Talk:Nikola Tesla

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Address the comments below. Let's get this article to featured status! (^'-')^ Covington 07:34, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
Priority 1 (top)


  1. /Archive 1: Aug 2003 - Jul 2004
  2. /Archive 2: Jul 2004 - Aug 2005
  3. /Archive 3: Aug 2004 - Feb 2006
  4. /Archive 4: Feb 2006 - May 2006
  5. /Archive 5: May 2006 - Jun 2006
  6. /Archive 6: Jun 2006 - Jul 2006
  7. /Archive 7: July 2006 ethnicity
  8. /Archive 8: Jul 2006 (extended)
  9. /Archive 9: Jul 2006 - Oct 2006

Contents

[edit] Why?

Is the note of him being proud of his Serbian ethnicity and Croatian homeland in the intro? It isn't that relevant at all... --PaxEquilibrium 18:31, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

If he said those words it should be left in the article, end of story. Why no mention of his possible Vlah origin? In Yugoslav folklore he was also called a Gypsy...how quickly people forget today. Article is fair as it stands only change you can make is adding Vlah which most historians accept as his true origin.

However - Serbian - American born in Austria-Hungary (Croatia today) How is this wrong? This sounds ok to me. Jagoda 1 23:24, 11 October 2006 (UTC)


Nikola Tesla was Serb by Origin - Not one of those Morlacs who became catholic and called themselves "Croats" much later. And thats what most of the Croats are -> Just Morlacs or so called "Crni Morlaci" or "Crni Vlasi".

So don't mess things up Folks!

Nikola Tesla was a Croatian born person, NOT a Serbian by ANY MEANS!!! And it only takes a Serbian to begin calling a Croatian a Morlac.......... Don't change any facts, Tesla is a born proud HRVAT, so deal with it!!!

"How yes no", što je znala u šali reći moja profesorka engleskog jezika u gimnaziji. Na stranu Morlaci i Vlasi, Tesla je bio srpskog porijekla, rođen u mjestu koje danas pripada Republici Hrvatskoj (ali joj nije pripadalo u vrijeme Teslinog rođenja). So deal with it... --Djordje D. Bozovic 23:05, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Nikola Tesla was Croatian !!!! 10000000%

Why... are so many Serbocroats/Yugoslavs nationalist crackpots who fight over the "nationality" of someone who was clearly a cosmopolitan, at a time when none of their states even existed? If Nikola could read these inanities the only thing he'd be proud of is having escaped from Europe.


Hear, hear! Nationality is not an intrinsic property. It's accidental, it's a mere label. Wake up you silly balkan people. The rest of the civilized world has moved beyond petty tribalism since WW1.

[edit] Birthdate

I think July 9/10 should be restored, as many sources give that – [1] . Biruitorul 06:39, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cultural depictions of Nikola Tesla

I've started an approach that may apply to Wikipedia's Core Biography articles: creating a branching list page based on in popular culture information. I started that last year while I raised Joan of Arc to featured article when I created Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc, which has become a featured list. Recently I also created Cultural depictions of Alexander the Great out of material that had been deleted from the biography article. Since cultural references sometimes get deleted without discussion, I'd like to suggest this approach as a model for the editors here. Regards, Durova 15:54, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Seeing as how Tesla (played by David Bowie, of all people) is a major character in the new film The Prestige (film), I highly agree with adding a section or separate page about Tesla in media, as is mentioned above. Maria 16:24, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Quote from My Inventions

After Estavisti flagged the quote from Tesla's book My Inventions as needing a more authoritative citation [2], I went to Amazon.com and used the "search inside this book" feature to locate the quote. I searched for both "I am proud" and "Croatian homeland" within the book and came up with nothing. However, the Croatian National Tourist Board's website claims that Tesla used that quote in at least one telegram. [3] With that in mind, are there any objections to me putting the quote back into the article, and citing it with the CNTB's website? (Thanks Estavisti for flagging this issue.) - Walkiped 19:47, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, the reason I flagged it is because I'd always heard it was mentioned in correspodence with some notable Croat (exactly who it was escapes me), not in My Inventions. I've read My Inventions, and I don't think it's in there. Anyway, it can be put back in for now, but we still need a source that's more authoritative than the Tourist Board of Croatia. --estavisti 20:08, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AC/DC Efficiency Question

