events and circumstances that led to his increased interest in science and innovation. In this part the reader will also come across his intent for these inventions was not success or fame but rather helping the world to live in a more science dependent and innovative way and create solutions of problems infinitely more important to the human world than mere industrial development. His endurance to the importance of the act of thinking over aspects, concepts and topics rather than actual activity that is only a subsequent action after the thought is very well brought out in the following extract from the book;

“I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labor, for I have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours. But if work is interpreted to be a definite performance in a specified time according to a rigid rule, then I may be the worst of idlers”

This first section would also introduce a good number of people in and around the growing up years of Nikola Tesla who directly or indirectly instigated his curiosity to the discover the unknown.

The second section of the book concentrates on the various experimental efforts of his in his earlier years that would ultimately become the foundation of his learnings and would lighten the flame in his soul. The description of his earlier experiments narrated would include that of an invention of an apparatus, being his first one, harnessing the energies of nature through the service of May-bugs, assembling clocks of his grandfather, manufacture of a pop-gun, sword carving from pieces of furniture etc. Interestingly, in this part, would be the faint mention of his time during his school years, where in a few mechanical models interested him and ultimately turned his attention to water turbines.  He would go on to construct many of those during his school years.

The next section of the book describes in detail his endeavors during the discovery of the rotating magnetic field. For a mind that loves innovation and curiosity, this chapter is a must read. However, a lot of concepts and phrases would have scientific and physics related terminology and may require some referencing for a lay man reading this section who is not connected to science in any manner. This chapter will also showcase the various ups and downs that Nikola Tesla faced through his experiments and research that are worth noting.

The next section of the book showcases the inventor’s journey in the discovery of the Tesla coil and transformer. In this section, the inventor has narrated a whole lot of personal experiences during his employment with various companies while on the side he was busy with his experiments whenever he found time. These events have a tone of sarcasm and humor with utmost scientific knowledge and would be fun to read.

The next part of the book concentrates on the discovery and development of the magnifying transmitter. In this section the reader would understand how while investigating the behavior of high frequency currents, the inventor was satisfied that an electric field of sufficient intensity could be produced in a room to light up electrodeless vacuum tubes and accordingly a transformer was built to test the same concept and it proved a success in the trail.

The reader will be astonished and equally intrigued to learn about the inner thoughts of the Nikola Tesla through this section in which he himself describes about his dream invention of “World System” of wireless transmission. To summarize, Tesla explained the concept of World System to be a compilation of the following inventions:

•         The Tesla Transformer.
•         The Magnifying Transmitter.
•         The Tesla wireless system.
•         The Art of Individualisation.
•         The Terrestrial Stationary Waves.

The reader will enjoy this section as most of the concepts mentioned in these pointers are all live and in action today. But the reader needs to understand these pointers and concepts were thought on, worked on and written down in the period before the 1920’s. Such was the magnitude of Tesla’s vision.

The last section in the book concentrates on the concept of Telautomatics, the very concepts which later on historians viewed it as the birth of robotics. This section in a very scientific manner, explains the initial experiments that Nikola performed in relation to controlling the movements and operations of distant mechanical objects using wireless signals.  The objects ultimately being called out as Telautomats. To think that all these aspects were discussed in the pre-1920’s era is intriguing itself. It took decades to bring alive those concepts into everyday public life, the seeds of which were put almost in the earlier century.

For a lay man reader not connected to science, terms and phrases and scientific concepts in this book may be a little difficult to understand, but the learnings remain irrespective of that. The unending level of curiosity, the belief to solve the problems of mankind are not to be missed.

The English used in this book is by Tesla himself, the way he spoke in everyday life. Reading the same a hundred years apart is surely enlightening. There’s sarcasm, humour, science in each paragraph of the chapters.

The autobiography has been kept limited to the inventions of Nikola Tesla and doesn’t touch upon the other aspects of his life including his comparison with Thomas Edison and other controversies during those decades. It can almost be said to be the autobiography of the inventions of Nikola Tesla in his own words.

A wonderful reading experience not to be missed.