A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla Flashcards
At the stroke of midnight on July 10, 1856, thunder clapped.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
Lightning flashed.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
And a baby boy was born.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
“He’ll be a child of the storm,” his nurse said.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
“No,” his mother replied. “A child of light.”
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
He loved animals and never missed a day cradling and feeding his family’s chickens, roosters, pigeons, and geese.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
He had many playmates, but his best friend was a cat. The magnificent Macak.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
The magnificent Macak.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
His mother said, “Stop playing with the cat, he might start a fire.”
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
His father said, “This is nothing but electricity, the same thing you see on the trees in a storm.”
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
He wondered, is Nature a gigantic cat?
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
If so, who strokes its back?
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
He dreamt of flying like the pigeons and geese on his farm - so, he jumped off the roof of his barn holding only an old umbrella.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
His bones didn’t break, but he was bedbound for weeks.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
He remembered everything he read and soon carried whole volumes in his head.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
While the family slept, he made his own candles, stuffed towels in the cracks of his bedroom door to hide the light, and worked his way through his father’s library of books.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
His dream was to study electricity when he grew up, but his father expected him to follow in his footsteps - and become a priest.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
Everyone feared he was at death’s door.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
A puzzle he had thought about for years.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
A puzzle his university professor had said was impossible to solve.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
And he knew it was an invention that would soon power the world.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
So, he set sail across the Atlantic from Europe to America.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
When he arrived in New York, his pockets held: four pennies, some handwritten poems, notes for a flying machine invention, and a letter of introduction to Thomas Edison, the inventor of the first practical electric light bulb.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
The two men worked together briefly, but they disagreed about everything - especially about the future of electricity.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
On the fair’s opening day, thousands of visitors from around the world gathered.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
The president of the United States pressed a gold telegraph button that set the fairground’s electric machinery in motion.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
And for the first time in history, over a hundred thousand light bulbs lit up at once.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
Soon once-darkened homes, office buildings, and city streets were illuminated.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
The wheels of streetcars and electric trains now whirled, and factories hummed through the night.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
They called him the Wizard of Electricity.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
So, he gave away the rest of the rights to his invention.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
Even as he grew old, he didn’t stop memorizing poems by heart, or solving scientific equations in his head, or taking long daily walks up and down New York’s cobblestoned streets.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
He also never stopped loving animals.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
He never missed a day.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
“I’ve been feeding pigeons, thousands of them, for years; thousands of them, for who can tell,” he said.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
Before making a diagnosis, he would peer into each bird’s eyes, then inspect their wings, beaks, and feet.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
“Caring for homeless, hungry, or sick birds is the delight of my life,” he said.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
No one recognized the Wizard of Electricity on the city streets anymore.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
Now newspapers flashed headlines about an unusual old man, scattering seeds in the park.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
They called him the Pigeon Charmer of New York, and when reporters asked about his devotion to birds, he simply said: “All things from childhood are still dear to me.”
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
When the old man died in his hotel room, penniless and alone, with the windows wide open and birdseed on his sill, the mayor of New York announced the sad news on the radio: “He was a feather in the cap of the whole human race.”
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
A gifted inventor, a creature of habit.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
A lover of animals, a friend to humankind.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
A child of the storm, a child of the light.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
A human flash of lightning, far ahead of his time.
A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla
