Mrkic - Nikola Tesla - The European Years (1856-1884)

8/10/2019 Mrkic - Nikola Tesla - The European Years (1856-1884)

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Nikola Tesla:The European Years (1856-1884)

Tesla in his laboratory, 1899

D. Mrkich

Part I

I was in Europe in October of 2001, to see a number of

cities where the young Nikola Tesla once lived, studied,

worked and divined his future inventions.

GRAZ, Austria, October 10.

Nikola Tesla studied electrical engineering at the Graz Poly-technic School, theIoanneum, now the Technical Universityof Graz, from September 1875 until late 1877. TheIoanneumwas one of only four technical schools in the entire Austrian

Empire others being in Vienna, Prague and Brno whichgranted engineering degrees.

The school is very proud of its illustrious alumni, myhosts, two professional employees of the University, tell me,

and present me with a school memorial book, which featuresTeslas picture on its cover, and a 20-page profile inside.


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4 Nikola Tesla: The European Years, copyright 2002 D. Mrkich For viewing only, to purchase book, [email protected] 5

Nikola Teslas school records in Graz (Courtesy Technische

Universitt Graz, Austria)


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stunned silent. Tesla wrote later,I could not demonstrate my belief at that time, but

it came to me through what I might call instinct,

for lack of a better name. But instinct is some-thing which transcends knowledge. We undoubt-

edly have in our brains truths which we could not

attain through logical deductions, and which it

would be futile to attempt to achieve through any

wilful effort of thinking.

Poeschl is remembered today chiefly for his rigid stancein this discussion with his visionary student.

At the end of his second year, Nikola Tesla found himselfwithout a further scholarship from the Military Border Au-thority back home. The scholarship was 420 gulden, paid outten times a year, at the end of each month, following the suc-cessful completion of exams.

Why did he lose his scholarship?There are no simple answers.There were wars brewing in the Balkans throughout the

years of 1875, 1876 and 1877 for the Orthodox Cross,against the Ottoman Turks first the rebellion of the Serbs ofHerzegovina against the Turks, then two wars between Ser-bia and Turkey, then in July of 1878, Austria-Hungary occu-pied Bosnia and Herzegovina. And Tesla owed a military serv-ice to the diverse powers of the day.

My hosts hand me a freshly typed copy of a documentissued by the Military Frontier Administration Authorities(Grenzlandsverwaltungsbehoerde) in Agram (Zagreb), on

September 22, 1876, and addressed to the Rector of theIoanneum, emphasizing that Nikolaus Tesla, of Gospic inLika, the Military District of Otocac in return for scholar-ship of 420 gulden per year, has pledged that, on conclusionof his studies, he will discharge his military duty and serve aminimum of eight years in the army The German-lan-guage sentence runs to 97 words. Krajina had been disman-tled three years earlier, and its south-western part handed over

to the civil administration in Zagreb, while the eastern terri-tories were delivered to Budapest. A Unilateral Agreement: a three-year scholarship for eightyears in the army.


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Teslas letter seeking another scholarship (Courtesy Nikola

Tesla Museum, Belgrade, Yugoslavia)

It took two days for the letter to reach Novi Sad; threedays later, his request was turned down again, and his life inGraz comes to an end.

There is nothing left today of the old Botanical Gardens.There was construction scaffolding in one of the court-

yards of the University, and a cluster of men, repairing the

building, were all speaking in Croatian.We have lots of foreign workers now Ukrainians and

others, said my hosts.

Austria is a small country today, tucked away in the peace-able centre of Europe, rich but, like all western countries,

suffering from a low birthrate. My hosts worried if twenty-five years from now, there would be enough working people

to sustain the society, and wondered what kind of foreignnationals Austria should let into the country.

In Austria, we must be careful how we treat minorities,

because of our recent history, says the more senior of myhostesses.

There were student signs and banners throughout the cam-

pus, protesting increased tuition fees.The student Tesla had roomed at four different locations:

Attemsgasse 8, in his first year; then Hans-Sachs-Gasse 10;Jahngasse 5; and Heinrichstrasse 11. Two buildings have been

replaced by new ones, but two still stand: stately, big-windowed, tall-ceilinged. I am shown all four sites, and myhostesses then invite me to visit the Schlossberg Castle, theone standing on the hump of a hill in the middle of the city.

