Nikola Tesla Books
TESLA AFTERWORD Our more modern notion of 'genius' seems to have arisen with the Renaissance. It speaks to the idea of 'self-expression', of innovation and novelty of a particular style. It is associated with people like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. These are individuals of exceptional talent, sometimes difficult and irascible, but who are determined to leave their mark on everything that comes after them. Somehow our society has come to praise such lone individuals, to see them as superior to others and to consider creativity as especially residing in them. This is not to deny the enormous gifts left to us by such people. But I believe that if our modern world, in all its complexity, is to survive in a healthy way then we must move towards other sorts of creative individuals. We acknowledge and respect Nicola Tesla but we also recognize the creativity that is present in each one of us. Our modern society requires us to cooperate, to take on responsibility. We have lost trust in leaders and organizations. The world of the future must be renewed creatively by each one of us. Where did the Inventions Come From? Tesla leaves us with a final mystery. Just how did he come up with his inventions? Engineers today have the advantage of Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Engineering at their elbows. They have the opportunities to model any new device via computer simulations. In this way engineers can produce optimum designs for electrical and other equipment. Yet if we are to believe Tesla's own account and the anecdotes told about him, there are times when he seemed to have a vision of his new invention so that all he had to do was to write it down. But is this possible? Can one really conceive of a complex electrical device in one burst of imagination? The poet Coleridge claimed that the entire poem, Kubla Khan, came to him during a reverie. It was simply a matter of remembering and writing the poem down, until he was interrupted by an unexpected visitor. Mozart appears to have received his compositions entire. Unlike Beethoven, who kept a notebook of themes, working drafts and corrections, Mozart's original manuscripts look more like 150
