Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla (35 page)

The stage was set in March 1900, when Carl Hering was elected president of the AIEE; Professor Pupin was a close second.
²⁵
Hering, who would also become editor in chief of
Electrical World & Engineer,
set a new tone for the electrical community. Just as he had called into question Tesla’s priority work on AC a decade before, when he had backed Dobrowolsky, he also challenged Tesla’s credibility in the field of wireless. Other opponents included Reginald Fessenden, who was trying to obtain competing patents on tuned circuits, and such traditional rivals as Lewis Stillwell, Charles Steinmetz, Tom Edison, and Elihu Thomson. The first potshots appeared in the
Evening Post
²⁶
and then in
Popular Science Monthly.

Tesla had suggested that the sum total of human energy on the planet, which he called
M,
could be multiplied by its “velocity,”
V,
which was measured by technological and social progress. Just as in physics, the total human force could be calculated as
MV
²
. If humans go against the laws of religion and hygiene, the total human energy would diminish. In a primitive or agrarian-based society the energy would progress arithmetically.
However, if the new generation had a “higher degree of enlightenment,” then the “sum total of human energy” would increase geometrically. Tesla was suggesting that with his inventions of the induction motor, AC power transmission, and his remote-controlled robots, human progress would evolve at ever increasing rates.

In a highly visible discourse under the banner title “Science and Fiction,” an anonymous writer with the nom de plume “Physicist” vehemently attacked this premise. “Unhappily,” this critic wrote, “Mr. Tesla in his enthusiasm to progress…neglects to state which direction is the proper one for the human mass to follow, north, south, east, west, toward the moon or Sirius or to Dante’s Satan in the centre of the earth…Of course, the whole notion…is absurd.”

The editorial, which continued for six columns, called into question Tesla’s invention of the telautomaton, his belief that fighting machines would replace soldiers on the field—“international bull-fights…or potatoraces might do just as well”—his work in wireless, and his support for the plurality of worlds hypothesis. The author suggested that the
Century,
in future issues, should subject these types of articles to a scientific board “for criticism and revision if only for the protection against bogus inventions and nonsensical enterprises.” Hurling epithets as if in combat with a mortal enemy, “Physicist” concluded, “The editors [of the
Century
] apparently impute to their readers a desire to be entertained at all costs…They evidently often do not know science from rubbish and apparently seldom make any effort to find out the difference.”
²⁷

The onslaught continued in
Science
and in a follow-up editorial again in
Popular Science Monthly,
this time by a mysterious “Mr. X.”

“
Science
(Pseudo) contains an article from xxx. ‘Physicist’ is not in it,” Tesla wrote to Johnson, adding sarcastically, “It is also highly complimentary to the editors of your great magazine.”
²⁸
Other daily papers also attacked the inventor’s controversial claims.

Tesla, however, maintained a blind eye to this credibility problem and audaciously or foolheartedly followed up this article with the infamous piece “Talking With the Planets” in
Colliers,
which we reviewed in an earlier chapter. Making no secret of his identity, Reginald Fessenden, who was now embroiled in a legal dispute with Tesla, vehemently wrote in Hering’s journal that the source of “the so-called Martian signals have long been known…and only the crassest ignorance could attribute any such origin.” Having at one time been “a serious obstacle to multiplex systems, [they are now all but] eliminated.” Fessenden said the signals were due to “street cars, lightning flashes and the gradual electriciation of the aerial. Furthermore, the different kinds are easily distinguishable. Those ignorant of the subject might mistake them for intelligent signals.”
²⁹

Ever since his return to New York, Tesla made repeated efforts to
rekindle his friendship with Astor, but the gadabout was proving difficult to corner. Over the summer, the Johnsons tried to woo the inventor to Maine for a vacation, but he was too intent on contacting the multimillionaire.