Chapter 2, The Childhood of Nikola Tesla
 

I shall dwell briefly on these extraordinary experiences, on account of their
possible interest to students of psychology and physiology and also because this
period of agony was of the greatest consequence on my mental development and
subsequent labors. But it is indispensable to first relate the circumstances
and conditions which preceded them and in which might be found their partial
explanation.

From childhood I was compelled to concentrate attention upon myself. This caused
me much suffering, but to my present view, it was a blessing in disguise for it
has taught me to appreciate the inestimable value of introspection in the
preservation of life, as well as a means of achievement. The pressure of
occupation and the incessant stream of impressions pouring into our
consciousness through all the gateways of knowledge make modern existence
hazardous in many ways. Most persons are so absorbed in the contemplation of the
outside world that they are wholly oblivious to what is passing on within
themselves. The premature death of millions is primarily traceable to this
cause. Even among those who exercise care, it is a common mistake to avoid
imaginary, and ignore the real dangers. And what is true of an individual also
applies, more or less, to a people as a whole.

Abstinence was not always to my liking, but I find ample reward in the agreeable
experiences I am now making. Just in the hope of converting some to my precepts
and convictions I will recall one or two.

A short time ago I was returning to my hotel. It was a bitter cold night, the
ground slippery, and no taxi to be had. Half a block behind me followed another
man, evidently as anxious as myself to get under cover. Suddenly my legs went up
in the air. At the same instant there was a flash in my brain. The nerves
responded, the muscles contracted. I swung 180 degrees and landed on my hands. I
resumed my walk as though nothing had happened when the stranger caught up with
me. "How old are you?" he asked, surveying me critically.

"Oh, about fifty-nine," I replied, "What of it?"

"Well," said he, "I have seen a cat do this but never a man." About a month ago
I wanted to order new eye glasses and went to an oculist who put me through the
usual tests. He looked at me incredulously as I read off with ease the smallest
print at considerable distance. But when I told him I was past sixty he gasped
in astonishment. Friends of mine often remark that my suits fit me like gloves
but they do not know that all my clothing is made to measurements which were
taken nearly fifteen years ago and never changed. During this same period my
weight has not varied one pound. In this connection I may tell a funny story.

One evening, in the winter of 1885, Mr. Edison, Edward H. Johnson, the President
of the Edison Illuminating Company, Mr. Batchellor, Manager of the works, and
myself, entered a little place opposite 65 Firth Avenue, where the offices of
the company were located. Someone suggested guessing weights and I was induced
to step on a scale. Edison felt me all over and said: "Tesla weighs 152 lbs. to
an ounce," and he guessed it exactly. Stripped I weighed 142 pounds, and that is
still my weight. I whispered to Mr. Johnson; "How is it possible that Edison
could guess my weight so closely?"

"Well," he said, lowering his voice. "I will tell you confidentially, but you
must not say anything. He was employed for a long time in a Chicago slaughter-
house where he weighed thousands of hogs every day. That's why."

My friend, the Hon. Chauncey M. Dupew, tells of an Englishman on whom he sprung
one of his original anecdotes and who listened with a puzzled expression, but a
year later, laughed out loud. I will frankly confess it took me longer than that
to appreciate Johnson's joke. Now, my well-being is simply the result of a
careful and measured mode of living and perhaps the most astonishing thing is
that three times in my youth I was rendered by illness a hopeless physical wreck
and given up by physicians. MORE than this, through ignorance and
lightheartedness, I got into all sorts of difficulties, dangers and scrapes from
which I extricated myself as by enchantment. I was almost drowned, entombed,
lost and frozen. I had hair-breadth escapes from mad dogs, hogs, and other wild
animals. I passed through dreadful diseases and met with all kinds of odd
mishaps and that I am whole and hearty today seems like a miracle. But as I
recall these incidents to my mind I feel convinced that my preservation was not
altogether accidental, but was indeed the work of divine power. An inventor's
endeavor is essentially life saving. Whether he harnesses forces, improves
devices, or provides new comforts and conveniences, he is adding to the safety
of our existence. He is also better qualified than the average individual to
protect himself in peril, for he is observant and resourceful. If I had no other
evidence that I was, in a measure, possessed of such qualities, I would find it
in these personal experiences. The reader will be able to judge for himself if I
mention one or two instances.

