Nikola Tesla - Pictures and Experiences from Childhood and Education Page 36

And all that he envisioned and calculated has been applied in the construction of airplanes.

Thus, Tesla was, in fact, a precursor to today’s airplane builders.

Young Nikola is thrilled by heroic songs

Since early childhood, Tesla fell in love with our heroic folk songs. Before he learned to read, he often begged his mother to tell him heroic songs, which he would then repeat and memorize. He adored heroes like Miloš Obilić, Kraljević Marko, and other Serbian folk heroes. He wished to be a hero like them and defend his people from the Turks.

However, his little hands were too weak, and there were no Turks around. Nevertheless, his heroic spirit was awakening more and more. In such excitement, he would make a sharp sword from a piece of wood, rush into the garden, and, as if on a real battlefield, swing it in all directions, “beheading” everything that came under his “sword.” Thus, he would create havoc in the garden. And, as the song says, “The dead lie on Kosovo’s field,” after this battle in the garden, toppled stalks of corn and other crops lay scattered.

Young Nikola received a good spanking for this mischief. But he loved our folk songs so much that even now, in old age, he enjoys reading them. And when he hears them being sung with the fiddle, tears come to his eyes. Tesla loves our folk songs, our heroes, the fiddle, and our glorious national history because he loves his people and