II. My First Efforts At Invention
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I shall dwell briefly on these extraordinary experiences, on at of their possible io students of psychology and physiology and also because this period of agony was of the greatest sequeny mental development and subsequent labors. But it is indispensable to first relate the circumstances and ditions which preceded them and in which might be found their partial explanation.From childhood I was pelled to trate attention upon myself. This caused me much suffering but, to my present view, it was a blessing in disguise for it has taught me to appreciate the iimable value of introspe in the preservation of life, as well as a means of achievement. The pressure of occupation and the incessant stream of impressions p into our scious<cite>9９ｌib?</cite>hru all the gateways of knowledge make moderence hazardous in many ways. Most persons are so absorbed in the plation of the outside world that they are wholly oblivious to what is passing on within themselves. The premature death of millions is primarily traceable to this cause. Even among those who exercise care it is a istake to avoid imaginary, and ighe real dangers. And what is true of an individual also applies, more or less, to a people as a whole.
Abstinence was not always to my liking but I find ample reward in the agreeable experiences I am now making. Just in the hope of verting some to my precepts and vis I will recall one or two.
A short time ago I was returning to my hotel. It was a bitter cold night, the ground slippery, and no taxi to be had. Half a block behind me followed another man, evidently as anxious as myself to get under cover. Suddenly my legs went up in the air. In the same instant there was a flash in my brain, the nerves respohe muscles tracted, I swung thru 180 degrees and landed on my hands. I resumed my walk as tho nothing had happened wheranger caught up with me.
"How old are you?" he asked, surveying me critically.
"Oh, about fifty-nine," I replied. "What of it?"
"Well," said he, "I have seen a cat do this but never a man."
About a month since I wao order new eyeglasses ao an oculist who put me thru the usual tests. He looked at me incredulously as I read off with ease the smallest print at siderable distance. But when I told him that I ast sixty he gasped in astonishment.
Friends of mien remark that my suits fit me like gloves but they do not know that all my clothing is made to measurements which were taken nearly 35 years ago and never ged. During this same period my weight has not varied one pound. In this e I may tell a funny story.
One evening, in the winter of 1885, Mr. Edison, Edward H. Johnson, the President of the Edison Illuminating pany, Mr. Batchellor, Manager of the works, and myself entered a little place opposite 65 Fifth Avenue where the offices of the pany were located. Someone suggested guessis and I was io step on a scale. Ediso me all over and said: "Tesla weighs 152 lbs. to an ounce," and he guest it exactly. Stript I weighed 152 lbs. and that is still my weight. I whispered to Mr. Johnson: "How is it possible that Edison could guess my weight so closely?"
"Well," he said, l his voice. "I will tell you, fidentially, but you must not say anything. He was employed for a long time in a Chicago slaughter-house where he weighed thousands of hogs every day! That's why."
My friend, the Hon. cey M. Depew, tells of an Englishman on whom he sprung one of his inal aes and who listened with a puzzled expression but a year later laughed out loud. I will frankly fess it took me lohan that to appreciate Johnson's joke.
Now, my well being is simply the result of a careful and measured mode of living and perhaps the most astonishing thing is that three times in my youth I was rendered by illness a hopeless physical wred given up by physis. More than this, thru ignorand lightheartedness, I got into all sorts of difficulties, dangers and scrapes from which I extricated myself as by entment. I was almost drowned a dozen times; was nearly boiled alive and just mist being cremated. I was entombed, lost and frozen. I had hair-breadth escapes from mad dogs, hogs, and other wild animals. I past thru dreadful diseases a with all kinds of odd mishaps and that I am hale ay today seems like a miracle. But as I recall these is to my mind I feel vihat my preservation was not altogether actal.
An ior's endeavor is essentially lifesaving. Whether he harnesses forces, improves devices, or provides new forts and veniences, he is adding to the safety of our existence. He is also better qualified than the average individual to protect himself in peril, for he is observant and resourceful. If I had no other evidehat I was, in a measure, possessed of such qualities I would find it in these personal experiehe reader will be able to judge for himself if I mention one or two instances.
On one occasion, when about 14 years old, I wao scare some friends who were bathing with me. My plan was to dive under a long floating structure and slip out quietly at the other end. Swimming and diving came to me as naturally as to a dud I was fident that I could perform the feat. Accly I plunged into the water and, when out of view, turned around and proceeded rapidly towards the opposite side. Thinking that I was safely beyond the structure, I rose to the surface but to my dismay struck a beam. Of course, I quickly dived and fed ahead with rapid strokes until my breath was beginning to give out. Rising for the sed time, my head came again in tact with a beam. Now I was being desperate. However, summoning all my energy, I made a third frantic attempt but the result was the same. The torture of suppressed breathing was getting unendurable, my brain was reeling and I felt myself sinking. At that moment, when my situation seemed absolutely hopeless, I experienced one of those flashes of light and the structure above me appeared before my vision. I either dised uest that there was a little space between the surface of the water and the boards resting on the beams and, with sciousness nearly gone, I floated up, prest my mouth close to the planks and mao inhale a little air, unfortunately mingled with a spray of water whiearly choked me. Several times I repeated this procedure as in a dream until my heart, which was rag at a terrible rate, quieted down and I gained posure. After that I made a number of unsuccessful dives, having pletely lost the sense of dire, but finally succeeded iing out of the trap when my friends had already given me up and were fishing for my body.