What is meant by the line in the "Middle Years" section: "Also in the late 1880s, Tesla and Edison became adversaries in part due to Edison's promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution over the more efficient alternating current advocated by Tesla and Westinghouse." How is AC more efficient than DC? Does it have some sort of technical meaning or is it a bit of NPOV? I honestly don't know and wonder if this needs som emore clarity. --Gangster Octopus 21:18, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

See War of the currents. AC can be easily stepped up to thousands of volts and sent for great distances over relatively small wires, then be stepped back down the the voltage used in homes and businesses. DC required a generating station every 2 or 3 miles and big conductors. The efficience probably refers to less power lost on the conductors because the current is reduced when the voltage is stepped up. AC won the battle by the 1890's, although big city utilities kept supplying DC to some customers for many decades, since the customers had elevators, pumps etc that continued to work fine on DC.Edison 05:03, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
On the other hand, AC loses some energy via radiation. It is the convenience overall of properties of AC, especially its flexibility using transformers and efficiency of AC motors (particularly 3-phase ones), that seem to have prevailed in practice. — DAGwyn 22:48, 27 November 2006 (UTC)


        • WRONG FACT ABOUT NIKOLA TESLA ****

English Wikipedia claims that Tesla was Serbian-American which is wrong. He was actually Croatian who moved to Austria first, to finish the studies. Then he went to New York where he made most of his inventions and where he also died. He was born in the small village called Smiljan, Croatia (Lika County). His famous sentence was: "I am the Croatian with Serbian roots!" So, he cannot be Serbian cause he never actually was in or lived in Serbia. PLEASE CORRECT THAT!!!

True, Tesla was not a Serbian, since he never lived in Serbia. But he was a Serb by ethnicity, despite that he was born in what is today Croatia. And the adjective meaning of Serbs is Serbian. Read the sentence once again - it does not say that Tesla was Serbian-American, it says that he was Serbian-American scientist, which is not the same. --Djordje D. Bozovic 16:46, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

It's not the most important thing to say about a truly great scientist like Nikola Tesla, however it has to be noted that Tesla was an ethnic Serb and a self declared Serb, a claim which no Serb citizen would question at that time or in the actuality. Legally, he held Austria-Hungary Empire and later USA citizeship. He was never a Croat by any means; that country didn't even existed during his lifetime, with exception of the infamous "Independent State of Croatia", installed in 1941 by the German Third Reich and the Fascist Italy after their invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

[edit] I want to know why the greatest of Tesla's project are not here...

Thomas Edison (And I really don't care if I mispelled his name.) is dumb. I don't know why we are saying that he did a lot for the science...

Tesla created many thing that we are still using in our days. But most of all, he created 2 thing that are not in the article and IT SHOULD BE!

First of all, he created a Free energy and secondly he created a tower wich was able to conduct the electricity in the Atmosphere to an another tower. Those 2 great invention were removed from him by the gouvernement. So why his best project are not in those page! And by the way. Don't support G.W.Bush in any possible way. Well, if you care of your own world. And by the way, I suggest you to do some ressearch about free energy, 911, Terrorstorm, IgnoranceIsntBliss, They Want Your Soul, Electric Car, An Inconvenient Truth, New World Order and after that, give the information to anyone. But if you are too sacred and don't want to believe it cause it don't suit your perception of the world, then I hope you will survive the next decade... Without becomming slave or dead as well. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by INeedMoreInfo (talk • contribs).

You missed out the bit about the black helicopters, the Rosicrucians and the lizard people. Great spelling, though. Notreallydavid 14:22, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Oh, and the Protocols Notreallydavid 14:59, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

I always heard that Thomas Edison was deaf, but that he could speak ok. Didn't he record his voice reciting "Mary had a little Lamb" on the first record made? Maybe that could be added to the Thomas Edison article if you can find a book or something saying he was dumb. I would love to have some free energy, since the electric costs about 10 cents per kilowatt hour. Tesla sent a lot of electricity into the air, but I've never heard he was able to get any out at a different location like he claimed he could. In his old age he would have a birthday party every year and invite reporters and make a lot of wild claims that he never put into practice. Eddy Kurentz 17:06, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Redirect

Since this page is protected, please add this:

For other uses of "Tesla", see Tesla (disambiguation).

Once that's done, Tesla should probably redirect here.

