The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-08-26
EDIsON'S CHIEF RIVAL.
G,impses at the Personality and Projects
OF Nikola Tesla. the New Wizard OF
Electrical Science.

Electrical Science.
From the Times-Herald.
Nikola Tesla is today the most inter-
esting personality in the department or
electrical investigation and engineer
ing invention in the world.
The fire which lately destroyed the
Tesla laboratory in New York. consum-
ing all the recent devices and creations
of his ingenuity-the results of years OF
such labor as only such a man is capa-
bl,, of-had in it a touch of the tragic.
But, at any rate, Ii has directed pup
lie attention afresh to the character and
achievements of this wonderful and
still youthful inventor.
1t is natural that the world should
look with wonder on its great inventors.
What they do often has the appearance
of being the work of an especial ere
ative faculty" They seem to be men
who have made rather than merely
formed something. In an age like the
present. when so much of the worlds
Industries depend upon mechanical uses
of natures forces. the inventor becomes
one of the greatest of public benefac-
tors This Is especially the case when
the saving economics-saving in time
and in other eXpenditures-are so ne
cessary. The available supply of the
worlds coal. for instance, is no doubt
limited. Should this simply be prema-
turely exhausted the calamity would
be beyond calculation. Engineering in
vention, II 1t can, must devise methods
for its most economical utilization and
expenditure.
Are these other forces of nature still
lying dormant or being let run on to
waste--powers that are wanted in help
ing out the tremendous tasks which the
eager workers of the world are having
in hand? There Is Niagara. with its
seemingly almost infinite power, run
ming to waste Who can by searching
find out ma lures secret methods and fit
the apt contrivance to the natural law
so that that and other similar wasting
forces may come into play along with
the other working forces Of this ''in-
dustral age|
These are some Of the questions which
nobody has studied more deeply or with
more surprising success than Nikola
Tesla
Tesla Is Genius.
But who Is this deep prier into ma
lures mysteries, this wonder-working
ma eician? Where did he come from?
How came he here? And how came he
to be what he is, to do the things which
have already made his name 50 ia
nous?
In the first place. this Nikola Tesla.
though plainly enough man of genius,
Is no magician. He Is no mere vision
ary. He is no child Of luck. His
achievements have been no accidents.
He Is one of the most logical of men.
He has not jumped to conclusions. Ev-
cry perceptlve faculty has been alert;
but so have all other coordinate fac
ulties of the mind benn alive and alert.
each faculty instant In the doing OF its
own part toward the wanted and waited
for result.
President Jordan, Of the Leland Stan
ford university Is right In insisting as
he does in recent strikingly just arti-
Gle In one of the educational reviews
that genius" should be taken as the
"model In education" The man of true
genius when he does the things at
which men wonder and admire, has no
lazy fibre in his brain. All the facul-
ties wordsworth, at their best. And
they work at their best because they
work suitably and all together.
But Nikola Tesla-in America he Is
one Of our Immigrants" as Ericsson
was as Agassiz was. and some other
such people whose names and services.
the world will not soon let die. Tesla
Is now 38 years of age. He Is by birth
Slav. His boyhOod home was In the
borderland of Eastern Austria, where
Slav and Turk have 80 often struggled
for the mastery He was born In Smil-
jan. in the province of Lika. His ia
ther was a clergyman Of the Greek
church, who,had hoped to have his son
succeed him In the sacred office.
Ills Education.
As for his education, he spent four
years in the public school, three years
in the real school, three years In the
higher real school at Cortstatt, and
two or three years In the polytechnic
school in GratZ, Austria.
BY this time young Tesla had become
SO absorbed In his electrical studies.
experiments and scientific ideas. that
he saw, as he expressed 1t. felt that ne
must get into the gulf stream OF elec-
trical thought" Accordingly, break
ing away from all ties and traditions
Of the past, in 1881. he came to Paris,
presently obtaining employment as an
electrical engineer. 1t was not long,
however. before It became plain to him
that America was the place for him.
Associated for time with Edison. In
whose shop he took OF his coat the day
he landed in America, he threw him.
self into the mid-Stream Of the then
extraordinary intensity Of electrical in
vestigation and invention. Il.
In 1887 the Tesla, Electric company, of
New York, having been formed. he de-
&.