On one occasion, when about fourteen years old, I wanted to scare some friends
who were bathing with me. My plan was to dive under a long floating structure
and slip out quietly at the other end. Swimming and diving came to me as
naturally as to a duck and I was confident that I could perform the feat.
Accordingly I plunged into the water and, when out of view, turned around and
proceeded rapidly towards the opposite side. Thinking that I was safely beyond
the structure, I rose to the surface but to my dismay struck a beam. Of course,
I quickly dived and forged ahead with rapid strokes until my breath was
beginning to give out. Rising for the second time, my head came again in contact
with a beam. Now I was becoming desperate. However, summoning all my energy, I
made a third frantic attempt but the result was the same. The torture of
suppressed breathing was getting unendurable, my brain was reeling and I felt
myself sinking. At that moment, when my situation seemed absolutely hopeless, I
experienced one of those flashes of light and the structure above me appeared
before my vision. I either discerned or guessed that there was a little space
between the surface of the water and the boards resting on the beams and, with
consciousness nearly gone, I floated up, pressed my mouth close to the planks
and managed to inhale a little air, unfortunately mingled with a spray of water
which nearly choked me. Several times I repeated this procedure as in a dream
until my heart, which was racing at a terrible rate, quieted down, and I gained
composure. After that I made a number of unsuccessful dives, having completely
lost the sense of direction, but finally succeeded in getting out of the trap
when my friends had already given me up and were fishing for my body. That
bathing season was spoiled for me through recklessness but I soon forgot the
lesson and only two years later I fell into a worse predicament.

There was a large flour mill with a dam across the river near the city where I
was studying at the time. As a rule the height of the water was only two or
three inches above the dam and to swim to it was a sport not very dangerous in
which I often indulged. One day I went alone to the river to enjoy myself as
usual. When I was a short distance from the masonry, however, I was horrified to
observe that the water had risen and was carrying me along swiftly. I tried to
get away but it was too late. Luckily, though, I saved myself from being swept
over by taking hold of the wall with both hands. The pressure against my chest
was great and I was barely able to keep my head above the surface. Not a soul
was in sight and my voice was lost in the roar of the fall. Slowly and gradually
I became exhausted and unable to withstand the strain longer. Just as I was
about to let go, to be dashed against the rocks below, I saw in a flash of light
a familiar diagram illustrating the hydraulic principle that the pressure of a
fluid in motion is proportionate to the area exposed and automatically I turned
on my left side. As if by magic, the pressure was reduced and I found it
comparatively easy in that position to resist the force of the stream. But the
danger still confronted me. I knew that sooner or later I would be carried down,
as it was not possible for any help to reach me in time, even if I had attracted
attention. I am ambidextrous now, but then I was left-handed and had
comparatively little strength in my right arm. For this reason I did not dare to
turn on the other side to rest and nothing remained but to slowly push my body
along the dam. I had to get away from the mill towards which my face was turned,
as the current there was much swifter and deeper. It was a long and painful
ordeal and I came near to failing at its very end, for I was confronted with a
depression in the masonry. I managed to get over with the last ounce of my
strength and fell in a swoon when I reached the bank, where I was found. I had
torn virtually all the skin from my left side and it took several weeks before
the fever had subsided and I was well. These are only two of many instanced, but
they may be sufficient to show that had it not been for the inventor's instinct,
I would not have lived to tell the tale.