We walked down the street, under rows of chestnut trees,which were just beginning to drop their chestnuts, then wentup the winding road, through the sunless forested hill. The

air was cool, sharp and scented with pine trees and decayingvegetation. My guides are younger than I am, and I find theroad steep and the forest-heavy air sharp, and by the time wereach the clearing at the foot of the formidable Castle, I havehad enough of walking. But when I looked down, over thetree tops, back at the city, the walk was well worth it: below


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unusually long. His weight would remain at 59 kilograms fornearly forty years.

Nikola Tesla as a young man (Courtesy Nikola Tesla Mu-

seum, Belgrade)

Nikola Tesla returned to Austria, to Vienna, in April, 1892:some say on the 22nd of that month, which is not likely thecase, as his mother died on April 16, and it is generally ac-

cepted, that he arrived in Gospic the day before she died, andstayed there, grief-stricken and in ill health, for the next fourweeks. Nevertheless, the VienneseElektrotechnik Zeitschrift

for May of that year, notes Teslas presence in the country,and states, It is commonly held that Tesla is an Americanbut by nationality, he is an Austrian Serb, born in Lika in the

former Military Krajina. One of his uncles is a senior officerin the Austrian army, Paja Mandic; the other uncle, Nikola

Mandic, is a Metropolitan of the Tuzla-Zwornik Diocese. Hegained his first knowledge of the magneto-electric dynamo-

machines under the late Professor Poeschl.The University of Vienna awarded Tesla an Honorary

Doctorate in 1908.

It is only an hours train ride from Graz to Maribor, and itisnt even clear when one crosses the border. Night falls dur-

ing the journey. The only other passengers in the car are agroup of Bosnians, having problems with passports andwork visas. Not unlike what Tesla might have encounteredon his journeys in the 1870s, especially on that last ride out

of Graz, sometimes between mid-September and mid-Novem-ber 1878.

MARIBOR, Slovenia, October 11.

In Maribor, Nikola Tesla found temporary employment as adraftsman with an engineering firm, managed by one Master

Drusko. He lived in the vicinity of the train station, and spentmuch of his free time in a pub calledHappy Peasant, a hangoutfor passengers with time on their hands. The Peasantwasdemolished in 1985, to make room for the new Bus Termi-nal.


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the Faculty of Technical Engineering, Director of the MariborMuseum and a Slovene Teslac, who had written about Tesla.

The Mayor assured me that the city planned to renovate

the area in front of the Faculty of Technical Engineering, andrename it the Nikola Tesla Square. The square was now mostlya parking lot. The Mayor, an impressive young politician,

with a studentish beard, was confident that the work wouldbe completed within two or three years, during his civic watch.

We are proud of the fact that Nikola Tesla lived in

Maribor. Its too bad that his stay here wasnt more pleasant,but it was an important part of his life.

The Dean of the Faculty offered a more positive Sloveneconnection to Tesla, and we rehashed the story of the Magnet

flux density unit: tesla. In 1956, at the session of the Interna-tional Commission of Measurements in Paris, a Slovene inthe Yugoslav delegation, Dr. Milan Vidmar a physicist, and

a world class Chess Grand Master, who had visited Tesla inNew York in 1936 - proposed that a unit of measurement of amagnetic fields strength be named in memory of Tesla. There

was a number of candidates, and voting went through severalrounds, but continued to be tied, when a hitherto-uncommit-ted voter raised his hand for Tesla, and Tesla got a one-votemajority. The deciding vote-bearer later said that he had no

idea why he had raised his hand at that particular moment, oreven what the vote was about. Who was the late voter?

Tesla was the first Slav to have a scientific unit namedafter him.

I give my hosts copies of various documents I received inGraz, and am told in the process, We cant get anything outof Graz. You know how it is when you were under some-

body, and afterward they dont care about you.The Slovene Teslac gave me a copy of Teslas police

record, entitled Standing Order Transcript 1879 which, un-der numbers 2160, of March 8, and number 2675 of March24, state that Nicolaus Tesla was deported from Maribor asa vagrant, and taken home to Gospic.