{{otherusesof|Tesla}} added. timrem 04:41, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unencyclopedic boasting

Added "fact" tag to the boasts in the intro. It is unencyclopedic to repeatedly say things like "Tesla is regarded as one of the most important inventors in history." Find a book where the author said it and is a reliable source. "In the United States, Tesla's fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture." Ditto. Find a source. "he was widely respected as America's greatest electrical engineer. " Find a source where some scientific or engineering organization said it. He certainly made major contributions to electrical engineering, but surely when he won awards they said similar things about him. That would count for something. This sounds like boasts by his descendants or countrymen, and is like someone saying "X is the greatest musician in the world" or "Y is the best football player in the world" which would both get promptly edited out if they don;t have a source saying it. If it is the opinion of an editor, then it is original research and must be removed. Let's put in similar claims, properly sourced, so they do not violate WP:NOR. Thanks Eddy Kurentz 15:14, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

The boasts at the beginning will surely keep this article from getting featured status. They still are POV and lack reliable sources. Someone added footnotes 3,4, and 5 and removed the "Fact" tags. But surely there are better references than websites of fan clubs to support the boasts. Sources should be reliable, like WP:RS describes, and these are not, since one is a photo site where anyone can write anything, the second is a fan club or organization devoted to promoting the inventor, and the third is a site devoted to promoting Serbian national pride. Where are quotes from independent organizations, scholarly journals, or organizations presenting him with prizes? Isn't there anything quoted in the books by Cheney, O'Neill or Seifer? The present sources behind these boasts are nothing more than window dressing, non-reliable sources:

Thanks Eddy Kurentz 19:10, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tesla in C&C

The Command and Conquer: Red Alert game uses several "Tesla" structures, most prominently the Tesla Coil, should this be added into the "Fictional Portrayal" bit?

[edit] Nikola Tesla Elementary School in Novi Sad

It might be worth mentioning in the article that he also has an elementary school named after him in Novi Sad. Stop The Lies 11:25, 20 December 2006 (UTC)Stop_The_Lies

There are many primary and secondary schools all over Serbia named after Nikola Tesla, not only in Novi Sad. --Djordje D. Bozovic 11:41, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
True, but that's the most special one :P (I went there hehe) Stop The Lies 12:43, 20 December 2006 (UTC)Stop_The_Lies

[edit] Tesla is croatian scientist

Tesla was born in Croatia so he is a Croatian inventor.

As far as I know, Tesla was born in Austria-Hungary, not Croatia. He was born in the province named the Military Frontier, whose population was mostly Serbian, and Tesla was a Serb himself, being a son of Serbian Orthodox priest. His mother was also a daughter of a Serbian Orthodox priest. Both his parents and all his ancestors were Serbs (in one letter Tesla said that his mother's family is an old Serbian family whose roots reach as far as the Middle Ages). Tesla was only born in what many years later became the Republic of Croatia. Now, do you claim everyone who was born in what is now Croatia a Croatian? Even if they were born in, let's say, the prehistory? --Djordje D. Bozovic 11:51, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes!

    Tesla is Croatian-Serb , he was born in Croatia and his parents were Serbs. 
    That's a fact. MetalCro 22:51, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] List of Tesla patents

put in List of Tesla patents? 69.76.192.205 20:56, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

It is unless I've missed the point of your question. (Emperor 22:13, 24 December 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Prose Request -- "Said to Have"

Intro Section.

This sounds like hearsay:

"Tesla is said to have contributed in varying degrees..."

Make it:

"Tesla is is credited with contributing in varying degrees..."

Please cite the reliable source in each case which credited him. Edison 05:41, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] who is responding to FAC?

Are any editors here involved in, and responding to, the current FAC nomination? This article is so close to FA status, yet the FAC is currently nothing but "objects" on a number of points that aren't too hard to fix. I'm writing here only because it would be so nice to see a successful featured article candidate on an important and interesting encyclopedia article like this. Thanks. –Outriggr § 00:49, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

One sticking point seems to be "Recognition and honors". A fix might be moving Nikola Tesla in popular culture to "Cultural depictions of Nikola Tesla" (see suggestion above) and add the bulk of that material in there and polish it all up. Most other things are easy fixes. (Emperor 00:59, 4 January 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Nit on "Prestige" reference in Tesla article

The following quote appears near the bottom of the article, "Tesla has also made a recent appearance in the movie The Prestige portrayed by David Bowie. In the film he is called upon to build an electrical illusion [emphasis added] machine."