Interested people have often asked me how and when I began to invent. This I can
only answer from my present recollection in the light of which, the first
attempt I recall was rather ambitious for it involved the invention of an
apparatus and a method. In the former I was anticipated, but the later was
original. It happened in this way. One of my playmates had come into the
possession of a hook and fishing tackle which created quite an excitement in the
village, and the next morning all started out to catch frogs. I was left alone
and deserted owing to a quarrel with this boy. I had never seen a real hook and
pictured it as something wonderful, endowed with peculiar qualities, and was
despairing not to be one of the party. Urged by necessity, I somehow got hold of
a piece of soft iron wire, hammered the end to a sharp point between two stones,
bent it into shape, and fastened it to a strong string. I then cut a rod,
gathered some bait, and went down to the brook where there were frogs in
abundance. But I could not catch any and was almost discouraged when it occurred
to me dangle the empty hook in front of a frog sitting on a stump. At first he
collapsed but by and by his eyes bulged out and became bloodshot, he swelled to
twice his normal size and made a vicious snap at the hook. Immediately I pulled
him up. I tried the same thing again and again and the method proved infallible.
When my comrades, who in spite of their fine outfit had caught nothing, came to
me, they were green with envy. For a long time I kept my secret and enjoyed the
monopoly but finally yielded to the spirit of Christmas. Every boy could then do
the same and the following summer brought disaster to the frogs.

In my next attempt, I seem to have acted under the first instinctive impulse
which later dominated me, -- to harness the energies of nature to the service of
man. I did this through the medium of May bugs, or June bugs as they are called
in America, which were a veritable pest in that country and sometimes broke the
branches of trees by the sheer weight of their bodies. The bushes were black
with them. I would attach as many as four of them to a cross-piece, rotably
arranged on a thin spindle, and transmit the motion of the same to a large disc
and so derive considerable 'power.' These creatures were remarkably efficient,
for once they were started, they had no sense to stop and continued whirling for
hours and hours and the hotter it was, the harder they worked. All went well
until a strange boy came to the place. He was the son of a retired officer in
the Austrian army. That urchin ate May-bugs alive and enjoyed them as though
they were the finest blue-point oysters. That disgusting sight terminated my
endeavors in this promising field and I have never since been able to touch a
May-bug or any other insect for that matter.

After that, I believe, I undertook to take apart and assemble the clocks of my
grandfather. In the former operation I was always successful, but often failed
in the latter. So it came that he brought my work to a sudden halt in a manner
not too delicate and it took thirty years before I tackled another clockwork
again.

Shortly thereafter, I went into the manufacture of a kind of pop-gun which
comprised a hollow tube, a piston, and two plugs of hemp. When firing the gun,
the piston was pressed against the stomach and the tube was pushed back quickly
with both hands. the air between the plugs was compressed and raised to a high
temperature and one of them was expelled with a loud report. The art consisted
in selecting a tube of the proper taper from the hollow stalks which were found
in our garden. I did very well with that gun, but my activities interfered with
the window panes in our house and met with painful discouragement.

If I remember rightly, I then took to carving swords from pieces of furniture
which I could conveniently obtain. At that time I was under the sway of the
Serbian national poetry and full of admiration for the feats of the heroes. I
used to spend hours in mowing down my enemies in the form of corn-stalks which
ruined the crops and netted me several spankings from my mother. Moreover, these
were not of the formal kind but the genuine article.

I had all this and more behind me before I was six years old and had passed
through one year of elementary school in the village of Smiljan where my family
lived. At this juncture we moved to the little city of Gospic nearby. This
change of residence was like a calamity to me. It almost broke my heart to part
from our pigeons, chickens and sheep, and our magnificent flock of geese which
used to rise to the clouds in the morning and return from the feeding grounds at
sundown in battle formation, so perfect that it would have put a squadron of the
best aviators of the present day to shame. In our new house I was but a
prisoner, watching the strange people I saw through my window blinds. My
bashfulness was such that I would rather have faced a roaring lion than one of
the city dudes who strolled about. But my hardest trial came on Sunday when I
had to dress up and attend the service. There I met with an accident, the mere
thought of which made my blood curdle like sour milk for years afterwards. It
was my second adventure in a church. Not long before, I was entombed for a night
in an old chapel on an inaccessible mountain which was visited only once a year.
It was an awful experience, but this one was worse.

