Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla (33 page)

Hawthorne interviewed Tesla in the same article in which the inventor reiterated his extraterrestrial hypothesis and his technological vision of the future, creating a world in which cheap energy would be available for all and humanity could begin to take its rightful place in the evolutionary hierarchy. And although Hawthorne tried to introduce some doubt as to the definite reality of the extraterrestrial encounter, a quarter of the way through the five-thousand-word treatise, the writer softened the potential criticism by rationalizing that “the hopes Tesla holds out embody things that ought to be true; that would immensely enlarge and beautify the world if they were true…” Concluding with a rhetorical question, Hawthorne wrote, “And what about conversing with Mars?…Tesla will do what he was sent here to do.”

Backed by the opposition, factions of the press also lashed out vigorously. One severe critic, under the byline of a mysterious Mr. X, cautioned “intelligent readers”: “Mr. Tesla obviously wants to figure in the newspapers. Everyone would be greatly interested if it were true that signals are being sent from Mars. Unfortunately, he has not adduced a scrap of evidence to prove it…His speculations on science are so reckless as to lose an interest. His philosophizing is so ignorant as to be worthless.”
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While in Colorado, Tesla negotiated with officials of the U.S. Navy and Light House Board, with nine letters passing between them from the spring of 1899 and, upon his return to New York, through the autumn of 1900.
²⁵
On May 11, Rear Adm. Francis J. Higginson of the U.S. Navy wrote Tesla a letter which was forwarded to Colorado:

Dear Sir:

I would like to ask you if you can not arrange to establish a system of wireless telegraphy upon the Light-Vessel No. 66, Nantucket Shoals, Mass., which lies off about 60 miles south of Nantucket Island.
²⁶

Higginson stated explicitly, “The Light-House Board [has] no money…[so funding] will have to be paid from some outside source.”

Tesla sent his “humble apologies for a tardy reply,” because of a “severe cold,” and then ended the note with this seemingly innocuous line: “[It] is also my sincere hope that I am not standing in the way of some other expert more deserving and better able to fulfill the task than myself.”
²⁷

The statement strikes this investigator as odd. Why would Tesla write that he was potentially “standing in the way of some other expert more deserving” when he knew that this was a completely false statement. No other expert was more deserving or more knowledgeable than he. Moreover, he knew that it was very likely that other experts were pirating his work, so why would he encourage more of that activity? This was clearly a self-deprecating and self-destructive element. Be that as it may, the response from Commander Perry, Higginson’s associate, was just as peculiar:

Office of the Light House Board
Washington, D.C. 16 August ‘99.

Mr. N. Tesla
Experimental Station,
Colorado Springs, Col.
Sir:

In acknowledging the receipt of your letter of 11 Aug. ’99…from certain expressions used in it the Board fears there may be some misunderstanding, so in order to prevent you from going to any trouble of expense, the board desires to say that it
has taken no action as yet toward providing any apparatus for using wireless telegraphy, as no appreciation is available for the purpose…

When it does take up the question of installing apparatus for communicating with light-vessels, your great name and fame in such matters will insure earnest consideration of yourself.

Respectfully yours,
T. Perry, Commander, U.S.N.

Apparently, Commander Perry read into Tesla’s letter information that wasn’t there. The inventor did not discuss reimbursement but took the opportunity in another letter to chastise Perry for his miserly response, writing on August 20, 1899, from his “Experimental Station” in Colorado Springs, to the Light House Board, Washington, D.C.:

Gentlemen,

…On this occasion permit me to avail myself of my

acquired and precious prerogative as a citizen of the United States and to express my deep astonishment that, in a country of such vast wealth, and leading in enlightenment, so important a body as the Light House Board, instead of being provided with unlimited resources, should be trivially hampered and placed in…such an awkward position.

Very respectfully yours,
N. Tesla
²⁸

Although clever, Tesla’s response was short-sighted, as the benefits that would accrue from installing wireless apparatus on this boat would clearly outweigh any short-term loss. The equipment would have been far more advanced than Marconi’s, the press and public would see, without doubt, Tesla’s superiority, and other branches of the navy and armed forces would have created contracts with the inventor. Furthermore, it would have been the first public demonstration by Tesla of long-distance wireless telegraphy. Unfortunately, throughout Tesla’s long career, he never demonstrated this capability to anyone other than himself.