In the movie, Tesla was commissioned to develop an electrical teleportation machine, not an electrical illusion machine. Unfortunately for all involved, the fictional Tesla actually creates an electrical cloning machine.

--Rhurwitz 21:05, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

There is no proof that Tesla's machine ever worked, it is rumored that the machine never actually worked and that it was all part of the Prestige of the film itself, the part where it is seen that Angiers kills the clone might not be true. The dead body of Angier might be the double he used 2 years before with his act "The New Transported Man".

Zae 10:21, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] REQUESTED REVISIONS

[edit] "node" vs. "terminal"

The word "node" in the following phrases, "single node vacuum tubes," "single node X-ray producing devices," and "single node bulbs" should be changed to "terminal" as this is the preferred term used by Tesla himself. The word "electrode" is also used for this element. (See Tesla's lecture, "Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency," IEE Address, London, February 1892, http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/1892-02-03.htm ).GPeterson 01:51, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Inaccurate wording

The description "Aims to reuse the Wardenclyffe Tower" associated with the external link "The Tesla Wardenclyffe Project" is inaccurate and should be changed. The correct wording is "Mission: the preservation and adaptive reuse of Wardenclyffe. GPeterson 14:33, 9 January 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Edison's last words

Shortly before Edison died, he said that his biggest mistake he had made was never respecting Tesla or his work. [citation needed]

If there is no source for this, it should go. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 58.105.179.56 (talk) 13:44, 8 March 2007 (UTC).

There is. Both in Margaret Cheney's and Marc Seifer's books. Horvat Den 09:07, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] teLSa

Why does telsa direct here but not Tesla?

Because there is a disambiguation page for the many uses of the word Tesla there. A Ramachandran 23:15, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
Telsa should redirect to the Tesla disambiguation page as well - this has been changed. ~Kruck 00:24, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nikola Tesla was a Serb-American inventor

Re. very critical misuse of facts stating that Nikola Tesla was a Serb-American inventor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

Nikola Tesla was born in the village of Smiljani near the city of Gospic both geograficaly placed in CROATIA and not Serbia. Nikola Tesla was Croatian born and this page was clearly edited by pro serbian.

I am Danish and I don't belong to either sides but the fact is the fact and the fact of the matter is that Nikola Tesla was Croatian born.

Thank you

Søren K

Please see and participate in other discussions on this talk page about this topic, as there are many. Ex: Talk:Nikola_Tesla#Nationality. ~Kruck 13:37, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Antisemitism

This is sourced to a footnote in a book by a fairly non-notable author. I have not been able to ascertain where the author got it from. We should be careful about these things, and until we can corroborate this with another source or two, I have blanked the sentence (but left it in the article, it just can't be seen).--Hadžija 21:26, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Settling the nationality dispute

As far as I can tell, Tesla's mother country was internationally recognized as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the end of Tesla's life. Per precedent set on almost every other biographical article, the opening should state, the person's nationality, not ethnicity. People have repeatedly pointed out the absurdity of calling him "Croatian-American" due to the nation not existing in his lifetime. It only makes a little more sense to call him "Austro-Hungarian-American," since the state no longer existed after WW1 and Tesla was still alive for decades thereafter. Therefore, it seems to make most sense to call him "Yugoslavian-American," with "Yugoslavian" wikilinked to the Kingdom. Thoughts? Simões (talk/contribs) 19:22, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