That bathing season oiled for me thru recklessness but I soon fot the lesson and only two years later I fell into a worse predit. There was a large flour mill with a dam across the river he city where I was studying at that time. As a rule the height of the water was only two or three inches above the dam and to swim out to it ort not very dangerous in which I often indulged. One day I went aloo the river to enjoy myself as usual. When I was a short distance from the masonry, however, I was horrified to observe that the water had risen and was carrying me along swiftly. I tried to get away but it was too late. Luckily, tho, I saved myself from being swept over by taking hold of the wall with both hands. The pressure against my chest was great and I was barely able to keep my head above the surfaot a soul was in sight and my voice was lost in the roar of the fall. Slowly and gradually I became exhausted and uo withstand the strain longer. just as I was about to let go, to be dashed against the rocks below, I saw in a flash of light a familiar diagram illustrating the hydraulic principle that the pressure of a fluid in motion is proportioo the area exposed, and automatically I turned on my left side. As if by magic the pressure was reduced and I found it paratively easy in that position to resist the force of the stream. But the daill fronted me. I khat sooner or later I would be carried down, as it was not possible for ao reach me in time, even if I attracted attention. I am ambidextrous now but then I was lefthanded and had paratively little strength in my right arm. For this reason I did not dare to turn oher side to rest and nothing remained but to slowly push my body along the dam. I had to get away from the mill towards which my face was turned as the current there was much swifter and deeper. It was a long and painful ordeal and I came o failing at its very end for I was fronted with a depression in the masonry. I mao get over with the last ouny ford fell in a swoon when I reached the bank, where I was found. I had torn virtually all the skin from my left side and it took several weeks before the fever subsided and I was well. These are only two of many instances but they may be suffit to show that had it not been for the ior's instinct I would not have lived to tell this tale.
Ied people have often asked me how and when I began to i. This I only answer from my present recolle in the light of which the first attempt I recall was rather ambitious for it involved the iion of an apparatus and a method. In the former I was anticipated but the latter was inal. It happened in this way. One of my playmates had e into the possession of a hook and fishing-tackle which created quite aement in the village, and the m all started out to catch frogs. I was left alone aed owing to a quarrel with this boy. I had never seen a real hook and pictured it as something wonderful, endowed with peculiar qualities, and was despairing not to be one of the party. Urged by y, I somehow got hold of a piece of soft iron wire, hammered the end to a sharp poiween two stones, bent it into shape, and faste to a strong string. I then cut a rod, gathered some bait, a down to the brook where there were frogs in abundance. But I could not caty and was almost disced when it occurred to me to dahe empty hook in front of a frog sitting on a stump. At first he collapsed but by and by his eyes bulged out and became bloodshot, he swelled to twice his normal size and made a vicious snap at the hook.
Immediately I pulled him up. I tried the same thing again and again and the method proved infallible. When my rades, who in spite of their fifit had caught nothing, came to me they were green with envy. For a long time I kept my secret and ehe monopoly but finally yielded to the spirit of Christmas. Every boy could then do the same and the following summer brought disaster to the frogs.
In my attempt I seem to have acted uhe first instinctive impulse which later dominated me-to harhe energies of nature to the servian. I did this thru the medium of May-bugs-or June-bugs as they are called in America —— which were a veritable pest in that try and sometimes broke the branches of trees by the sheer weight of their bodies. The bushes were black with them. I would attach as many as four of them to a crosspiece, ratably arranged on a thin spindle, and transmit the motion of the same to a large disd so derive siderable "power". These creatures were remarkably effit, for ohey were started they had no seo stop and tinued whirling for hours and hours and the hotter it was the harder they worked. All went well until a strange boy came to the place. He was the son of a retired officer in the Austrian Army. That ur ate May-bugs alive and ehem as tho they were the fi blue-point oysters. That disgusting sight terminated my endeavors in this promising field and I have never since been able to touch a May-bug or any other i for that matter.
After that, I believe, I uook to take apart and assemble the cloy grandfather. In the former operation I was always successful but often failed iter. So it came that he brought my work to a sudden halt in a manner not too delicate and it took thirty years before I tackled another clockwain.
Shortly there after I went into the manufacture of a kind of pop-gun whiprised a hollow tube, a piston, and two plugs of hemp. When firing the gun, the piston rest against the stomad the tube ushed back quickly with both hands. The air between the plugs was pressed and raised to high temperature and one of them was expelled with a loud report. The art sisted iing a tube of the proper taper from the hollow stalks. I did very well with that gun but my activities interfered with the window panes in our house a with painful discement.
If I remember rightly, I then took t swords from pieces of furniture which I could vely obtain. At that time I was uhe sway of the Serbian national poetry and full of admiration for the feats of the heroes. I used to spend hours in mowing down my enemies in the form of -stalks which ruihe crops aed me sever?al spankings from my mother. Moreover these were not of the formal kind but the geicle.