Nevertheless, Tesla’s letter did not destroy his chances with the Lighthouse Board. On September 14, Commander Perry responded by offering Tesla the contract because the navy “preferred to award home talent” over Marconi.
²⁹

Here was the opportunity of a lifetime. Certainly it was understandable that Tesla needed to stay in Colorado through the autumn. He would return to New York the first week of January 1900. The Colorado experiment was a costly endeavor, and the inventor had now built up momentum, pushing toward the grand conclusion, that is, his wish to send
impulses around the globe. Perry wanted action “quickly.” But asking him to delay ninety days would not have been an unreasonable request. However, from the emotional point of view, Perry had said the wrong thing. He had mentioned the name of Signor Marconi.

Gentlemen,

…Much as I value your advances I am compelled to say, in justice to myself, that I would never accept a preference on any ground, the merit of my own work excepted, particularly not in this case, as I would be competing against some of those who are following in my path and as any pecuniary advantage which I might derive by availing myself of the privilege, is a matter of the most absolute indifference to me.

But since you have reasons for preference, permit me to state…that a few years ago I laid down certain novel principles on “wireless telegraphy” which I have been since perfecting.

Tesla went on to describe the seven features of his system: (1) an oscillator; (2) a ground and elevated circuit; (3) a transmitter; (4) a resonant receiver; (5) a transformer “that scientific men have honored me by identifying it with my name” (Tesla coil); (6) a powerful conduction coil; (7) a transformer in the receiving apparatus. Having “carefully perused all the reports of the more successful experimenters as they appeared,” Tesla discovered that “they are all using, with religious care, these devices and principles, without the slightest departure, even in minor details…” He ended the letter by offering his services once again but requesting that the navy purchase an even dozen transmitters, with the caution that

in the end one is apt to be accused of making outrageous prices. It is more than probable that my apparatus will cost more than that offered by others as I look to every detail myself.

With many thanks for your good intentions I remain,

Very respectfully yours,
N. Tesla
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The navy never responded to this letter. One year later, on October 4, 1900, Tesla wrote Admiral Higginson. Four days later, the admiral responded: “It will…be necessary before asking Congress for money to carry on this work to have further estimates of cost.”

Tesla’s style of writing to the navy was particularly irritating and filled with contradictions. He claims to be “absolutely indifferent” to gaining a “pecuniary advantage,” and yet he tells Commander Perry that the cost might appear to be “outrageous.” At the dawning stage of a completely new industry, instead of building one or two prototypes to display before the government, Tesla insists on a sizable order. In an early
letter he states that he does not want to stand in the way of any competitor; in another he claims he did not know there were any other competitors. In one passage, he accuses all his competitors of piracy (which was probably true), and yet in another he wishes them “hearty success.” His position was incongruous to say the least, and it served to scuttle his own cause. This would turn out to be one of the most significant blunders of his career.

Th[e] problem was rendered extremely difficult, owing to the immense dimensions of the planet
…
But by gradual and continuous improvements of a generator of electrical oscillations
…
I finally succeeded in reaching rates of delivery of electrical energy actually surpassing those of lightning discharges
…
By use of such a generator of stationary waves and receiving apparatus properly placed and adjusted in any other locality, however remote, it is practicable to transmit intelligible signals, or to control or actuate at will any one apparatus for many other important and valuable purposes.

N
IKOLA
T
ESLA
¹

T
esla went to Colorado in part for reasons of secrecy. His allimportant transmitting oscillators and general design had already been pirated, and he would shortly be involved in a variety of priority battles. Looking at the Colorado project from the technical point of view, the inventor was in a virgin field and needed to experiment in order to determine a workable plan for distributing light, information, and power by means of wireless. The measuring of standing waveforms from the electrical storms throughout July confirmed what he had suspected, namely, that the earth had a resonant frequency and could therefore be used as a carrier wave to transmit his signals.

Letters between Scherff and Tesla continued on an almost daily basis throughout the summer. In August, Tesla received an “invitation to attend the banquet honoring the birthday of the Emperor Francis Joseph.”
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Correspondence also came in from Austria, India, Australia, and Scandinavia. “The [last] one,” Scherff wrote, “is a proposition to become agent or manufacturer of your new light for Sweden, Norway and Denmark.”
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To the numerous business inquiries, Tesla wrote, “[Tell them] that I am on a scientific expedition, and will return in a few weeks.”
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There was also
correspondence with William Rankine, E. D. Adams, Mr. Coaney (a stockholder), and Alfred Brown.

Bills were forwarded, and the inventor, in turn, would periodically mail off funds to cover these expenses. Wages for the crew ran about ninety dollars a pay period. The New York laboratory, in turn, prepared new equipment to be shipped west, as Scherff continued to send details about their construction.

