It was January 1900 when Nikola Tesla was ready to change the world forever. He now knew, for certain, that his plan would work. Not only would it generate electricity but due to the unexpected discovery of standing waves in the Earth it could be wirelessly distributed world wide. All he needed now was money and a place to build his tower.
In case you have missed the earlier parts of this series, you can find them here
- part 1 – Intro,
- part 2 – Old science,
- part 3 – Electricity,
- part 4 – Gas law,
- part 5 – Self acting engine,
- part 6 – Magnifying Transmitter and
- part 7 – Final tests.
Well we all know the story. And I have already posted it here. It will be difficult to add some details that are not generally known. But let me try with these few…
It all started with this letter
Tesla was so thrilled to see his dream come true that he would agree with whatever terms Morgan would come up with. Morgan would have agreed with a 50-50 split, but Tesla even offered 51-49.
Morgan also included Tesla’s lighting patents, which came as a surprise to Tesla, but he agreed.
Morgan went to Europe and caused a stock market crash. The prices for everything went up and the original amount was no longer sufficient. But Tesla’s estimate was already a bit optimistic anyway.
Tesla had to go back to Morgan to ask for additional funds, but Morgan refuses, also because Marconi had won the race by sending an “s” across the Atlantic with much smaller and cheaper equipment (all of which was in fact invented by Tesla).
Up to now Tesla has sold his plans as a communication system. He had not mentioned the distribution of power let alone the possibilities of generating power.
So now Tesla mentions this in an attempt to convince Morgan.
But that didn’t work. In fact, nothing would work. Morgan didn’t want to see this work completed.
Tesla finally fired up his tower for some final experiments and left Wardenclyffe, never to return again.
In public Tesla kept defending Morgan as here in 1919:
I would add further, in view of various rumours which have reached me, that Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan did not interest himself with me in a business way but in the same large spirit in which he has assisted many other pioneers. He carried out his generous promise to the letter and it would have been most unreasonable to expect from him anything more. He had the highest regard for my attainments and gave me every evidence of his complete faith in my ability to ultimately achieve what I had set out to do. I am unwilling to accord to some smallminded and jealous individuals the satisfaction of having thwarted my efforts. These men are to me nothing more than microbes of a nasty disease. My project was retarded by laws of nature. The world was not prepared for it. It was too far ahead of time. But the same laws will prevail in the end and make it a triumphal success. (1)
Instead he seemed to blame the government:
It will soon materialize, and when it does it will give an impetus to manufacture and commerce such as was never witnessed before, provided only that the Governments do not resort to the methods of the Spanish Inquisition, which have already proved so disastrous to the wireless art, the ideal means for making man absolute master of the air.
But from his letters to Morgan we learn something very different:
You say that you have fulfilled your contract with me. You have not.
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You advanced the money, true, but even this first clause of our contract was violated. There was a delay of two months in furnishing the last $50,000 – a delay which was fatal.
I complied conscientiously with the second and third obligations. You ignored yours deliberately. Not only this, but you discredited me.
.
.
The tower was dynamited in 1917.
.
.
The plan had failed.
.
.
Now only a glimmering spark remained, ... travelling down time until it would kindle a new fire.
(to be continued)
Quotes from
- 1919: “My inventions”, Nikola Tesla’s autobiography.
- September 15th,1908: “Tesla on Aeroplanes”