I had all this and more behind me before I was six years old and had past thru one year of elementary school in the village of Smiljan where I was born. At this juncture we moved to the little city of Gospiearby. This ge of residence was like a calamity to me. It almost broke my heart to part from eons, chis and sheep, and nifit flock of geese which used to rise to the clouds in the m aurn from the feeding grounds at sundown in battle formation, so perfect that it would have put a squadron of the best aviators of the present day to shame. In our new house I was but a prisoner, watg the strange people I saw thru the window blinds. My bashfulness was such that I would rather have faced a r lion than one of the city dudes who strolled about. But my hardest trial came on Sunday when I had to dress up and attend the service. There I meet with an act, the mere thought of which made my blood curdle like sour milk for years afterwards. It was my sed adventure in a churot long before I was entombed for a night in an old chapel on an inaccessible mountain which was visited only once a year. It was an awful experience, but this one was worse.
The.re was a wealthy lady in town, a good but pompous woman, who used to e to the church geously painted up and attired with an enormous train and attendants. One Sunday I had just finished ringing the bell in the belfry and rushed downstairs when this grand dame was sweeping out and I jumped orain. It tore off with a ripping noise which sounded like a salvo of musketry fired by raw recruits. My father was livid with rage. He gave me a gentle slap on the cheek, the only corporal punishment he ever administered to me but I almost feel it now. The embarrassment and fusion that followed are indescribable. I ractically ostracised until something else happened which redeemed me iimation of the unity.
Aerprising young mert had anized a fire department. A new fire engine urchased, uniforms provided and the men drilled for servid parade. The engine was beautifully painted red and black. Oernoon the official trial repared for and the mae was transported to the river. The entire population turned out to withe great spectacle. When all the speeches and ceremonies were cluded, the and was given to pump, but not a drop of water came from the nozzle. The professors and experts tried in vain to locate the trouble. The fizzle was plete when I arrived at the se. My knowledge of the meism was nil and I knew o nothing of air pressure, but instinctively I felt for the su hose ier and found that it had collapsed. When I waded in the river and ope up the water rushed forth and not a few Sunday clothes were spoiled. Archimedes running hru the streets of Syracuse and shouting Eureka at the top of his voice did not make a greater impression than myself. I was carried on the shoulders and was the hero of the day.
Upoling iy I began a four-years' course in the so-called Normal School preparatory to my studies at the College or Real Gymnasium. During this period my boyish efforts and exploits, as well as troubles, tinued. Among other things I attaihe unique distin of champion crow catcher in the try. My method of procedure was extremely simple. I would go in the forest, hide in the bushes, and imitate the call of the bird. Usually I would get several answers and in a short while a crow would flutter down into the shrubbery near me. After that all I o do was to throiece of cardboard to distract its attention, jump up and grab it before it could extricate itself from the undergrowth. In this way I would capture as many as I desired. But on one occasion something occurred which made me respect them. I had caught a fine pair of birds and was returning home with a friend. When we left the forest, thousands of crows had gathered making a frightful racket. In a few mihey rose in pursuit and soon enveloped us. The fun lasted until all of a sudden I received a blow on the bay head whiocked me down. Thetacked me viciously. I was pelled to release the two birds and was glad to join my friend who had taken refuge in a cave.
In the schoolroom there were a few meical models whiterested me and turned my attention to water turbines. I structed many of these and found great pleasure iing them. How extraordinary was my life an i may illustrate. My uncle had no use for this kind of pastime and more than once rebuked me. I was fasated by a description of Niagara Falls I had perused, and pictured in my imagination a big wheel run by the Falls. I told my uhat I would go to Amerid carry out this scheme. Thirty years later I saw my ideas carried out at Niagara and marveled at the unfathomable mystery of the mind.
I made all kinds of other trivances and traptions but among these the arbalists I produced were the best. My arrows, when shot, disappeared from sight and at cle traversed a plank of pine one inch thick. Thru the tinuous tightening of the bows I developed skin on my stomach very much like that of a crocodile and I am often w whether it is due to this exercise that I am able even now to digest cobble-stones!
Nor I pass in silence my performances with the sling which would have enabled me to give a stunning exhibit at the Hippodrome. And now I will tell of one of my feats with this antique implement of war which will strain to the utmost the credulity of the reader. I ractig while walking with my uncle along the river. The sun was setting, the trout were playful and from time to time one would shoot up into the air, its glistening body sharply defined against a projeg rock beyond. Of course any boy might have hit a fish uhese propitious ditions but I uook a much more difficult task and I foretold to my uo the mi detail, what I intended doing. I was to hurl a stoo meet the fish, press its body against the rock, and cut it in two. It was no sooner said than done. My uncle looked at me almost scared out of his wits and exclaimed "Vade retro Satanas!" and it was a few days before he spoke to me again. Other record藏书网s, how ever great, will be eclipsed but I feel that I could peacefully rest on my laurels for a thousand years.
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