September 6, 1899

Dear Mr. Scherff,

Can you write about something more interesting than the

pump. There are many things happening in a great city…[Try]

and make your correspondence more interesting…[such as in sending] press clippings.

Sincerely,
N. Tesla
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As was his custom, the inventor lived in the future, writing to Scherff in late August that he expected to return to New York in a few weeks. It would be more like four months. At the same time, Lowenstein requested permission to take leave, as he wanted to return to Germany for some family matter. Tesla feared that he might be an industrial spy, but he was only going home to get married. Koleman Czito was called on to replace him.

“Czito has just arrived,” Tesla wrote, “and I [am] glad to see a familiar face again. He looks a little too fat for the work I expect of him.”
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He would come just in time to take part in some of the most spectacular electrical experiments ever performed. A hearty and trustworthy companion, Czito would stay at Tesla’s call until he was an old man. By that time, he had trained his son Julius to take over. Julius would eventually come to aid Tesla in some of his more clandestine earth-lunar experiments as well as in dayto-day responsibilities.
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Throughout September, Tesla designed a large number of electronic tubes for his glassblower in New York to fashion, and for Scherff to ship, as he continued to document his work with a local photographer. Electrical energy generated exceeded 3 million volts. Tesla reported, “I drew 1-inch sparks between my body and an iron pipe buried in the ground about 100 feet from the laboratory.”
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On the twenty-ninth, time-lapse pictures were mailed to John Jacob Astor, sugar refinery king, H. D. Havemeyer, his wife and their daughter, Mrs. E. F. Winslow, Stanford White, socialite Mary Mapes Dodge, and the Johnsons. He also shipped copies to Lord Kelvin, Sir William Crookes, Sir James Dewar, William Roentgen, Philip Lenard, and Adolph Slaby.
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“Look them over carefully before delivery,” the inventor instructed his liaison,
“and do not allow the workers, other than yourself and Mr. Ulman to see them.”
¹⁰

Throughout the autumn, the inventor continued to change the height of the ball at the top of the antenna to measure the change in capacity and relationship to generated wavelengths in order to tune the equipment to the earth’s frequency and “bring the oscillator into resonance with th[e] circuit.”
¹¹
Made out of wood, the ball was coated with metal. He also studied the strange phenomena of fireballs, which, when created by natural means, can appear like tumbleweeds of lightning that can roll down a street and smash into a tree or house. They are rarely seen, though there are documented sightings. Although Tesla himself had not witnessed any natural fireballs, he was able to create smaller ones in his lab. “Sometimes it apeared [
sic
] as if a ball would form above the coil, but this may have been only an optical effect caused by many streamers passing from various points in different directions…At [other] times, a big cluster of them would form and spatter irregularly in all directions.”
¹²
“He produced them quite by accident and saw them, more than once, explode and shatter his tall mast and also destroy apparatus within his laboratory. The destructive action accompanying the disintegration of a fire ball, he declared, takes place with inconceivable violence.”
¹³

In one instance, he pushed the experiments too far, and a fire started. Trapped by streamers that could maim or kill, the inventor had to roll to safety to save his life. To Johnson he wrote, “I have had wonderful experiences here, among other things, tamed a wild cat and am nothing but a mass of bleeding scratches. But in the scratches, Luka, there lies a mind.
MIND
.”
¹⁴

A few weeks later, while a photographer was present, Tesla set the roof in flames but was able to extinguish it before much damage was done. “The display was wonderful in spite of this,” he wrote in his diary.
¹⁵

Having studied the phenomena, Tesla attributed the generation of fireballs to “the interaction of two frequencies, a stray higher frequency wave imposed on the lower frequency free oscillation of the main circuit.” They could also be produced when “stray high frequency charges from random earth currents” interacted with charges from his oscillator.
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The following week, he extended the ball to a height of 142 feet and began “propagating waves through the ground.”
¹⁷

Referring to electrical or radio wave action at a distance, I know from experience that if proper precautions are not taken, fires of all kinds and explosions can be produced by wireless transmitters. In my experiments in Colorado, when the plant was powerfully excited, the lightning arresters for
twelve miles around
were bridged with continuous arcs, much stronger and more
persistent than those which ordinarily took place during an electric storm. I have excited loops (coil aerials) and lighted incandescent lamps at considerable distance from the laboratory without even using more than five or ten per cent of the capacity of the transmitter. When the oscillator was excited to about 4,000,000 volts and an incandescent lamp was held in the hand about
fifty or sixty feet from the laboratory,
[emphasis added] the filament was often broken by the vibration set up, giving some idea of the magnitude of the electromotive forces generated in the space.
¹⁸

