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Nikola Tesla (1856-1943): the Mind Behind the Master of Lighting Rachel C.D

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Nikola Tesla (1856-1943): the Mind Behind the Master of Lighting Rachel C.D Nikola Tesla (1856-1943): The Mind Behind the Master of Lighting Rachel C.D. Martin Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor. He was born in the small village of Smiljan at midnight on July 10, 1856. In 1884 he moved to the United States where he eventually established himself as an inventor in New York City. Multiple works have been composed about the life of Nikola Tesla; in this paper I will focus on the mind of Nikola Tesla. This biography will not follow the conventional, chronological layout. Instead, each section will relay, describe, and implement an idea. Through this method, an understanding and appreciation for the mind of the generally unknown electrical genius will be attained. The Cultivation of Will: A Vivid Imagination When Nikola Tesla was awarded the Edison Medal in 1917, he explained to his fellow electrical engineers, “When I get an idea, I start right away to build it up in my mind. I do not rush into constructive work. I make improvements, I experiment, I run the device in my mind. In this way, you see, I can rapidly develop and perfect an invention, without touching anything.”1 During his childhood, Tesla cultivated this ability to perfect an invention in his imagination. However, this discipline did not come easily. Through self-determination, Nikola Tesla harnessed his imagination and strengthened his will. In 1863 the Tesla family moved from their village home of Smiljan in modern-day Croatia to the larger town of Gospić. This abrupt move was commenced by Nikola’s distraught father after the death of his eldest son, Dane. When Tesla was about seven years old, he witnessed the tragic death of his older brother, who was killed by their father’s Arabian horse.2 The sudden move and loss of his brother deeply disturbed Nikola, and caused him to develop many strange preferences and habits.3 Nikola Tesla grew up with little confidence because his parents, Milutin and Djuka, had pinned all of their hopes on their eldest son.4 Tesla’s lack of self-esteem was also due to his emotions, which greatly afflicted him by coming in waves and surges that vibrated between extremes.5 In his 1919 autobiography, Tesla compared his childhood wishes to the heads of a hydra in that they were uncontrollable and multiplied. Young Nikola Tesla was oppressed by thoughts of pain in life, death, and supernatural religious concepts. He was influenced by superstitions and lived in constant fear of unholy monsters of the dark. Tesla defined the character of his adolescent self as weak and vacillating, stating that he “had neither courage nor strength to form a firm resolve.”6 As a young boy Nikola Tesla suffered from what many scholars have classified as hallucinations. He was afflicted and debilitated by the appearance of images and strong flashes of light. 7 In his autobiography, Tesla explained that these episodes occurred when he experienced immense excitement. Their appearance caused him severe discomfort and anxiety 1 Carlson, W Bernard, Tesla: Inventor of the Electric Age (New Jersey: University of Princeton Press, 2013), 9. 2 Bernard, Tesla: Inventor of the Electric Age, 21. 3 Nikola Tesla, My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla (Unabridged Start Publishing LLC, 1919) 12. 4 Bernard, Tesla: Inventor of the Electric Age, 21. 5 Tesla, My Inventions, 12-13. 6 Tesla, My Inventions, 12-13. 7 Tesla, My Inventions, 6. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943): The Mind Behind the Master of Lightening 135 because he had no control over them. Nonetheless, what Tesla was experiencing were certainly not hallucinations. Apart from these appearances and his emotional instability derived from the traumatic experience of witnessing his brother’s death, Nikola Tesla was normal and healthy in all other respects. What Tesla was enduring was the result of a photographic mind. Nikola Tesla thought with images instead of words, picturing what he was thinking of as if it were really before his eyes. He went on to describe the workings of this phenomena: When a word was spoken to me the image of the object it designated would present itself vividly to my vision and sometimes I was quite unable to distinguish whether what I saw was tangible or not. To give an idea of my distress, suppose that I had witness[ed] a funeral or some such nerve-racking spectacle. Then, inevitably, in the stillness of night, a vivid picture of the scene would thrust itself before my eyes and persist despite all my efforts to banish it. Sometimes it would even remain fix[ed] in space tho[ugh] I pushed my hand thr[ough] it.8 To free himself of these uncomfortable appearances temporarily, Tesla concentrated his mind on other things he had seen. However, because he had seen little of the world and was only aware of his immediate surroundings, it was not long before he had exhausted all of the images at his command. Tesla recalled that “[a]s [he] performed these mental operations for the second or third time, the remedy gradually lost all its force.” 