What do you think?
Rate this book
The inventions, researches and writings of Nikola Tesla With special reference to his work in polyphase currents and high potential lighting
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
515 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1970
425 people are currently reading
2797 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Commerford Martin
72 books6 followersThomas Commerford Martin was an American electrical engineer and editor.
Martin was born in Limehouse, England. His father worked with Lord Kelvin and other pioneers of submarine telegraph cables, and Martin worked on the cable-laying ship SS Great Eastern.
Educated as a theological student, Martin travelled to the United States in 1877. He was associated with Thomas A. Edison in his work in 1877–1879 and thereafter engaged in editorial work. From 1883 to 1909 he served as editor of the Electrical World, after 1909 was executive secretary of the National Electric Light Association, and in 1900–1911 was a special agent of the United States Census Office.
Martin lectured at the Royal Institution of Engineers, London, the Paris Société Internationale des Electriciens, the University of Nebraska, and Columbia University. He was a founding member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and served as president in 1887–1888.
Martin was born in Limehouse, England. His father worked with Lord Kelvin and other pioneers of submarine telegraph cables, and Martin worked on the cable-laying ship SS Great Eastern.
Educated as a theological student, Martin travelled to the United States in 1877. He was associated with Thomas A. Edison in his work in 1877–1879 and thereafter engaged in editorial work. From 1883 to 1909 he served as editor of the Electrical World, after 1909 was executive secretary of the National Electric Light Association, and in 1900–1911 was a special agent of the United States Census Office.
Martin lectured at the Royal Institution of Engineers, London, the Paris Société Internationale des Electriciens, the University of Nebraska, and Columbia University. He was a founding member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and served as president in 1887–1888.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 12, 2011
When you find out that General Electric should actually have been named Tesla Electric, this man begins to get his due. Not withstanding my respect for Edison, Tesla thought and ideas were light years ahead of Edison and I'm not sure that is not the reason for their split. Parts are laborious to read much, like reference materials are, and a degree in electrical engineering will definitely help. The insight you will gain from your time spent with Tesla will amaze you and you'l wonder what have we been doing for the last hundred years to catch up.
I have read many biographies of great men of industry and thought and never before have I read about anyone with the shear multitasking ability in subjects 40 years to come. Linus Pauling and Feynman are my favorite Nobel winners. Only Feynman comes close the the out of box thinking of this man Tesla.
This or another like it should be required reading for electrical engineering Post Grads. Might save them a lot of grief.
I have read many biographies of great men of industry and thought and never before have I read about anyone with the shear multitasking ability in subjects 40 years to come. Linus Pauling and Feynman are my favorite Nobel winners. Only Feynman comes close the the out of box thinking of this man Tesla.
This or another like it should be required reading for electrical engineering Post Grads. Might save them a lot of grief.
May 6, 2017
Not for the casual read. Definitely one of the most challenging books I've ever read. I watched a lot of YouTube videos to help me to understand parts.
January 22, 2017
This was quite the undertaking but worth the effort. I know more about polyphase currents than this former physics teacher living with 2 electricians ever expected. Tesla's use of the word phenomenon was phenomenal.
November 20, 2019
This was an interesting, fun and open read. I mostly bought it because I needed it to complete a reading challenge, and well, the cover was really, really pretty. What I didn’t expect was that I would enjoy this adventure so much… after all, it’s been quite a while since I picked up anything physics-related.
Physics is an incredibly intense and fun subject – one that I’m kind of realising I miss a bit. This book explains that fact really well – not only is the use of electricity really intricate and intense, but this collection actually manages to explain it in a really fascinating way. And accessible… you don’t need a physics degree to understand what discoveries and creations Tesla came up with. The diagrams also go a long way to helping you understand exactly what engines, power sources and discoveries he made.
I did really enjoy the biographical aspects of Tesla’s life throughout this as well. Although it was very science-heavy, there was just enough of the personal to keep even the least scientifically-minded person engaged. So, not only did I learn a lot about what the actual discoveries, researches and inventions of Tesla were, I also learnt quite a bit about his personal journey and life in his obsession with electricity.
