Showing posts with label Tesla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tesla. Show all posts

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Nicola Tesla - for beginners

Tesla For BeginnersTesla For Beginners by Robert Sutherland-Cohen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Simplified story about life and inventions of Nicola Tesla. I suppose the name of the inventor has been recently popularized by Elon Musk, thus quite a number books published.
Having read few other books on this topic I can say it gives a good look into a fascinating life of a fascinating person.
Negative point for me is demonizing Tesla opponents or competitors, specifically Edison and Marconi.

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Thursday, October 11, 2018

Nicola Tesla - My Inventions

My Inventions and Other WritingsMy Inventions and Other Writings by Nikola Tesla
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Exciting and confusing book at the same time.
Insight into a terribly restless mind.
I used term "terribly" because while reading this book I felt sadness. Sadness for this lonely and in many aspects wasted life.
Exciting part - of course description of his many, many brilliant ideas.
Confusing. Firstly, I could not reconcile some of his ideas with my knowledge of physics. Secondly, in few cases his ideas reached beyond science and led to very bizarre conclusions. E.g. he imagined that producing a super weapon will bring an everlasting peace as nobody will dare to oppose a country having such a weapon. That's crazy.
In few Tesla articles included in this book, there are very specific references to drawings, which are not included into the book - this is very sloppy editing.

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Monday, October 1, 2018

Nicola Tesla - Electrical Wizard

Electrical Wizard: How Nikola Tesla Lit Up the WorldElectrical Wizard: How Nikola Tesla Lit Up the World by Elizabeth Rusch
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I am not sure what is a target age group for this book.
Judging by the format and contents - large print, lots of pictures and simple style - it is for children.
In my opinion Nicola Tesla was such a mentally disturbed personality, that it is impossible to write a good book about him, specifically for children.
The book is loaded with pictures of a magician and quite confusing text.
As for text - it is excessively sensational - wizard, magician - there not much about science, education, hard work - just spectacular demonstrations,
Two drawings I found quite disturbing - Tesla wizard keeping an electric wire in one hand and a glowing bulb in the other.
Excellent example for children.
Scientific Notes are printed at the end of the book, they include a warning: electricity kills!
Sorry authors, but all diligent readers are already dead.

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