9 To compensate, Tesla made excursions beyond the limits of the small world he knew. Nikola Tesla’s capability to execute these cerebral expeditions was the result of an array of mental exercises that Tesla’s father made him perform daily. These exercises included discovering the defects of some form or expression, repeating long sentences, guessing one another's thoughts, and performing mental calculations.10 These laborious mental activities strengthened Tesla’s memory and critical reasoning. They also provided him with the tools to replace the appearances that plagued him with positive images found within the books of his father’s library. At eight years old, Tesla discovered his love of reading while he was a prisoner of his new home in Gospić. His father forbade him from reading the books in his library because he did not want young Nikola Tesla to spoil his eyes.11 Nevertheless, whenever he could, Tesla snuck into the sanctuary of literature and read until dawn. When the appearance of images again afflicted him, Tesla saw new sights. 12 At first they were blurred and indistinct, dissipating upon his attempts to impose his will on them. When Tesla gave into the visions, however, he discovered comfort in exploring these new worlds and subsequently thrived at improving them. In this way Nikola Tesla would travel the world. He would live in different cities and countries, experiencing their sights, meeting new people and making influential friendships. Even though these relationships were strictly fictional, they formatively impacted the confidence and will- power of the young Nikola Tesla. 8 Tesla, My Inventions, 6. 9 Tesla, My Inventions, 8. 10 Tesla, My Inventions, 4-5. 11 Tesla, My Inventions, 13. 12 Tesla, My Inventions, 7-8. 136 Rachel C.D. Martin “In the course of time, this vigorous mental exercise became second nature,” stated Tesla in his 1919 autobiography.13 Tesla applied his newfound method to the story of Abafi, which follows the transformation of the life of a Hungarian knight from selfish indulgence to selfless chivalry. After reading this novel, Tesla believed that he, too, could practice self-control over his emotions and desires. Consistently conforming these images to his will, Tesla gradually conquered his weak resolve. When he was around twelve years old, Tesla successfully accomplished the willful banishment of a distressing image from his vision. Tesla later said, “I felt a pleasure I never knew before— that of doing as I willed.”14 When Nikola Tesla was around twenty years of age, he developed an infatuation for gambling.15 Though he abandoned school to dedicate more time to gambling, Tesla did not see danger in his new habit. Tesla explained in his autobiography, “I had a strong resolve but my philosophy was bad.”16 In 1878, Nikola Tesla ran away to Maribor, Austria, where he worked as a draftsman and further indulged his gambling habit. 17 When Milutin, Tesla’s father, discovered his son’s actions, he traveled to Maribor in March of 1879 and begged Tesla to return home and resume his studies. Tesla refused, claiming that he could cease to gamble whenever he pleased. The following month, Nikola Tesla was arrested by the Maribor police and deported to Gospić as a “vagrant.” Shortly after Tesla’s forced return home, Milutin succumbed to serious illness and passed away. Tesla’s mother, who better understood Tesla’s character, implemented a different strategy.18 One afternoon, when Nikola was penniless and desperate for a game, Djuka gave him the remainder of their money. She instructed him to go and enjoy himself, because the sooner he lost all that they had left, the better it would be. It was in that moment that Tesla conquered his passion for gambling. He later asserted, “I not only vanquished but tore it from my heart so as not to leave even a trace of desire.”19 From that day forward, Tesla felt nothing but indifference toward gambling. Just like the knight in the novel Abafi, Nikola Tesla had cultivated within himself a strong will, self-discipline, and command of his imagination, mental skills that served him well as an inventor. 20 The Alternating Current: Master of Lightning It was on a dry winter evening while he pet the back of his cat, Macak, that the young Nikola Tesla witnessed the phenomena of electricity. “As I stroked Macak’s back, I saw a miracle that made me speechless with amazement,” remembered Tesla. “Macak’s back was a sheet of light and my hand produced a shower of sparks loud enough to be heard all over the house.”21 Tesla’s experience inspired him to pursue an understanding of electricity and develop an alternating current (AC) motor.
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