Physics is an incredibly intense and fun subject – one that I’m kind of realising I miss a bit. This book explains that fact really well – not only is the use of electricity really intricate and intense, but this collection actually manages to explain it in a really fascinating way. And accessible… you don’t need a physics degree to understand what discoveries and creations Tesla came up with. The diagrams also go a long way to helping you understand exactly what engines, power sources and discoveries he made.
I did really enjoy the biographical aspects of Tesla’s life throughout this as well. Although it was very science-heavy, there was just enough of the personal to keep even the least scientifically-minded person engaged. So, not only did I learn a lot about what the actual discoveries, researches and inventions of Tesla were, I also learnt quite a bit about his personal journey and life in his obsession with electricity.
October 3, 2019
This is written by an Electrical Engineer for Electrical Engineers, so right off it is not an easy read for anyone else, and even then you must use context to follow some terms. When he says the ether, I am thinking is he speaking as the Greeks, but then he describes the ether as attached to molecules and holding the vibrational energy I believe, and ohhhh, he means the electron cloud. There is a ton of making lightbulbs and such to do experiments, and it was tedious without his actual demonstrations with sparks and arks, but I would also find some of the wonder in him and what i was searching for, his ultimate dream, his goal, and finding that which I was looking for, in a paragraph here and there, was worth it. Not saying if only I'd had a smaller book that gave me that more directly, I'd have been thrilled.
June 13, 2014
Not for the layman.
February 6, 2025
When I was in high school, I learned about Nikola Tesla and was fascinated by the way history seemed to overlook him when he was such an important engineer and inventor according to the internet. He was extorted by other more famous inventors such as Thomas Edison, and there was seemingly no end to his amazing inventions. Many years later, and now I collect Barnes and Noble Leatherbound classics and there is a Nikola Tesla book within that collection, so of course I would love to pick it up and read it. Unfortunately, my excitement was immediately punctured as this book reads like the most asinine collection of r/VXjunkies gibberish, and this is coming from someone who actually did a year of electrical engineering at university. Instead of exploring the overall concepts behind his ideas and perhaps the impact and the life or mythos of Tesla, it is instead his notes and technical explanations of each of his electrical motors. Sure, this is not the mythical Tesla the internet spewed out those years ago, but really, why would Barnes and Noble a company collecting literary classics that is marketed to a general audience release something this incoherent? A total waste of time.
March 19, 2018
This rating needs qualifications. As just a read, this was a three star for me; I am in no way an electrician or engineer, so much of the content was beyond me. However, as a read on electricity and engineering, it is a five star read. I would recommend to anyone interested in electricity, energy, or innovations.
Though admittedly beyond my knowledge base, I did pick up enough to recognize Tesla’s genius at harnessing the energy that abounds in our world. Tesla himself testifies to the energy filling all the world and filling us. His observations on the eye were a highlight for me. His use of magnets and reversing poles to keep large objects in motion so they can power other objects was and is nothing short of brilliant. Once he figured out a few principles, he was able to vary them for different purposes. In addition, his experimentation in light bulbs and luminosity contain vast insights into objects we now take for granted.
Without Tesla’s work, I cannot imagine how far behind we would be in our ability to use electricity.
Though admittedly beyond my knowledge base, I did pick up enough to recognize Tesla’s genius at harnessing the energy that abounds in our world. Tesla himself testifies to the energy filling all the world and filling us. His observations on the eye were a highlight for me. His use of magnets and reversing poles to keep large objects in motion so they can power other objects was and is nothing short of brilliant. Once he figured out a few principles, he was able to vary them for different purposes. In addition, his experimentation in light bulbs and luminosity contain vast insights into objects we now take for granted.
Without Tesla’s work, I cannot imagine how far behind we would be in our ability to use electricity.
Read
March 1, 2021The book The Inventions, Researches, and Writings of Nikola Tesla by Thomas Commerford Martin, is a book about the inventions, researches, and writings of Nikola Tesla-if you haven’t guessed. It would be a great attention holder if I was some type of Historical Electrical Engineer. During the book, it rarely divulged his personal life which is what I thought the book would be more about, and instead, it showed mostly the sketches and diagrams of what he had been working on. The author then continued to elaborate on the meaning of all the little details in the diagrams. What I did like was how in-depth the book was about each one of his discoveries and inventions, but I felt that the book would have been better if it talked about his life as a child, teen, and adult. In all honesty, the book felt more like a textbook rather than an enjoyable book to read for fun. If I was to rate this book on a scale of 1-10 I would give it a solid 6, and I would not recommend reading this book unless you are someone that likes reading textbooks.
