"A LANDMARK TEXT… A VIRTUAL BIBLE" IN THE FIELD OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING: FIRST EDITION OF INVENTIONS, RESEARCHES AND WRITINGS OF NIKOLA TESLA, WITH TESLA'S TIPPED-IN CLIPPED SIGNATURE

(TESLA, Nikola) MARTIN, Thomas Commerford. The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla. New York: The Electrical Engineer, 1894. Octavo, original orange cloth, patterned endpapers. WITH: Clipped signature. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition of the first book to collect Tesla's three seminal lectures on high frequency lighting, with Tesla's clipped signature tipped onto the front pastedown.

"Tesla left Philadelphia by rail at the end of February [1893] for the National Electric Light Association convention in St. Louis. Accompanied by T.C. Martin, who was covering both lectures for Electrical Engineer, they discussed the creation of a textbook based on the inventor's collected writings. The first half would be devoted to the full range of inventions associated with the AC polyphase system… the second half would contain Tesla's three discourses on high-frequency phenomena, which he has presented in New York, London and Philadelphia… Martin had achieved a great coup, solidifying a deal with what many people were saying was 'the greatest living electrician.' The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla would be a landmark text, becoming a virtual bible for the numerous electricians who read it" (Seifer, Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla). "[T]he book appeared in January 1894… The first edition sold out within a month, a second edition by the end of 1894" (Carlson). Tesla's many theories presaged and contributed to the development of radio, radar, lasers, remote-control electronics, vertical take-off aircraft, and recent high-frequency fluorescent lamps. The American Institute of Electrical Engineers awarded Tesla its Edison Medal in 1917. With frontispiece portrait of the scientist and in-text illustrations. Ratslaff & Anderson, 28. Owner signature and bookplate of William Whiting Drake, Jr., an aerospace administrator who worked at Los Alamos and Raytheon.

Small spot of soiling and mounting evidence to verso of signature. Interior fine, slight wear and soiling to original cloth. A near-fine copy, with scarce clipped signature.