A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 1

At the stroke of midnight on July 10, 1856, thunder clapped.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 2

Lightning flashed.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 3

And a baby boy was born.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 4

“He’ll be a child of the storm,” his nurse said.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 5

“No,” his mother replied. “A child of light.”

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 6

He loved animals and never missed a day cradling and feeding his family’s chickens, roosters, pigeons, and geese.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 7

He had many playmates, but his best friend was a cat. The magnificent Macak.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 8

The magnificent Macak.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 9

His mother said, “Stop playing with the cat, he might start a fire.”

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 10

His father said, “This is nothing but electricity, the same thing you see on the trees in a storm.”

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 11

He wondered, is Nature a gigantic cat?

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 12

If so, who strokes its back?

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 13

He dreamt of flying like the pigeons and geese on his farm - so, he jumped off the roof of his barn holding only an old umbrella.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 14

His bones didn’t break, but he was bedbound for weeks.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 15

He remembered everything he read and soon carried whole volumes in his head.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 16

While the family slept, he made his own candles, stuffed towels in the cracks of his bedroom door to hide the light, and worked his way through his father’s library of books.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 17

His dream was to study electricity when he grew up, but his father expected him to follow in his footsteps - and become a priest.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 18

Everyone feared he was at death’s door.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 19

A puzzle he had thought about for years.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 20

A puzzle his university professor had said was impossible to solve.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 21

And he knew it was an invention that would soon power the world.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 22

So, he set sail across the Atlantic from Europe to America.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 23

When he arrived in New York, his pockets held: four pennies, some handwritten poems, notes for a flying machine invention, and a letter of introduction to Thomas Edison, the inventor of the first practical electric light bulb.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 24

The two men worked together briefly, but they disagreed about everything - especially about the future of electricity.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 25

On the fair's opening day, thousands of visitors from around the world gathered.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 26

The president of the United States pressed a gold telegraph button that set the fairground's electric machinery in motion.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 27

And for the first time in history, over a hundred thousand light bulbs lit up at once.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 28

Soon once-darkened homes, office buildings, and city streets were illuminated.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 29

The wheels of streetcars and electric trains now whirled, and factories hummed through the night.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 30

They called him the Wizard of Electricity.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 31

So, he gave away the rest of the rights to his invention.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 32

Even as he grew old, he didn't stop memorizing poems by heart, or solving scientific equations in his head, or taking long daily walks up and down New York's cobblestoned streets.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 33

He also never stopped loving animals.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 34

He never missed a day.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 35

"I've been feeding pigeons, thousands of them, for years; thousands of them, for who can tell," he said.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 36

Before making a diagnosis, he would peer into each bird's eyes, then inspect their wings, beaks, and feet.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 37

"Caring for homeless, hungry, or sick birds is the delight of my life," he said.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 38

No one recognized the Wizard of Electricity on the city streets anymore.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 39

Now newspapers flashed headlines about an unusual old man, scattering seeds in the park.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 40

They called him the Pigeon Charmer of New York, and when reporters asked about his devotion to birds, he simply said: "All things from childhood are still dear to me."

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 41

When the old man died in his hotel room, penniless and alone, with the windows wide open and birdseed on his sill, the mayor of New York announced the sad news on the radio: "He was a feather in the cap of the whole human race."

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 42

A gifted inventor, a creature of habit.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 43

A lover of animals, a friend to humankind.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 44

A child of the storm, a child of the light.

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A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla

Question 45

A human flash of lightning, far ahead of his time.

Answer 45

A Life Electric: The Story of Nikola Tesla