"In my boyhood, I suffered from a peculair affliction due to the appearance of images - often accompanied by strong flashes of light. I was quite unable to determine whether what I saw was tangible or not. To give an example, I was fascinated by a description of Niagra, and I pictured in my imagination a big wheel, run by the falls. I told my uncle that one day I would go to America and carry out this scheme."
"In one of the spells (of cholera) which was thought to be my last. My father rushed in to the room. Perhaps I said, I will get well if you let me study in Geneva. 'You will go to the best technical institute in the world.' He solemnly said. I came to life like another Lazarus - to the utter amazement of everyone."
"In my room, I could hear the ticking of a watch with 3 rooms between me and the timepeice. a carriage passing at a distance of a few miles fairly shoook my whole body, The whistle of a distant locamotive vibrated so strongly in my ears that the pain was unbearable. To recover from these attacks I took long walks in the city park. One afternoon which is ever present in my recollection, the sun was just setting. and reminded me of Goethe's glorious passage.
The glow retreats, done is the day of toil;
It yonder hastes, new fields of life exploring;
Ah, that no wing can lift me from the soil
Upon its track to follow, follow soaring!
As I uttered these inspiring words, the idea came to me like a lightning flash. I fell to my knees and drew a diagram in the ground." Tesla perceived a whirling field of energy. He suddenly knew he could recreate this rotating field by powering the coils of a motor in different steps or stages like the piston of an engine. . . . It would soon turn the wheels of industry around the world.
While in England Tesla befriended Sir William Crooks - the discoverer of radiant matter. Crooks was a mystic was a mystic, and believed that humans could communicate telepathically when they were attuned to high frequency brain waves. Tesla was skeptical. But one night in his bed he had a powerful and disturbing vision. "I saw a cloud carrying angelic figures, one of whom gradually assumed the features of my mother in that instant, a certitude which no words can express, came upon me that my mother had died. and that was true." Tesla was convinced that he and his mother were tuned to the same frequency. his other worldly experience would soon lead him to another revolutionary invention (Radio).
"The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. HE does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come and point the way."
"The day when we shall know exactly what electricity is, will chronicle an event probably greater, more important than any recorded in the history of the human race. Then it will be a mere question of time, when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very real work of nature. See the excitement coming.