Read
May 11, 2017Keep up, this is no bedside light reading. He was a profound man. It's a bit hard to follow at times, but I enjoyed this read. Another long dead man I love... Pity.
November 9, 2020
This took me almost a year and a half to read. Did it in short spurts. Having had some limited dealings with electronics I could understand some of what he presented. Some illustrations were difficult to decipher because it appears that they were taken from larger pictures and shrunk down to fit the pages of the book. The book does show what an inventive genius Nikola Tesla was. One chapter I found of particular interest is one where he deals with how the eye functions. He does refer to other inventors of his day. This is a technical writing and not a biography so don't expect to learn about Tesla from a non-technical viewpoint.
August 9, 2018
This Book was too technical for my tastes, sounded as if it were a school text book!
Maybe I will pick it up again someday!
Maybe I will pick it up again someday!
January 29, 2020
love Tesla and all his works.
May 14, 2020
Pure engineering.
April 11, 2021
A better compilation of Nikola Tesla works. Its not the complete one, but better compiling
March 8, 2022
Diagrams, lectures by Tesla. Records of very interesting experiments and inventions.
Read
May 10, 2016On the title page: "Second Edition". Dedication "To his countrymen in Eastern Europe [read: Serbians] this record of the work already accomplished by Nikola Tesla is respectfully dedicated".
'Already' in this case; refers to 'before 1894'; when the original edition was printed.
Note that although the author of this book is listed as Thomas Commerford Martin; and although a lot of the text is in Martin's voice; some of it is direct quotes from Tesla's own writings; lectures; demonstrations; etc.
If you're planning to read this book from beginning to end (rather than just using it for reference); be sure to budget a LOT of time. It literally took me YEARS to read it.
Part of the problem is a dire need for not only a glossary; but also a companion volume defining what the state of the art WAS at the time. When Tesla says that he altered the 'standard' design thus; so; and otherwise; this is not very useful if you don't know what the standard design at the time WAS.
With time and care; it's possible to figure out some things. The electron theory of electricity apparently was not widely accepted when the articles; lectures; etc were written. Tesla; at least; doesn't mention it: and his discussions of aetheric theories for propagation of electromagnetic waves in a vacuum seem to imply that he never even CONSIDERED the possibility that subtle fluids might not be a necessary hypothesis. Whether Tesla reconsidered his theoretical bases after the book was published (in light of relativity and quantum physics; say) is not clear from this book. Tesla lived until 1943--and it's likely that he was following up on developments in physics up until shortly before his death--but if he revised his beliefs for a second volume of this book; I couldn't say; as I more or less lucked into this one; and it's hard to search.
Tesla also had some odd theories (for example; he argued that human intelligence was impossible for the sightless. He recognized; of course; that there were highly intelligent people who were blind: he argued that they were able to think because they had the brain structures needed for sight; even though they couldn't use them for vision. A somewhat implausible argument; in my opinion).
All in all; however; I would say that the book is worth reading. Many of Tesla's ideas weren't much followed up in standard literature. For example; Tesla devotes a great deal of attention to lighting by induction (which can be wireless). There has been SOME followup on this but it would bear more study and design work.
My recommendation would be for this book to be used as an alternate source text for History of Science courses...and that anybody proposing to read the book engage in extensive preliminary reading to get caught up on contemporary standards and terminology.
Condition note: My copy of this has a fairly tattered dust cover--but the book itself is in quite good condition--probably because the dust cover absorbed most of the stresses the book has been subjected to.
'Already' in this case; refers to 'before 1894'; when the original edition was printed.
Note that although the author of this book is listed as Thomas Commerford Martin; and although a lot of the text is in Martin's voice; some of it is direct quotes from Tesla's own writings; lectures; demonstrations; etc.
If you're planning to read this book from beginning to end (rather than just using it for reference); be sure to budget a LOT of time. It literally took me YEARS to read it.
