Blog

Another eccentric physicist in the papers

By Hamish Johnston

You just can’t pick up the papers these days without coming across an eccentric physicist.

Now it’s Nikola Tesla, who is the hero of a book that has just been short-listed for this year’s Orange Prize for Fiction.

The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt is a fictional account of Tesla’s twilight years in New York City.

Tesla was one of the most famous inventors at the turn of the last century. He was a pioneer in wireless communications and the wireless transmission of energy. And of course, the SI unit of magnetic field strength is name after him.

He had many strange ways — apparently he only stayed in a hotel room if its number was a multiple of three — and neglected to secure the rights to many of his inventions. As a result, he lived out his later years in poverty and obscurity.

Posted by Hamish Johnston on Apr 23, 2009 3:17 PM | Permalink