At Tesla Motors, you can borrow any book you want, as long as it’s about Tesla.
This is just a sample. Missing is the biography I am mid way through: Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla. Biography of a Genius by Marc Seifer.
The iconic photo of the enigmatic Serb also adorns a conference room at SpaceX.
It’s quite remarkable how many of his inventions have proven to be the most efficient technologies of the day, from AC power systems and polyphase transmission lines, to RF lighting, to the AC induction motor in the Tesla car. He is now recognized as the inventor of radio, not Marconi, one of his many competitors.
Edison was so competitive with Tesla (partnered with Westinghouse at the time) that he arranged for the electric chair to use AC power for electrocutions, conveying the marketing message that AC is lethal (versus the DC power systems that Edison sold). Edison’s lab “Westinghoused” 24 dogs purchased from local children for 25 cents apiece before moving to a human criminal.
On his deathbed, Edison volunteered that his biggest mistake was trying to develop DC instead of the vastly superior AC system that his former employee, Nikola Tesla, had put within his grasp.
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