IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Spring 2014 - 13

to take measure of both the man and his creative
work." The book is actually written on two different
levels that are integrated into a cohesive and compelling story. First, there is the main narrative addressing
Tesla's visions and how he developed them, and then
there are the pauses in the narrative where Carlson,
using Tesla as an example of an inventor extraordinaire, comments on the inventive process, the role
of illusion in the process, and the social implications
of inventions as they are introduced. Throughout the
book, he seeks to answer these three questions: "How
did Tesla invent? How did his inventions work? And
what happened as he introduced his inventions?"
Carlson answers the first question at the outset by
quoting Tesla on his approach to invention:
"I have unconsciously evolved what I consider
to be a new method of materializing inventive
concepts and ideas... When I get an idea, I start
right away to build it up in my mind. I change the
structure, I make improvements, I experiment, I
run the device in my mind. In this way, you see,
I can rapidly develop and perfect an invention,
without touching anything. ...I then construct
this final product in my brain. Every time my device works as I conceive it should and my experiment comes out exactly as I plan it."
According to Carlson, Tesla's method of inventing was both his strength and his weakness. Apparently Tesla was a visionary not only in the conceptual
phase but also in the design phase - not the best
time to be a visionary. Indeed, Carlson says the actual
experiment did not always come out as he envisioned
in his mind, and later in his career it rarely did. The
other two questions are answered in the remainder
of the book consisting of sixteen chapters, which are
arranged chronologically and cover the specific time
periods identified in each chapter title.
Carlson focuses on Tesla's major technology thrusts
that he characterizes as "disruptive," which means
that they disrupt or reorder the pattern of established
industries and alter the everyday life of consumers,
presumably for the better. He says that Tesla introduced two disruptive technologies in the late 1880s
that made him rich and famous - the AC motor and
polyphase power, the combination of which allowed
for the efficient transfer and utilization of power over
long distances. Carlson describes a "Eureka" moment
experienced by Tesla in 1882 while walking in Szigeti
Park, Budapest, where he claims to have visualized the
fully developed design of the AC motor that he would
later patent and develop. Carlson pauses the narrative
to point out that this watershed moment is an example
of "subjective rationality" whereby the idea or invention comes from within - as opposed to "objective
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

SPRING 2014

rationality" whereby it comes as a response to an
outside stimulus such as a market need or technical
requirement. He also points out that the AC motor was
not adopted just because it was technologically superior, but because Tesla and his backers "created the
right sort of illusions about it." He concludes from this,
"we need to develop more sophisticated ways to think
about business decisions and technological choices."
Carlson continues with the narrative by describing
Tesla's next major technology thrust beginning in 1891
when he turned his attention to applications of high
frequency and high voltage, with the first application
being illumination by gas-filled light bulbs without
interconnecting wires. By using the principle of resonance in the discharge of capacitors though induction coils, Tesla invented and patented his oscillating
transformer, generally known today as a Tesla coil.
By 1893 he envisioned launching a second electrical
revolution by using the earth as a source of unlimited
power, and by transmitting power and communicating intelligence through the earth without wires. He
delivered a series of presentations between 1891 and
1893 with spectacular demonstrations complete with
lightning bolts generated by his oscillating transformer that captured the imagination of his audiences.
Carlson observes that Tesla rejected the "Hertz theory of wireless transmission," which employs electromagnetic or Hertzian waves, and instead attempted to
excite currents in the ground by generating currents in
the atmosphere between two grounded antennas separated by great distances. His first attempt to generate
large displacement currents in the atmosphere using
electrostatic interactions between two antennas of large
capacity was entirely unsuccessful. He then proposed
to generate large conduction currents in the rarefied
atmosphere at high altitudes between transmitting and
receiving antennas held aloft by balloons. He theorized that the high voltages from his oscillation coil
when applied to one antenna could be used to break
down the air and form low-loss conducting plasma
between the two antennas, an approach described in
his two wireless patents filed in 1897. Carlson writes:
"With wireless power, Tesla was especially
driven to impose his vision on the material
world. He truly believed that he had discovered
the penultimate ideal, or as he once told J. P.
Morgan, 'the philosopher's stone.' "
Indeed, if Tesla could have reduced his vision to
practice he would have clearly created another disruptive technology. However, as Carlson notes, that did
not happen because
"Tesla stopped worrying about the validity of
his ideal and instead focused on getting the
|

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Spring 2014