NIKOLA TESLA: In legend, Nikola Tesla, born July 10. 1856, played the part of a mad scientist with innovations in electricity, radio and robotics. A playlist of electric guitar provides a spark for the birthday celebration with John on Crosscurrents Monday July 10 at 8:00 AM. Listen live at www.KRNN.org, 102.7fm, or 103.1fm

Tesla was born July 10, 1856 in Croatia on a summer night during what he claimed was a lightning storm – which led the midwife to say, “He will be a child of the storm,” and his mother to counter prophetically, “No, of the light.”

A playlist preview includes:

Guy Moore, Buddy Guy, junior Wells, Jeff Beck, John Schofield, John Mayer, Keith Richards, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Robert Plant, Santana, The Rides, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Allman Bros, Jimi Hendrix, Little Stevan, and George Harrison.

Tesla’s legacy includes the first working large-scale hydroelectric power station, and the first remote control demonstration. (A remote control toy boat, but still.) Tesla was also among the first scientists in the world to take X-rays, to design a fluorescent lightbulb, and (probably the first) to discover the ideas of radio transmission and radar. He wirelessly lit lightbulbs several feet away and found experimental hints of the resonant frequencies of the earth’s atmosphere, which were not to be theoretically and experimentally validated for another 50 years. He died owning roughly 300 patents.

SOURCE: Smithsonian Magazine, New York Times