Part of the problem is a dire need for not only a glossary; but also a companion volume defining what the state of the art WAS at the time. When Tesla says that he altered the 'standard' design thus; so; and otherwise; this is not very useful if you don't know what the standard design at the time WAS.
With time and care; it's possible to figure out some things. The electron theory of electricity apparently was not widely accepted when the articles; lectures; etc were written. Tesla; at least; doesn't mention it: and his discussions of aetheric theories for propagation of electromagnetic waves in a vacuum seem to imply that he never even CONSIDERED the possibility that subtle fluids might not be a necessary hypothesis. Whether Tesla reconsidered his theoretical bases after the book was published (in light of relativity and quantum physics; say) is not clear from this book. Tesla lived until 1943--and it's likely that he was following up on developments in physics up until shortly before his death--but if he revised his beliefs for a second volume of this book; I couldn't say; as I more or less lucked into this one; and it's hard to search.
Tesla also had some odd theories (for example; he argued that human intelligence was impossible for the sightless. He recognized; of course; that there were highly intelligent people who were blind: he argued that they were able to think because they had the brain structures needed for sight; even though they couldn't use them for vision. A somewhat implausible argument; in my opinion).
All in all; however; I would say that the book is worth reading. Many of Tesla's ideas weren't much followed up in standard literature. For example; Tesla devotes a great deal of attention to lighting by induction (which can be wireless). There has been SOME followup on this but it would bear more study and design work.
My recommendation would be for this book to be used as an alternate source text for History of Science courses...and that anybody proposing to read the book engage in extensive preliminary reading to get caught up on contemporary standards and terminology.
Condition note: My copy of this has a fairly tattered dust cover--but the book itself is in quite good condition--probably because the dust cover absorbed most of the stresses the book has been subjected to.
August 14, 2016
This was a long dense book that was frankly over my head. It consists mainly of technical descriptions of the many works of Tesla. Eventually, I found myself skipping around to bits and pieces as much of the engineering specifics were lost on me. The most interesting pieces for me were the transcripts of lectures Tesla had given.
I"d also have been interested to know more about the person who wrote the book. It was written while Tesla was still working. After just having read a book about the competition at the time between Edison and Tesla, among others (and about the dedicated preference many engineers at the time had for one or the other) knowing more about the author would have given me a better idea of whether or not to take some of the authors thoughts and admiration with a grain of salt.
This book may be very interested to engineers but I would not recommend it for a layman.
I"d also have been interested to know more about the person who wrote the book. It was written while Tesla was still working. After just having read a book about the competition at the time between Edison and Tesla, among others (and about the dedicated preference many engineers at the time had for one or the other) knowing more about the author would have given me a better idea of whether or not to take some of the authors thoughts and admiration with a grain of salt.
This book may be very interested to engineers but I would not recommend it for a layman.
September 12, 2016
This book describes the inventions and the writings of Nikola Tesla in old timey language. Not all of it was written by Tesla, since a few of the patents and descriptions are from a first hand source. Since the descriptions of things are so old, it is somewhat difficult to know what he's talking about at times, but it works out. Only the names for things have changed, but the underlying physics hasn't so you can tell what some things are. Then there are descriptions that needed to be looked up, like with ebonite and some types of apparatus that he uses.
All in all, the book was enjoyable, but it was slightly hard to understand sometimes.
All in all, the book was enjoyable, but it was slightly hard to understand sometimes.
September 25, 2018
If you're interested in the history of the modern electrical world and have a background in electronics this is a riveting read. If Basic Electronics was 30 + years ago it's still interesting as the theory's and ideas of Tesla formed the base of what we learned at Allie Hall, Keesler AFB, Biloxi Mississippi. If you don't have either of these interests but are interested in History there are better books about the early days of the electric world. If none of these things apply to your life, skip this one you will find it a bore and a slog.
Currently reading
September 7, 2011Well, I've got it in hand, anyway. Tesla is a fascinating subject--but that doesn't mean there haven't been any tedious and tendentious books about him. We'll see how this one goes.
Want to read
July 10, 2014Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
January 23, 2023
3 3/4 stars
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews