Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency. - 1892

New York: The W. J. Johnston Company, Ltd,, 1892. Tesla triumphs in the War of the Currents First edition in book form of the inventor's most celebrated lecture, with his signature tipped onto the portrait frontispiece, taken from a portion of an autograph letter signed "Yours very truly N. Tesla". Here Tesla promotes the benefits of high frequency alternating current, which became the world standard for most electrical devices. The biographical preface positions him as the creator of "this new branch of electricity" (p. ix). The Serbian electrical engineer Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) worked for Thomas Edison in Paris and New York during the early 1880s before leaving to set up his own company, where he focussed on developing his competing arc lighting system and continued his research on high frequencies. "His major contribution to electrical technology was made in the period 1887-1891 when, drawing on mind experiments dating back to 1882, he applied for and received a series of patents based on the concept that two alternating current (AC) sources, out of phase, can create a rotating magnetic field, thus making possible an AC motor... His basic patents in this area, describing generators and transformers as well as motors, were purchased by George Westinghouse in 1888. They became the basis for the generating station at Niagara Falls in 1895, and for many other centralized stations, transmitting electricity over increasingly long distances in the years to come" (ANB). Tesla's visionary annual predictions and numerous inventions in nascent fields soon established him as something of a cult figure in the field. On 20 May 1891 Tesla delivered a landmark lecture on alternating currents of high frequency at Columbia College in New York; it and the accompanying demonstration were very favourably received. The contents were first published serially in journal form. He was subsequently invited to London in February 1892 to present on the same topic, this time at the Institute of Electrical Engineers. The immediate success and far-reaching impact of this lecture, which forms the contents of this book, prompted further invitations to speak at the Royal Institute and at similar establishments in Paris. Small octavo. Original dark green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, spine and front cover decoratively blocked in blind, yellow floral patterned endpapers. Housed in a green cloth flat-back box by the Chelsea Bindery. Photographic portrait frontispiece, numerous diagrams and illustrations in text. 4 pp. publisher's advertisements at rear. Late 20th-century ownership signature on frontispiece recto (one "William F. Northrop 1982 Los Angeles"), American Library Service label on rear free endpaper. Spine ends, joints, and inner hinges professionally restored, cloth a little marked and worn at corners but generally presenting nicely, evidence of label sometime removed from front pastedown, frontispiece a little brittle, with upper outer corner creased and 2 cm split where signature is tipped in, small hole (perhaps resulting from former adhesion) above the image, contents clean, with just a few ink spots in upper margins of pp. 61-4. A very good copy.