Nikola Tesla, the father of alternating current and wireless communication, was as famous for his genius as for his eccentricities. Among his oddities: a deep bond with pigeons, a fear of spherical objects, and a compulsive obsession with numbers divisible by three—habits that turned the inventor into a real-life “mad scientist” archetype.
Tesla’s affection for pigeons bordered on the romantic. During his later years in New York, he fed flocks daily, even bringing injured birds to his hotel room to nurse. He claimed one white pigeon visited him nightly, staring into his eyes “like a lover.” When she died, Tesla insisted he saw “a blinding light” in her eyes, signaling his life’s work was complete. Psychologists speculate his isolation fueled this avian attachment, but Tesla called it “pure, selfless love.”
Then there’s his fear of round objects—specifically pearls. The sight of a pearl earring reportedly made him nauseous, and he once sent a secretary home for wearing them. Some biographers link this to OCD, others to a traumatic childhood incident. Either way, Tesla avoided spheres, preferring angular decor. Imagine hosting him: “No meatballs, please, and for God’s sake, hide the marbles!”
The number three ruled his life. Tesla did everything in threes: circling blocks three times before entering buildings, washing hands thrice, or demanding 18 (a multiple of three) napkins at meals. He believed threes held cosmic harmony, though colleagues just found it exhausting. Modern experts suggest this ritualized behavior may have been a coping mechanism for anxiety—a 19th-century version of counting steps.
These quirks didn’t dim his brilliance. Tesla’s three-phase AC system revolutionized power grids, and his wireless vision foreshadowed Wi-Fi. Yet his legacy reminds us that genius often walks hand-in-hand with the bizarre. So next time you charge your phone or shoo a pigeon, spare a thought for Tesla—the man who electrified the world but couldn’t shake his love of threes. Just don’t serve him peas. They’re too round.
