Insane Inventors by Stephanie Bearce

Author:Stephanie Bearce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

NIKOLA TESLA'S DEATH RAY

DOI: 10.4324/9781003239284-17

The reporter was shaking as he left the hotel. Could it be true? Could Nikola Tesla really have invented a death ray that could destroy 10,000 enemy airplanes from a distance of 250 miles? If President Roosevelt knew about this invention, then he could use it to protect America from war. The world could use it to stop all wars. This was a miraculous discovery ... if it was true.

After all, Tesla was an old man now. He had celebrated his 78th birthday on July 10, 1934. He spent his days feeding the pigeons of New York City. And talking to them. Maybe he was just plain bonkers. The reporter stopped to think. This was the man who had discovered alternating current. He had made electricity available to every home in the world. He held more than 700 patents. The man was a genius. The reporter ran for his office. Tesla inventing a death ray—this story was sure to sell newspapers.

Invention was as natural as breathing to Tesla. His mother was always inventing tools to help her with work around the house, and Tesla copied her example. When he was just 6, he invented his own frog hook and used it to bring home nice plump frogs for supper. He also invented a propeller that ran on the energy of June bugs. He attached four June bugs to a small cross-shaped piece of wood. The wood balanced on a thin spindle. As the June bugs flapped their wings, the spindle rotated. Young Tesla considered his invention a success even if the June bugs weren’t too happy about being subjects of his experiment. But his bug energy propeller was ruined when another little boy decided to make a snack of the June bugs. Tesla watched in gross amazement as the boy ate all four of his bugs like they were popcorn. Tesla never played with bugs again, and as he got older he refused to ever touch an insect.

Tesla had such a vivid imagination that as a child he suffered from what he called “visions.” Sometimes he had trouble distinguishing the visions from real life, and they caused him to be depressed and frightened. But as he got older, Tesla said he learned how to control these visions and manipulate them to his advantage. His parents were both good at memorizing and encouraged Tesla to exercise his mind this way. He memorized poetry, long sonnets, and whole books. He could look at diagrams and remember every detail without ever seeing them again. He began picturing inventions in his mind in such detail that he would imagine the tiny gears and screws needed to build each part. He would test the invention in his mind until he was sure it would work in real life, and only then would he build a test model. The test models always worked.

Growing up in Serbia, Tesla attended the local schools and excelled in science and mathematics, but he was horrible in art class.

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