When Nikola Tesla died in Room 3327 of the Hotel New Yorker in January 1943, he left 112 United States patents, a power system the world had already adopted, and trunks of papers that governments, biographers and believers have argued over ever since.Where Tesla Left Off takes stock. One line of work at a time, it sets out what Tesla built, what he patented, what he only announced, and the exact point at which each effort stopped.Fifty-three of Tesla's original patent drawings are reproduced as full-page plates, each explained part by part, so you can follow how he reasoned from a picture in his mind to a machine on paper. Every claim in the book is sorted into one of four kinds: documented, Tesla's own account, disputed, or myth.Inside:- The rotating magnetic field, the induction motor and the polyphase system that Westinghouse carried to Niagara Falls- The Tesla coil, high-frequency lighting, and the tuned circuits later fought over in the radio patent cases- The radio-controlled boat of 1898 and the experiments at Colorado Springs- Wardenclyffe: what was built, what it was meant to do, and why the physics was against it- The bladeless turbine, the valvular conduit, the speedometer, and the vertical-takeoff aircraft of his last patent- The particle-beam weapon, the "new source of power," and the other announcements of his final years- What the government actually found in his trunks in 1943, and where his papers are nowThe last two chapters draw up the ledger, from the work that was finished and adopted to the work that was never more than a statement to reporters, and then ask what his way of working was worth and what it cost him.Also included: a full chronology, the complete list of Tesla's 112 U.S. patents with application and grant dates, a guide to the quotations and stories that cannot be traced to him, and 382 source notes. Read more
