Nikola Tesla Books
to go to New York with what I had leftâmy poems and essays, which I had packed with me. During the voyage on the steamship I spent most of my time at the stern, thinking about what to do. Later, after I had adopted some American habits, I was bitter about those foolish notions of mine.
When Tesla arrived at the dock in New York, he happened, along the way, to come upon a man in a workshop who was struggling with a small electric motor, not knowing how to repair it. Tesla offered to fix it for him, which he succeeded in doing, and thus earned his first twenty dollars in America.
The next day he reported to Edison, who was surprised when Tesla showed him a recommendation from his associate Batchelor in Paris, which read: "I know two great men: one is you, and the other is this young man whom I recommend to you." This recommendation, together with Tesla's two-meter-tall appearance (though he weighed only seventy-five kilograms), made a good impression on Edison. Edison also made a good impression on Tesla. At that time Tesla was twenty-eight years old, and Edison was ten years older than he. For some time they worked together in harmony, but this did not last long. They could not agree. Edison was a businessman who strove to attain as much wealth and fame as possible, whereas Tesla devoted himself to a single great idea, known only to him. Moreover, Tesla surpassed Edison in theoretical and professional preparation as well as in general intelligence. In his autobiography, Tesla describes his collaboration with Edison as follows:
My meeting with Edison will remain unforgettable to me. I always admired this extraordinary man and marveled that he could achieve so much without scientific training and without proper formal education. I had studied some dozen languages and spent, in my finest years, days and nights in