Teslaspo

licerecordinMaribor(CourtesyMr.Momcilo

Radic,

Maribor)


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Bishops Residence, built a few years later, both blown up byCroat military on Christmas eve 1992; many streets had beenrenamed, some more than once, though in places, the old name

plates were still in evidence. I visit another area, where I oncelived, and find much of it boarded up and crumbling, andstop to ask a passerby what happened: after a pause, during

which he tries to determine whether I am a Croat or a Serb I see him decide that I am a Serb but say anyway, Enoughfor the very heart to ache. There are even gypsies here. Ca-

tastrophe.We walk in silence, over the prickly hulls and the ox-eye-

like nuts under chestnut trees, and can hardly wait to go ourseparate ways. Ten years ago, one half of the towns popula-

tion of fifty thousand, was Serb: in the last three years, aDoctor tells me, only two Serb babies were delivered.

Nikola Tesla matriculated from the Karlovac High school

on July 24, 1873. His passing grade was Praiseworthy, or intodays parlance B or 4, with a special recommendationthat he attend a higher school of Technical Studies.

Nikola Teslas High school diploma (Courtesy Nikola Tesla

Museum, Belgrade)

His original diploma, together with all his documents,was stolen in Paris, on the very day of his departure forAmerica, in 1884, and the duplicate, issued on June 29, nextyear, does not list individual marks. However, his previous

school reports show consistentlyExcellentin German, Ge-ography & History and Chemistry; only Sufficientin Geom-etry and Free Drawing; and Praiseworthy in all other sub-jects. In the Certificate, dated February 8 of that year, his

Comportment wasInconsistent.There were ten students in the final year, of whom, two

declined to go up for examination, and eight graduated.*

* They were: Julije Bartakovic, Jovo Bijelic, Isak Kordic, Jovo

Ljustina, Mojsije Medic, Nikola Prica, Dragutin Sir and Nikola

Tesla.


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brary:Heroic Ballads of Serbia; Jovan Ducic; Milan Rakic;Nikolaj Velimirovic; The Message of the Bee; The Law of Sex

Determination; How to Communica te with the Lord;

Mazuranic; Rubayat; Lola Montez; Liquour, the Servant ofMan; Remembered Yesterdays; different books about him.Although the Museum has published some dozen books

over the years, mostly Teslas lectures, notes and diaries, thereis a dearth of Tesla material written originally in Serbian, andas I leaf and read through various booklets and newspaper

articles, often indifferently researched and repeating each oth-ers mistakes, I ask myself, why and wherefore, arent these

bookshelves bulging and creaking under the weight of de-tailed and reliable studies of Teslas life and work? Where

have all the Serb writers and academicians been these onehundred years?

The next day, I return to Krajina, Teslas and my own

border lands and fatherland.

An empty Serbian house in Krajina

KRAJINA

No mail, newspaper, TV, radio, or visitors to speak of, fortwo weeks. I go for long walks through the hills, beside the

burnt down and vandalized homes, while autumnal mists clingto the neglected earth. There is only one child of school agein an area as far as the eye can see; men have no work, and

there is hardly a living soul who doesnt depend on the hand-outs from the hunitarian agencies and relatives abroad. Astranger is a dangerous sight here, even if he comes on foot.I enter my old public school: its doors and windows are bro-ken, the two clay stoves demolished, parquet floors buck-

ling, and on the way out, startle a grouse from its cover nearthe schools door.

I visit cemeteries.The village stream is weed-overgrown and fishless.Only the farm animals, with their placid, stoic warmth,

can show pleasure in the temporary existence of being.The country is returning to heath and bush and, eventu-

ally, itll be the way it was three or four hundred years ago,

when we came. Only paved roads will remain for a while.But Nikola Tesla was born here, and grew in this midst, acontinual reminder of the mystery of life and the wonder of

genius.


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D. Mrkich takes a fresh look at the early life and timesof Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), the inventor of alternat-

ing current and some 700 other inventions in the fieldsof telecommunications, radar, medicine and star-wars technologies.The book conveys to the reader Teslas genius andsense of purpose, his attachment to his Serbian roots,his insecurities and why he left Europe for America atthe age of 28.This is the first of five parts of the book-in-progress.

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Mrkic - Nikola Tesla - The European Years (1856-1884)