By your logic, most Irish-Americans were "British-American", most Polish-Americans and Jewish-Americans were "Austro-Hungarian-Americans" and "Imperial Russian-Americans". The forumla is [ethnicity]-American, though it's debateable whether to include him as an American at all unless we have source to show that he considered himelf one. Your suggestion regarding the Kingdom is quite funny, given that he was 62 when it was formed. I don't see what's unacceptable about the current phrasing to be honest.--Hadžija 21:42, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
Britain has never included Ireland. It's England, Scotland, and Wales. So, no, most Irish-Americans were not British-Americans. "Austro-Hungarian-American" and "Russian-American" are fine. Often, an article will say "[Name] is a [nationality] [professional title] of [ethnicity] descent." Finally, Tesla was an American citizen. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? Simões (talk/contribs) 22:13, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, that was sloppy of me. "UK-Americans" is what I meant :) As for "Austro-Hungarian-American" being OK, it gets a massive 39 non-WP hits in Google, none of which are even in the context you suggest. And please, just try to call a Polish-American or a Ukrainian-American whose folks came from the Russian Empire that he's a Russian-American. See what happens :) I'll buy you a beer if you survive to get back to us :D --Hadžija 22:54, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
Looking a few topics above, I see this debate just seems to go around and around. Here's my 2 cents worth. I'm very disinclined to refer to Tesla as "Yugoslav"-anything. This is an anachronistic rewriting of history. His nationality or citizenship was never "Yugoslav". He was born an ethnic Serbian citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When he was 28 he moved to the USA. When he was 35 he became an American citizen. When he was 73 (!!), his old country reorganized itself into the "Kingdom of Yugoslavia". Of what relevance is that last event to Tesla? None, imo. I’m also disinclined to leave him as “Serbian American”. That means "an American of Serbian descent", which suggests someone who was always American but has Serbian blood. That is not the case for Tesla and people of similar circumstances. Tesla’s children (had he had any) could properly be described as Serbian Americans - but Tesla himself, no. Trying to have a short-form nationality descriptor that fits all possible circumstances is doomed to failure because it allows too many ambiguities. Why not say the unambiguous (if slightly long-winded) truth: He was born an ethnic Serbian citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and later became an American citizen. JackofOz 23:51, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
Why, that's not bad at all! "Why not say the unambiguous (if slightly long-winded) truth: He was born an ethnic Serbian citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and later became an American citizen." Why does everyone have to be categorized into a one-word or hyphenated two-word nationality when most of us are much more complicated than that! Stop The Lies 00:11, 22 January 2007 (UTC)Stop_The_Lies
I also support JackofOz's proposed wording. A minor case of long-windedness is of no consequence when accuracy is not achieved with shorter phrases. Simões (talk/contribs) 00:40, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
And let's not forget, it's less controversial that way. Wouldn't want a wheel war or edit war over that, now would we? So that I think is a great compromise :) Rfwoolf 15:43, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Okay, there have been no objections in the five days since this has been up. I'm going to go ahead and insert it. What we'll probably see now are objectors coming out of the woodwork who never participate in talk page discussions until after something is added that displeases them. ;) Simões (talk/contribs) 15:00, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I made one small change: "Serbian" became "Serb," since the former refers to occupants of a region (regardless of ethnicity), and the latter is, in fact, an ethnic group. If anyone objects to this modification, feel free to revert it to the pure consensus (i.e, JackofOz's sentences) version, and we'll hash out the issue here. Simões (talk/contribs) 15:07, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
I don't necessarily have an objection if those are the accepted definitions of the ethnic group versus the occupants of a region, but it reads funny. "Serbian" flows better, and since the sentence already says "ethnic" why not use the one that flows. I almost made that edit right off but figured there was a reason it was "Serb" and not "Serbian" so I checked the talk page here.--Littleman_TAMU (talk) 19:04, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lomas Book

I recently picked up a copy of this book by Lomas (from a Vinnies Shop!) Is this considered to be a reliable book? I ask this because there are a few things in it which are not in the article. For example, Tesla's phone call to Colonel Erskine in the US War Department offering his 'teleforce' weapon to the US government. The call was made in the hours before Tesla's death so it would seem to be significant in the light of the FBI's moves. Is this book regarded as a reputable source, from information may be drawn to add to the article? John Dalton 00:37, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I have not seen this book, so I can't give a personal opinion on it. I couldn't find published reviews, but a couple of readers who gave reader submitted reviews on Amazon.com said it was readable, but lacked references and would not satisfy scientific readers. Lomas has written a number of books which say that Freemasons are behind lots of things in the the world. Did that theme show up in the book? There are two books which are probably better sources: "Tesla: Man out of Time" by Margaret Cheney and "Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius" by Marc J. Seifer. If Lomas makes amazing claims, he needs to provide good sources, or the fact he said something might not prove that it happened. The phone call from Tesla to Erskine: How does Lomas say he knows it happened? Eddy Kurentz 22:55, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Lomas' biography of Tesla is a fairly reliable source, although it is very biased in favor of Tesla. It is true that he is also a Masonic author and that his books about Masonry contain some perposterous theories but his book on Tesla has nothing to do with Masonry. He has written on many non-Masonic subjects and is a historian of science. NikolaiLobachevsky 16:08, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Intro

...is wrong. Tesla couldn't've been born in a state created a decade after the occasion. --PaxEquilibrium 22:22, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Fixed. Simões (talk/contribs) 22:31, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Personality

Regarding: "Nevertheless, Tesla displayed the occasional cruel streak; overweight people disgusted him and he made little effort to conceal it, once firing a secretary because of her weight.... Tesla was also recorded to display sporadic anti-Semitism, once calling a secretary to him and hissing "Miss! Never trust a Jew!".[70]" from the Personality section.

