Tesla: The Life and Times of an Electric Messiah by Nigel Cawthorne Page A

his assistants, quite oblivious to the fact that this might be dangerous. He reasoned that the amount of material involved was so small that it would take centuries to build up enough to be poisonous. He himself suffered from bad headaches when experimenting with X-rays and an assistant suffered blistering and inflammation of exposed skin.
    Edison was also experimenting with X-rays and noted that they caused sensations in the eyes of the blind. He believed that eyesight might be restored by the application of X-rays. Tesla disagreed and there was another falling out.
    The rift was mended when the Kentucky School of Medicine combined devices made by Tesla and Edison to remove birdshot from the foot of a voter who had been shot during an election scuffle. Thomas Martin then took Tesla, Edison and other electricians on a fishing trip off Sandy Hook. Ironically, Tesla caught a large flounder; Edison a huge fluke.
    Â 
    Heading for The Falls
    In July 1896, Tesla, Westinghouse, Adams and others involved in the Niagara project, travelled up to the Falls. On their arrival, the Niagara Gazette reported:
    Tesla is an idealist, and anyone who has created an ideal of him from the fame that he has won will not be disappointed in seeing him for the first time. He is fully six feet tall, very dark of complexion, nervous, and wiry. Impressionable maidens would fall in love with him at first sight, but he has no time to think of impressionable maidens. In fact, he has given as his opinion that inventors should never marry. Day and night he is working away at some deep problems that fascinate him, and anyone that talks with him for only a few minutes will get the impression that science is his only mistress, and that he cares more for her than for money and fame.
    Tesla was overcome at the sight of the Falls and the first of the hydroelectric power stations designed by Stanford White built there. It would house some ten gigantic Tesla turbines generating over 35,000 kilowatts.
    Afterwards he returned to New York City, where he threw himself back into research into the wireless transmission, fearing that Marconi may steal a march. Again he refused to holiday with the Johnsons, though he did have Christmas dinner with them.
    Â 
    Respect, Acclaim and Kudos
    The celebration for the inauguration of the Niagara Falls power station was held in January 1897 in the Ellicott Club in Buffalo, NY. The top 350 of America’s most prominent businessmen made the trek there. A notable no-show was Thomas Edison.
    Tesla was introduced as the ‘greatest electrician on Earth’ and received a standing ovation. However, Tesla made a rambling, self-deprecating speech, saying it had been a mistake to invite him. He heaped praise on those who had helped. Running out of time, the master of ceremonies intervened and cut off the end of his speech. Just as well, as a blissfully unaware Tesla was about to enlighten the distinguished audience by telling them that they had wasted all their time and money building a power line from Niagara to Buffalo – he would soon be transmitting the electricity wirelessly …
    His continual self-deprecation did him no favours. Others were claiming to have invented the induction motor and the Tesla Coil, and they were pirating his inventions. Meanwhile he turned down several applications to be his assistant from a top Yale student, Lee De Forest (1873 – 1961), who eventually went on to rival Marconi in the development of radio.

Chapter 7 – Tesla’s Extreme Science
    Â 
    Suppose the whole earth to be like a hollow rubber ball filled with water, and at one place I have a tube attached to this, with a plunger in the tube. If I press upon the plunger the water in the tube will be driven into the rubber ball, and as the water is practically incompressible, every part of the surface of the ball will be expanded. If I withdraw the plunger, the water follows it and every part of the ball will contract. Now, if I