Stories in Stamps - Electric Wizard

Some scientists scoff at him for his amazing theories, but Nikola Tesla has so heroic a record of achievement in electrical science that the world must take him seriously. Born July 11, 1856, in what is now Yugo-Slavia, this sharp-faced, wiry bachelor of 80 holds more than 700 basic patents, among which are the coils, motors, dynamos, condensers, and electric lamps which bear his name, the arc light, and many other electrical aids.

Tesla came to the United States when a youth. Here he discovered the principle of the rotary magnetic field, and since has been working on other ideas which seem so futuristic as to cause more conservative scientists to ridicule him. Yet, while he divulges his secrets of a proposed, death ray, or a mysterious source of new power, or the photography of thought, he also scoffs at Einstein's theory of relativity and the general belief that the sun is cooling off gradually. Recently, on the occasion of Tesla's 80th birthday, Yugo-Slavia issued a set of four stamps picturing the scientist.

(Copyright, 1936, NEA Service, Inc.)