  • Is there a quote/written doc. of Tesla himself saying/writing "overweight people disgust me" (or even "displease me")? If not, "overweight people disgusted him and he made little effort to conceal it" must be removed.
  • Need actual proof that the secretary was fired due to her weight and not incompetence.
  • The word 'hissing' is enough to discredit the source, but giving them the benefit of the doubt, say he did say "Miss! Never trust a Jew", how do we know this wasn't a joke? Jokes poking fun at Jews are very common, even among people who are not anti-Semites, and even Jews themselves.
  • Assuming Tesla did say "Miss! Never trust a Jew" and did mean it as an insult towards Jews, this does not prove that Tesla displayed anti-Semitism on more than one occasion.

Section needs to either be checked, or removed. Stop The Lies 02:46, 11 February 2007 (UTC)Stop_The_Lies

I like your username. It makes me feel like you're on my side. As for your bulleted concerns:
It's interesting that you say that. My user name was seen as almost aggressive by a user when they referred to it as "propaganda" hehe. But they didn't agree with what I was saying, so I guess they misplaced their anger. Stop The Lies 03:13, 11 February 2007 (UTC)Stop_The_Lies
  • I'm not sure if the citation at the end of the paragraph was meant to cover the entire paragraph or just the quip about Jews. So maybe.
  • Same
  • You'll have to get a consensus to change WP:CITE/WP:RS before we can consider the word "hissing" enough to discredit a source. I'm guessing the author of this book inferred anti-Semitism from the comment. Your interpretation is plausible but unpublished.
  • By the way the passage is worded, it looks like a representative example is given. But if the source says he displayed sporadic anti-Semitism, then that's what we have with which to work.
So does anyone have a copy of this book so that we may check? Simões (talk/contribs) 03:05, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
Perhaps the person who originally posted the info? I'm not sure how to find out exactly what user that is... Stop The Lies 03:13, 11 February 2007 (UTC)Stop_The_Lies
Yes, everything is directly from Cheney's book. If you feel any of the remarks on anti-semitism and cruelty towards the obese are unreliable, you're gonna have to take it up with her. Let's not try to glorify Tesla as a Saint. He was, after all, human. Humans have prejudices and ticks. Horvat Den 09:05, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
Oh hey, it's searchable at Amazon.com[4]. There are actually two examples of anti-Semitism given: he also referred to Jews as "social trilobytes." The book also says his anti-Semitism is sporadic (and not a couple isolate events). There is also reference to his disdain for overweight people and the secretary firing. This is on a different page, though (110), so the reference needs to be updated. I'll go ahead and do that. Simões (talk/contribs) 03:19, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Approximate Bonus Offer Date

Paragraph 2 under United States says that in 1919 Tesla wrote that Edison offered him a bonus to complete the redesigning of the generators. Paragraph 8 of Middle Years states that in the last 1880's that Tesla and Edison became rivals. In 1886 Tesla started his own companies and worked in other research labs than Edison's, and they were Nobel nominees in 1915.

Did Edison offer him a bonus in 1919? How was it possible for Tesla to still work for Edison at that time, being rivals and involved in totally different locations with different companies? Or does this mean that Tesla wrote in 1919 that Edison had offered a bonus? If so, when did that original bonus interchange take place? --WPaulB 07:16, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nikola Tesla was a Croat

Nikola Tesla was born in Croatia (at that time within Austria-Hungary). He completed his elementary and secondary school education in Croatia (in Gospic and Karlovac). When his mother died, he paid a visit to Croatian capital Zagreb in 1892, where he gave a lecture about alternating current. On that occasion he said:

   "As a son of my homeland I feel it is my duty to help the city of Zagreb in every respect with my advice and work."

There is no doubt that by saying "homeland" he meant Croatia. His monument carved by Ivan Mestrovic, who knew him personally, can be seen in Zagreb (Croatia). After the end of World War II, the famous sculptor was asked by Belgrade (Serbia) officials to prepare Tesla's monument for the capital of Yugoslavia, but he refused, explaining that Tesla did not like the city. By the way, the family name Tesla does not exist in Serbia.