Tesla had calculated that the earth pulsated at varying frequencies, especially twelve cycles per second.
¹⁹
With his coils wound with lengths of wire in harmonic relationships to the required wavelengths needed to “girdle the globe,” he wrote in his diary, the length of the coil was calculated based on the equation:

wavelength/4 = harmonic of total wavelength (or) required length of coil

Taking into account the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second and the circumference of the earth, it was determined that coils would have to be “roughly” a mile in length, or some harmonic of this figure, to be in a resonant terrestrial frequency.
²⁰
Other components included the thickness of the wire itself and horsepower generated. By increasing the frequency between pulsations, the inventor claimed to be able to boost horsepower to a few hundred thousand, although this amount of produced energy would last only a fraction of a second.
²¹

Czito arrived for work one day in mid-autumn to find the inventor vigorously watering the ground around the metal plate which he had buried near the lab. “If I could only insulate these wires with liquid oxygen, I could reduce losses another magnitude,” the inventor said. “Here, put these on.” He gave Czito a pair of rubber-soled shoes as he laced up a pair for himself.

“All the way today, sir?” Czito inquired.

“To the limit, my friend. Now remember,” the inventor cautioned, “keep one hand behind your back at all times.”

Czito responded with a nod of his head. He had no plans to risk electrocution by creating a circuit through his heart.

“Throw the switch when you see my signal.”

“We had better use these, sir.” Czito handed his boss two cotton balls and took two for himself, and they plugged them into their ears.

The lanky Serb lumbered from his lab in his high shoes, past the mud, to place testing equipment and cold lamps at various locations in the earth, and positioned himself on a knoll about a mile away, near Prospect
Lake. Even though insulated, sparks jumped from the ground to his feet as he crunched along the path.
²²

The sun was low on the horizon as Colorado Springs began to turn on streetlights and electric lamps in preparation for the night. “Now,” Tesla waved as Czito fired up the equipment.

The sound began as a low rumble and built to a “roar [that] was so strong that it could be plainly heard ten miles away.” The ground trembled with the noise as the inventor gazed over to a nearby corral to watch a half-dozen horses rear on their hind legs and gallop frantically away. “Butterflies were carried around in…circle[s] as in a [whirlpool] and could not get out, no matter how hard they tried,”
²³
as the flume of streamers stormed up the shaft high above the roof of the lab and blustered out from the apex, splitting lightning bolts fully 135 feet in length.
Kaboom! Zip! Zap! Kaboom!
Looking to the sky, the wizard held his wireless torches up in triumph as they flickered in his thunder.

The end came abruptly, the Springs plunged into darkness. He had shorted out the town.

Fortunately “the powerhouse had a second, standby generator which was started up soon after. Tesla was insistent that he be supplied with current from this reserve machine as soon as it was running, but his demand was refused.” Forced by El Paso Electric to fix the damaged generator himself, the inventor was back on line in a day or two. “In the future, he was told, he would be supplied with current from a dynamo operated independently from the one supplying the [El Paso Electric] company’s regular customers.”
²⁴

By the end of 1899, Tesla was ready to return to New York. He wanted to get home for the holidays, to spend them with the Johnsons, but it would take him a little longer to wind things down. In December, he sent for his photographer, Dickenson Alley, to capture his work in the best possible light. By using multiple exposures, Alley would create what is perhaps Tesla’s most famous photograph: that of the inventor sitting calmly reading a book, dwarfed by myriad tongues of explosive lightning. (This picture is a multiple exposure. Tesla, of course, was not sitting there at the time the oscillator was fired up; the electricity would have killed him.)

December 22, 1899

Dear Mr. Tesla,

We will keep your memory green Christmas day…How lovely it would be if you should suddenly appear in our midst…to spend it with us…

I sometimes wonder if you could make me glad again, just to see you, it is so long since gladness has been in my days. Everything that once was has disappeared. It is as if one had
gone to sleep in soft moonlight and had anchored out of place and out of time to find himself in the stone age, himself a stone.

What does it all mean?…

Sometimes I have a little sign of you through Robert by way of the office. I am hoping the New Year may bring you what you most desire and that it may bring to us my dear friend.

Faithfully yours,
Katharine Johnson
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