The First Newspaper Articles about Nikola Tesla Published in Serbian Language. (English)

TESLA, Nikola, 1856-1943; EDISON, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931

In newspapers and magazines published in Serbian language, the name of Nikola Tesla was first mentioned at the end of 1889. At that time he was 33 years old and a resident of America for already five years. He was granted more than twenty patents and on May 16, 1888, he delivered a significant and very remarkable lecture to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers at Columbia University in the City of New York. His previous work and creativity in the field of induction motor, transmission and transformation of energy by using the polyphase system received numerous praises and recognition from the scientific public in the United States and Europe. By then, numerous professional and scientific articles were written about him and his achievements and published in the press in the United States, England, France, Italy, Germany. It is particularly interesting that the first magazines that wrote about Nikola Tesla in Serbian language were published in Austria-Hungary. They were "Branik" and "Starmali" from Novi Sad and "Srpski glas" from Zadar. In accordance with the historical and political moment in which they were printed, in their articles these magazines emphasized, with pride and special respect, the fact that Tesla was a Serb by his origin. They compared him with the world's greatest authority on electrotechnics at that time - Thomas Alva Edison, the American inventor whom Tesla, presumably, significantly surpassed in ingenuity. In addition to the preserved archival documents, personal and technical objects, monographic and serial publications, in Tesla's legacy there are more than two hundred letters he exchanged with his closest relatives. Several of the saved letters testify about the first newspaper articles on Nikola Tesla and his work that appeared in journals published in Serbian language. Reviewing the historical events and scientific and technical results of the time, and discovering the less known details from Tesla's life, the authors of this work presented the first newspaper articles about the great scientist and inventor written in Serbian Cyrillic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Citaliste: The Scientific Journal on Theory & Practice of Librarianship is the property of Citaliste: The Scientific Journal on Theory & Practice of Librarianship and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)