So now all that beeing said. How can this article state that he was a "Serb-American inventor" ? And to the people saying he cant be Croatian because Croatia didnt exist then; he cant be Serbian then either since Serbia didnt exist either.

I don't know when this question was posted, but the article hasn't said that for some considerable time. It says: "He was born an ethnic Serb citizen of the Austrian Empire and later became an American citizen." and later: "... Tesla was born ... to a Serbian family in the village of Smiljan near Gospić, in the Lika region of the Austrian Empire, located in present-day Croatia.". These are the facts.
An ethnic Serb means a person whose family was of Serb genetic stock and spoke the Serbian language, regardless of which country they were citizens of. It doesn't mean Serbian as in a citizen of the country Serbia (which, as has been correctly pointed out, didn't exist then). He and his parents were ethnic Serbs; that is indisputable. He and his family were Serb (not Serbian) subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and he later became an American citizen. He was born in what is now Croatia, but that doesn't make him a "Croat". (He might be considered "Croatian" by association, but only in the same sense that Bruce Willis is "German" by association, because he was born there.) JackofOz 02:07, 13 March 2007 (UTC)
Serbia did exist at the time of Tesla's birth as a principality independent from the Ottoman Empire, although it gained international recognition in 1878, about twenty years after Tesla was born. --Djordje D. Bozovic 13:48, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Photos

Here is a website with 16 public domain photos of Tesla and his equipment. The website clearly states that the pictures are public domain and may be freely used. Perhaps someone should upload as many of these photos as possible to the commons? I'm afraid I don't have the time to do it now (deadline looming) but someone else might. Some of the pictures would add value to this article. For example, a picture of Tesla's boat, the display at the 1893 Chicago Exposition, Colorado Springs Lab and Wardenclyffe Tower. The site has quite a few public domain photos of other pioneers which should be grabbed for the commons as well. John Dalton 08:10, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] About Nikola Tesla nationality

...Nikola Tesla was Serbian, born to Serb Orthodox Priest and Serbian mother.

As a matter of fact. Croats blow up his native house few years ago. But nowdays they want to make him "Croat".

Regards —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 90.157.166.87 (talk) 16:08, 9 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Yugoslav!

It is best to call him Yugoslav because he supported the Yugoslav idea (that serbs croats and bosniaks are one)... In addition, calling him this would be good because he was from Croatia and was Orthodox. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Reisender (talk • contribs) 06:16, 18 March 2007 (UTC).

He was not born in Yugoslavia, nor he was a citizen of Yugoslavia. Even if he did support the Yugoslav idea, he never declared himself as a Yugoslav, but simply as a Serb. There is nothing so strange and bad if one declares as Serb, you know. Why does everybody keep trying not to admit that Tesla was a Serb. Croatian is fine (even though Croatia didn't even exist back then), American is fine, Yugoslav is fine, there were some who even tried to make him a Vlach (!), but only Serb cannot possibly be good enough... --Djordje D. Bozovic 11:34, 18 March 2007 (UTC)
There are some other voices (like Henri Coandă) that sais Tesla (originally Teslea) was an istro-romanian, and so was his father. Coandă have met Tesla many times, so he should know what was Tesla saying about his ancestors.--Alex:Dan 10:54, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
It is well known what was Tesla saying about his ancestry, as he was mentioning his Serbian roots so many times. His surname Tesla (not Teslea) is actually a regular Serbian (not Istro-Romanian) word, a noun connected to the carpentry (Serb. tesati, tesanje, teslar, tesla). --Djordje D. Bozovic 15:49, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
There is a tesla(tool) and teslar(carpenter, man working with a tesla) in Romanian too, meaning the same.--Alex:Dan 22:43, 29 March 2007 (UTC)
There is a number of Slavonic words in Romanian. --Djordje D. Bozovic 18:34, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

e đorđe sereš li ga sereš —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 89.172.143.16 (talk • contribs).

Watch your vocabulary. --Djordje D. Bozovic 17:46, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Expansion Problems: Lets get to Featured Status

We should focus less on expansion on Popular Culture and more on the Early and Middle Years sections. Best resource for this is "Marc Seifer's Wizard" Tesla Biography. Horvat Den 09:10, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

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