Others on Tesla

B.A. Behrend

Were we to seize and eliminate from our industrial world the results of Mr. Tesla's work, the wheels of industry would cease to turn, our electric cars and trains would stop, our towns would be dark, our mills would be dead and idle. Yes, so far reaching is his work that it has become the warp and woof of industry... His name marks an epoch in the advance of electrical science. From that work has sprung a revolution...

W.W. Rice Jr.

From his work followed the great work of Röntgen, who discovered the Röntgen rays, and all that work which has been carried on throughout the world in following years by J.J. Thomson and others, which has really led to the conception of modern physics. His work... antedated that of Marconi and formed the basis of wireless telegraphy... and so on throughout all branches of science and engineering we find... important evidence of what Tesla has contributed...

I.C.M. Brentano

There are three aspects of Tesla's work which particularly deserve our admiration: The importance of the achievements in themselves, as judged by their practical bearing; the logical clearness and purity of thought, with which the arguments are pursued and new results obtained; the vision and the inspiration, I should almost say the courage, of seeing remote things far ahead and so opening up new avenues to mankind.

E.F.W. Alexanderson

In almost every step of progress in electrical power engineering, as well as in radio, we can trace the spark of thought back to Nikola Tesla. There are few indeed who in their lifetime see realization of such a far-flung imagination.

Louis Cohen

In reading Tesla's work one is constantly struck by his many suggestions which have anticipated later developments in the radio art.

Gano Dunn

Prolific inventor, who solved the greatest problem in electrical engineering of his time, and gave to the world the polyphase motor and system of distribution, revolutionizing the power art and founding its phenomenal development. My contact as your assistant at the historic Columbia University high frequency lecture and afterward has left an indelible impression and inspiration which has influenced my life.

Chauncey McGovern

Fancy yourself seated in a large, well-lighted room, with mountains of curious-looking machinery on all sides. A tall, thin young man walks up to you, and by merely snapping his fingers creates instantaneously a ball of leaping red flame, and holds it calmly in his hands. As you gaze you are surprised to see it does not burn his fingers. He lets it fall upon his clothing, on his hair, into your lap, and, finally, puts the ball of flame into a wooden box. You are amazed to see that nowhere does the flame leave the slightest trace, and you rub your eyes to make sure you are not asleep.

Peter II Karadjordjevic (King of Yugoslavia)

In his diaries (A King's Heritage), under date July 8, 1942, the young Peter II writes: "I visited Dr. Nicola Tesla, the world-famous Yugoslav-American scientist, in his apartment in the Hotel New Yorker. After I had greeted him the aged scientist said: `It is my greatest honor. I am glad you are in your youth, and I am content that you will be a great ruler. I believe I will live until you come back to a free Yugoslavia. From your father you have received his last words: `Guard Yugoslavia.' I am proud to be a Serbian and a Yugoslav. Our people cannot perish. Preserve the unity of all Yugoslavs - the Serbs, the Croats, and Slovenes.'"

Adopted from "Tesla: man out of time", by Margaret Cheney, 1981.