Nikola Tesla Books
farad, and the like. In Belgrade, on the occasion of the celebration of his ninetieth birthday, it was proposed that the unit of electrical energy, which is today expressed in kilowatt-hours, be named the "tesla," or "kilotesla." Efforts should be made for the competent international authorities to accept this proposal and put it into practice, so that in this respect as well the name of Nikola Tesla would be associated with his ingenious inventions.
Nikola Tesla mostly published his inventions in the form of patents, of which there are about 700. He announced most of these patents before the age of fifty. The publication of patents was primarily the means by which he sought to acquaint the scientific world with his inventions. Some patents brought him substantial income, which he used for further research. Nevertheless, he did not concern himself much with which and how many of his patents others would exploit without authorization. On one occasion he stated:
I do not regret that others have stolen my ideas, but I regret that they have none of their own.
In addition to scientific work, he wrote extensively for various professional and daily newspapers and delivered lectures. Since his written works were well paid, he often supported himself in this way when he found himself in financial difficulty.
His creative imagination sometimes went beyond the limits of understanding not only for laymen but even for many well-known experts, so his statements were often incomprehensible and sometimes entirely unrealistic. For that reason, Tesla was at the same time called a genius, a fantasist, a magician, a visionary, and - a dreamer.
Tesla's opponents and imitators exploited many of his ideas without any authorization, making use
