Refractory Materials: Their Manufacture and Uses.

SEARLE, Alfred B. [Nikola Tesla].

Item Number: 118028

London: Charles Griffin & Company, Limited, 1924.

Rare second revised and enlarged edition of Alfred B. Searle’s Refectory Materials; inscribed by brilliant inventor Nikola Tesla. Octavo, original cloth, with 174 graphs, diagrams and maps throughout the text. Presentation copy, inscribed by Nikola Tesla on the half-title page, “To B. E. Broadwell, with compliments from, Nikola Tesla, New York, May 18, 1931.” The recipient, Bartley E. Broadwell was engaged as the general superintendent of the Aluminum Company of America and resided in Niagara Falls, New York. He applied for and was granted U.S. patents for several inventions in the early 20th century, including his electrode for electrometallurgical, or “ring” furnaces. Two years before he founded the Nikola Tesla Company in 1896, Tesla was commissioned by Edward Dean Adams, who headed up the Niagara Falls Cataract Construction Company, to consult on how best to use the hydroelectric power generated by the falls. He advised Adams that a two-phased system would be the most reliable and a contract was awarded to General Electric to build the AC distribution system. In the 1930s, when Tesla inscribed the present volume, he was effectively bankrupt. The book was at one time part of his personal library which was slowly dissembled as he struggled to pay rent and resided in a number of hotel rooms. On June 20th 1931, two months after he inscribed the present volume, Tesla was featured on the cover of Time Magazine for his contributions to electrical power generation and in honor of his 75th birthday. In near fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Exceptionally rare.

Inventor, electrical engineer, and physicist, Nikola Tesla is perhaps best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. A brilliant inventor, Tesla conducted a range of experiments involving mechanical generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early x-ray imaging, in an attempt to develop inventions he could patent and market. He became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. Tesla's inventions had varying degrees of success and, later in life, he earned the reputation of the archetypal 'mad scientist' for his claims that he was in communication with entities on Mars and in the process of developing a variety of implausible inventions.