Editors Note:
 

Nikola Tesla was born in Croatia (then part of Austria-Hungary) on July 9,
1856, and died January 7, 1943. He was the electrical engineer who
invented the AC (alternating current) induction motor, which made the
universal transmission and distribution of electricity possible. Tesla
began his studies in physics and mathematics at Graz Polytechnic, and then
took philosophy at the University of Prague. He worked as an electrical
engineer in Budapest, Hungary, and subsequently in France and Germany. In
1888 his discovery that a magnetic field could be made to rotate if two
coils at right angles are supplied with AC current 90 degrees out of phase
made possible the invention of the AC induction motor. The major advantage
of this motor being its brushless operation, which many at the time believed
impossible.

Tesla moved to the United States in 1884, where he worked for Thomas
Edison who quickly became a rival  Edison being an advocate of the
inferior DC power transmission system. During this time, Tesla was
commissioned with the design of the AC generators installed at Niagara
Falls. George Westinghouse purchased the patents to his induction motor,
and made it the basis of the Westinghouse power system which still
underlies the modern electrical power industry today.

He also did notable research on high-voltage electricity and wireless
communication; at one point creating an earthquake which shook the ground
for several miles around his New York laboratory. He also devised a system
which anticipated world-wide wireless communications, fax machines, radar,
radio-guided missiles and aircraft.

Tesla's autobiography, MY INVENTIONS was first published as a 6-part seriesin the ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTER magazine, Feb.-June and Oct. 1919 issues. The series was republished as MOJA PRONALASCI - MY INVENTIONS, Skolska Knjiga, Zagreb, 1977, on the occasion of Tesla's 120th anniversary, withside-by-side English and Serbo-Croatian translations by Tomo Bosanac and Vanja Aljinovic, Branimira Valic, ed.  It subsequently appeared as MY INVENTIONS,

Hart Bros., Williston, Vt., 1982, Ben Johnston, ed., a book which is still in print.
A tip from Gary Peterson of Twenty First Century Books.
 
-Mark Bean