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Nikola Tesla worked hard, but he also played hard. He discovered that Paris was a magnet for high fashion and the arts. He developed a passion for fine clothes, often buying the most fashionable tailored suits, complete with soft kid leather gloves, high-end leather shoes with spats, and the finest handmade shirts. This penchant for finery and luxury was not, unfortunately, matched by his junior engineer salary, which meant “the income was spent as soon as received.” When asked by his friend Puskas how he was getting along in the new city, Tesla described his situation and quipped humorously about his finances,
“the last twenty-nine days of the month are the toughest!”
[Extract from Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity]
David J. Kent is a science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
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Hot White Snow 
Great Post!
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Thank you!
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I think one has to be a little flamboyant to get some remembrance.
On the other hand, a lot of hard-working, mild-mannered, and perhaps brilliant folks recede into the background.
Nonetheless, I’m interested in the whole framework of technology and science and invention in the late 1800’s that gave rise to harnessing electricity. But there is history to study.
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I suppose flamboyance gets you noticed, but then doing something that stands the test of time is also good for posterity.
And yes, the history that led to the development of usable electricity is much more complicated than just Tesla and Edison and Westinghouse. “Empires of Light” by Jill Jonnes is a good, highly readable book on the subject. There is another more recent book I haven’t yet read, “The Age of Edison,” by Ernest Freeberg that is also supposed to be good.
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Thank You. Will investigate.
I think it would be interesting to write the story of how spark systems for automobiles were developed and how they evolved. Sounds kind of odd I’m sure, but there are many technologies that converged to enable those things.
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