om among these valiant
Eastern folk, that Nikola Tesla was born in the year 1857, and the
fact that he, to-day, finds himself in America and one of our foremost
electricians, is striking evidence of the extraordinary attractiveness
alike of electrical pursuits and of the country where electricity
enjoys its widest application. Mr. Tesla's native place was Smiljan,
Lika, where his father was an eloquent clergyman of the Greek Church,
in which, by the way, his family is still prominently represented. His
mother enjoyed great fame throughout the countryside for her skill and
originality in needlework, and doubtless transmitted her ingenuity to
Nikola; though it naturally took another and more masculine direction.

The boy was early put to his books, and upon his father's removal to
Gospic he spent four years in the public school, and later, three
years in the Real School, as it is called. His escapades were such as
most quick witted boys go through, although he varied the programme on
one occasion by getting imprisoned in a remote mountain chapel rarely
visited for service; and on another occasion by falling headlong into
a huge kettle of boiling milk, just drawn from the paternal herds. A
third curious episode was that connected with his efforts to fly when,
attempting to navigate the air with the aid of an old umbrella, he
had, as might be expected, a very bad fall, and was laid up for six
weeks.

About this period he began to take delight in arithmetic and physics.
One queer notion he had was to work out everything by three or the
power of three. He was now sent to an aunt at Cartstatt, Croatia, to
finish his studies in what is known as the Higher Real School. It was
there that, coming from the rural fastnesses, he saw a steam engine
for the first time with a pleasure that he remembers to this day. At
Cartstatt he was so diligent as to compress the four years' course
into three, and graduated in 1873. Returning home during an epidemic
of cholera, he was stricken down by the disease and suffered so
seriously from the consequences that his studies were interrupted for
fully two years. But the time was not wasted, for he had become
passionately fond of experimenting, and as much as his means and
leisure permitted devoted his energies to electrical study and
investigation. Up to this period it had been his father's intention to
make a priest of him, and the idea hung over the young physicist like
a very sword of Damocles.