Nikola Tesla Achieves Belated WSJ Fame, via David Bowie
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Today, PopSci salutes the Wall Street Journal and its hedcut engraver for finding the Venn-diagram sliver where David Bowie, Nikola Tesla, and stippled front-page portraits overlap.

A story in today’s Journal documents the rise of Teslamania — the transfer of adoration from square old Thomas Edison to cool Nikola Tesla among today’s creative classes — over a century after the inventors’ initial battle over alternating versus direct current.

From the WSJ article: “‘I can’t imagine writing a song about Edison… too boringly rich, entrepreneurial and successful!’ said Andy McCluskey, a founder of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.”

Back in 1940, Popular Science celebrated Mickey Rooney (the Bowie of the prewar era) in his screen appearance as Young Thomas Edison.

Nikola Tesla Achieves Belated WSJ Fame, via David Bowie

Popular Science, April 1940