Nikola Tesla as Viewed by a Layman

A familiar figure at Delmonico's in the evening is that of a tall, well-knit, well-groomed man, swarthy, eagle-eyed, with a long nose, high cheek bones and a firm jaw, and with the air of being intensely interested in everything at which he looks. This is Nikola Tesla, man among men in the electrical world, a giant of discoverers, bold, original - a pathfinder whose every step is now being watched by all the scientific societies of the world. Where others have followed old theories and been hedged in by trammels of tradition, he has struck out at right angles, and startled the know-alls by showing that the laws of electrical force are still unwritten and unknown. His dynamo is radically different in construction and operation from any in use; his currents, while of vastly greater voltage, are innocuous; his system of lighting needs no filament of carbon or platinum, and gives out no heat; he can clothe himself in radiance like Phoebus, like Ajax; he can defy true thunderbolts, for he has tamed them while leaving their strength unshorn. All this and more has already been done, and yet the man has but little more than passed his thirtieth year, looks like a student, and has the unaffected simplicity of one whose thoughts never turn to self.

- Major Moses P. Handy in the "Mail and Express."