John Galt's engine that ran on static electricity and cost nothing to run was a fictionalized and inaccurate version of what was written about Tesla. Ayn Rand apparently read about it back in the 20's when Tesla was in a publicity struggle with Edison and other more waspish engineers. Tesla was a Slav (a Serb, born in Croatia), as Rand thought herself to be, and apparently patterned her genius John Galt after him.
I found this Wikipedia entry interesting:
In 1885, Tesla claimed that he could redesign Edison's inefficient motor and generators, making an improvement in both service and economy. According to Tesla, Edison remarked, "There's fifty thousand dollars in it for you—if you can do it"[52]—this has been noted as an odd statement from an Edison whose company was stingy with pay and who did not have that sort of cash on hand.[53] After months of work, Tesla fulfilled the task and inquired about payment. Edison, claiming that he was only joking, replied, "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor".[54][55] Instead, Edison offered a US$10 a week raise over Tesla's US$18 per week salary; Tesla refused the offer and immediately resigned.[52]
Thee is a lot more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_TeslaTesla was a genius, but he had a funny accent, was the embodiment of a "mad scientist", more of the Frankenstein sort than the Emmet Brown (Back to the Future) sort, because of his being a foreigner in an era in which foreigners were suspect, and
Slavs more than most. He had a lot of quirks , like refusing to see a doctor when he was hit by a taxi, and he was rather poor at handling his own finances, since, despite his enormous number of patents, he died in poverty.
I can say that I admire Tesla, perhaps more than Edison, but I can't say I am sure I would have liked him at all. He was a lot more weird than Steve Jobs.
