Nikola Tesla Books
the foundation of electric light, power and communication industries of today, including the high-tension atom-smashing devices which will form the basis of tomorrow's industries.
Tesla's personality was an effective barrier against anyone's gaining an intimate knowledge of him through the usual friendly relations. He was the perfect gentleman, the perfect host, courtesy personified, but adamant in his determination to say nothing concerning himself or his work in the presence of those who would not under- stand him. As a result many spectacular but false stories have been printed about him.
Tesla in most things had a one-track mind. In almost every field there was something he liked very much, and everything else in that field he almost totally ignored. He was a New York Tribune and New York Herald Tribune reader ever since he came to this country as a youth. Stories about him and his work published in the Herald Tribune had to meet his standards of absolute accuracy. What was published in most other papers mattered not at all to him.
On one occasion, more than thirty years ago, a Sunday magazine article was published carrying his photograph and pictures of his fantastic-looking devices, and a story about his plans for communicating with Mars. The present writer took the story to Tesla and asked him if it were true, and why he had not spoken about these plans. He read the story carefully and replied: "I have spoken to no one on this subject. The person who wrote this article has never communicated with me. I never made the statements that are attributed to me. I have no plans for trying to communicate with Mars. I have never given a thought to the subject and never will use my devices for any such purpose."
When the author declared that Tesla should arrange for a cor- rection to be published in the newspaper concerned, since such stories would injure his reputation, he replied: "That is just cheap rubbish. Don't waste your time with it; there are more important things to think about."
As a result of this attitude he became a "safe" peg on which to hang any fantastic story an imaginative feature writer might concoct.
Tesla was an extremely sensitive man. An inharmonious person in his presence completely upset him. He suffered physical torments