There was a wealthy lady in town, a good but pompous woman, who used to come to
the church gorgeously painted up and attired with an enormous train and
attendants. One Sunday I had just finished ringing the bell in the belfry and
rushed downstairs, when this grand dame was sweeping out and I jumped on her
train. It tore off with a ripping noise which sounded like a salvo of musketry
fired by raw recruits. My father was livid with rage. He gave me a gentle slap
on the cheek, the only corporal punishment he ever administered to me, but I
almost feel it now. The embarrassment and confusion that followed are
indescribably. I was practically ostracized until something else happened which
redeemed me in the estimation of the community.

An enterprising young merchant had organized a fire department. A new fire
engine was purchased, uniforms provided and the men drilled for service and
parade. The engine was beautifully painted red and black. One afternoon, the
official trial was prepared for and the machine was transported to the river.
The entire population turned out to witness the great spectacle. When all the
speeches and ceremonies were concluded, the command was given to pump, but not a
drop of water came from the nozzle. The professors and experts tried in vain to
locate the trouble. The fizzle was complete when I arrived at the scene. My
knowledge of of the mechanism was nil and I knew next to nothing of air
pressure, but instinctively I felt for the suction hose in the water and found
that it had collapsed. When I waded in the river and opened it up, the water
rushed forth and not a few Sunday clothes were spoiled. Archimedes running naked
through the streets of Syracuse and shouting Eureka at the top of his voice did
not make a greater impression than myself. I was carried on the shoulders and
was hero of the day.

Upon settling in the city I began a four years course in the so-called Normal
School preparatory to my studies at the College or Real-Gymnasium. During this
period my boyish efforts and exploits as well as troubles, continued.

Among other things, I attained the unique distinction of champion crow catcher
in the country. My method of procedure was extremely simple. I would go into the
forest, hide in the bushes, and imitate the call of the birds. Usually I would
get several answers and in a short while a crow would flutter down into the
shrubbery near me. After that, all I needed to do was to throw a piece of
cardboard to detract its attention, jump up and grab it before it could
extricate itself from the undergrowth. In this way I would capture as many as I
desired. But on one occasion something occurred which made me respect them. I
had caught a fine pair of birds and was returning home with a friend. When we
left the forest, thousands of crows had gathered making a frightful racket. In a
few minutes they rose in pursuit and soon enveloped us. The fun lasted until all
of a sudden I received a blow on the back of my head which knocked me down. Then
they attacked me viciously. I was compelled to release the two birds and was
glad to join my friend who had taken refuge in a cave.

In the school room there were a few mechanical models which interested me and
turned my attention to water turbines. I constructed many of these and found
great pleasure in operating them. How extraordinary was my life an incident may
illustrate. My uncle had no use for this kind of pastime and more than once
rebuked me. I was fascinated by a description of Niagara Falls I had perused,
and pictured in my imagination a big wheel run by the falls. I told my uncle
that I would go to America and carry out this scheme. Thirty years later I was
my ideas carried out at Niagara and marveled at the unfathomable mystery of the
mind.

I made all kinds of other contrivances and contraptions but among those, the
arbalests I produced were the best. My arrows, when short, disappeared from
sight and at close range traversed a plank of pine one inch thick. Through the
continuous tightening of the bows I developed a skin on my stomach much like
that of a crocodile and I am often wondering whether it is due to this exercise
that I am able even now to digest cobble-stones! Nor can I pass in silence my
performances with the sling which would have enabled me to give a stunning
exhibit at the Hippodrome. And now I will tell of one of my feats with this
unique implement of war which will strain to the utmost the credulity of the
reader.

I was practicing while walking with my uncle along the river. The sun was
setting, the trout were playful and from time to time one would shoot up into
the air, its glistening body sharply defined against a projecting rock beyond.
Of course any boy might have hit a fish under these propitious conditions but I
undertook a much more difficult task and I foretold to my uncle, to the minutest
detail, what I intended doing. I was to hurl a stone to meet the fish, press its
body against the rock, and cut it in two. It was no sooner said than done. My
uncle looked at me almost scared out of his wits and exclaimed "Vade retra
Satanae!" and it was a few days before he spoke to me again. Other records,
however great, will be eclipsed but I feel that I could peacefully rest on my
laurels for a thousand years.