Nikola Tesla was born in Serbia, the younger son of an Orthodox priest. His older brother, Dane, was the star of the family. Nikola was jealous and blamed himself when his brother was killed in an accident. According to author, Vladimir Pistalo, Tesla was haunted, literally sometimes, by his brother for the rest of his life.

When Dane died, Nikola’s father expected Nikola to take Dane’s place and become a priest, but Nikola was always interested in science. Nikola attends college, but leaves early to work in Edison’s Paris laboratory, and from there in New York where Edison offers him $50,000 to work on 24 electrical motors. Pistalo claims Tesla had already formulated his ideas on alternating current. When Edison reneges on his contract, Tesla quits; ultimately, when he can’t find a job, he ends up a ditch digger, ironically working for Edison. Okay, here’s the problem I have with this kind of book, a literary novelist’s version of Tesla’s life. Believe it or not, Telsa works with the brother of a man who manages Western Union. He’s heard of Tesla, and he hires him to run their lab. He also eventually arranges a meeting between George Westinghouse and the scientist. As you may know, Westinghouse financed Tesla alternating current laboratory; Tesla eventually got the contract to light up Niagara Falls and the World Exposition in Chicago. Somewhere in there Westinghouse was in danger of bankruptcy and Tesla surrendered his patents for much less than they were worth.

Meanwhile Tesla builds a laboratory in Colorado Springs where Pistalo claims he discovered wireless electricity; he was able to create thunder and lightning. When J.P. Morgan, who created General Electric, and Bernard Baruch found out, their soul worry was how they could put a meter on Tesla’s process. Essentially Morgan cheated Tesla out of his discovery, due to some Wall Street chicanery. Tesla did build a laboratory in Long Island, but it was eventually torn down to pay off Tesla’s debt. It seems odd that a financier would trade profit for what might have been the answer to the clean energy conundrum. Carbon based fuels as an energy source are never mentioned in connection with Tesla’s process.

As I said above, this is a literary novel, and there’s quite a bit of metaphysical stuff going on. Tesla hires an unhinged young girl, whom he fires. I’m not sure if he fired her for stealing bread or eating on the job, but she tries to kill him, wounding him in the arm. As an older man Tesla is run over by a taxi cab and refuses to go to the hospital. He creates this weird concoction that he claims will let him live forever. Either Tesla was one strange dude or Pistola’s character was. Whichever, now I’m going to have to read a biography to find out if Tesla really did invent wireless electricity. By the way, he also invented a better version of the radio. which Marconi took credit for, and florescent lights. Edison also switched to alternate current, without being sued, because Westinghouse was using his light bulb.