Nikola Tesla Biography

BIOGRAPHY OF NIKOLA TESLA

1994 Brotherhood of Life, Inc., 110 Dartmouth, SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106 USA
"SPECTACULAR" is a mild word for describing the strange experiment with life that comprises the story of Nikola Tesla, and "amazing" fails to do adequate justice to the results that burst from his experiences like an exploding rocket. It is the story of the dazzling scintillations of a superman who created a new world; it is a story that condemns woman as an anchor of the flesh which retards the development of man and limits his accomplishment--and, paradoxically, proves that even the most successful life, if it does not include a woman, is a dismal failure. Even the gods of old, in the wildest imaginings of their worshipers, never
The father came from a family that contributed sons in equal numbers to the Church and to the Army. The mother was a member of the Mandich family whose sons, for generations without number, had, with very few exceptions, become ministers of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and whose daughters were chosen as wives by ministers. Djouka, the mother of Nikola Tesla (her given name in English translation would be Georgina), was the eldest daughter in a family of seven children. Her father, like her husband, was a minister of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Her mother, after a period of failing eyesight, had become blind shortly after the seventh child was born; so Djouka, the eldest daughter, at a tender age was compelled to take over the major share of her mother's duties. This not alone prevented her from attending school: her work at home so completely consumed her time that she was unable to acquire even the rudiments of reading and writing through home study. This was a strange situation in the cultured family of which she was a member. Tesla, however, always credited his unlettered mother rather than his erudite father with being the source from which he inherited his inventive ability. She devised many household labor-saving instruments. She was, in addition, a very practical individual, and her
The name Draganic and derivatives of it appear frequently in other branches of the Tesla family as a given name. When used as a given name it is frequently translated "Charlotte," but as a generic term it holds the meaning "dear" and as a surname is translated "Darling." The majority of Tesla's ancestors for whom age records are available lived well beyond the average span of life for their times, but no definite record has been found of the ancestor who, Tesla claimed, lived to be one hundred and forty years of age. (His father died at the age of fiftynine, and his mother at seventy-one.) Although many of Tesla's ancestors were dark eyed, his eyes were a gray-blue. He claimed his eyes were originally darker, but that as a result of the excessive use of his brain their color changed. His mother's eyes, however, were gray and so are those of some of his nephews. It is probable, therefore, that his gray eyes were inherited, rather than faded by excessive use of the brain. Tesla grew to be very tall and very slender--tallness was a family and a national trait. When he attained full growth he was exactly two meters, or six feet two and one-quarter inches tall. while his body was slender, it was built within normal proportions. His hands, however, and particularly his thumbs, seemed unusually long. Nikola's older brother Dane was a brilliant boy and his parents gloried in their good fortune in being blessed with such