Wizard

by Marc Seifer

  Two months later, within days of the termination of his relationship with Hammond, Tesla approached the new head of the House of Morgan with a proposal to help fund his bladeless turbines. “Its application to the manufacture of iron and steel, alone will yield $100,000,000 a year through the utilization of the waste heat and other economies, and it will have a similar effect on ship propulsion, railroad, automobile and many other large industries.” The monarch looked over the proposal and advanced the inventor $5,000.19

  It was a time for reflection on the death and transmutation of his nemesis. Conflicting emotions of enmity and adoration poured through his being in torrents as he relived the exhilaration of his wireless odyssey and the anguish of its incompleteness.

  On July 7, 1913, three days before his fifty-seventh birthday, Tesla took the train back out to Wardenclyffe. He had much to think about, for his friend Johnson had decided to retire from the Century. Overseers of the company were pressing to lower the standards. Johnson offered to create a separate magazine, which would be more flashy, but he wanted to maintain the integrity of the original; but he was outvoted. “It was really pathetic to see the way authors would plead with me for another ‘damn,’”20 he told his friend. Katharine became more persistent in demanding that Tesla stop by for another visit. Now in financial trouble, his friends could even lose their house. Tesla tried to scurry past the magnifying transmitter without looking up, to get to the safe in the laboratory, but he was drawn like a magnet to the stalwart frame. As he grabbed a rung from the bottom tier, a sorrow swept through him that stole his breath. He staggered to the door of Stanny’s building and let himself in. “I did not exactly cry when I saw my place after so long an interval,” he wrote Scherff, “but came very near doing it.”21

  Tesla began to court the new Morgan, trying not to fall into the trap he had laid for himself the first time around. He sent Jack an articulate proposal outlining his wireless enterprise and explanation of his outstanding debt and arrangement with his father and also his plans in the field of “fluid propulsion,” that is, bladeless turbines.

  “In either of these fields in which I have the good fortune to be a pioneer the possibilities are immense and I can vouch for the fullest success; but my appeal for your support is on a higher plane…The proposition which I would respectfully submit is to organize two companies and to turn over to you my entire interests in both, of which you may accord me such a part as you deem best.”22

  “I’m greatly impressed with your offer,” Jack responded. “But of course I could not consent to doing as you suggest. I wish to make a counter offer, which is that you should proceed to organize your companies, and, if and as they work out, repay to Mr. Morgan’s estate either in securities or in cash, the money Mr. Morgan advanced. It seems to me, that you are entitled to the profits of these companies, but that Morgan would, in strict justice, be entitled to a return of his money if it could be arranged.”23

  Tesla left the meeting with the old itch reactivated and another check for $5,000. He thanked Jack for his encouragement and forwarded an open letter which he had written to His Grace, the Most Reverend Archbishop of Ireland. “The day is not distant when the very planet which gave him birth, will tremble at the sound of his voice: he will…harness the inexhaustible…intense energy of microcosmic movement, cause atoms to combine in predetermined forms; he will draw the mighty ocean from its bed, transport it through the air and create lakes and rivers at will; he will command the wild elements; he will push on from great to greater deeds until with his intelligence and force he will reach out to spheres beyond the terrestrial.”24

  “It is now clear to me,” Tesla told the new J.P., “that you are moved by the same great spirit of generosity which has animated your father and I am more than ever desirous of enlisting your interest and support. Destiny has placed you in a position of great power and influence and here is a wonderful opportunity.

  “As for myself,” the modest inventor continued, “I contemplated more than financial success…A great monument will no doubt be built to Mr. Morgan, but none in marble or bronze could be as lasting as the achievement which I have proposed to link with his memory.”25

  To reassert his dominance as the preeminent inventor in wireless, the inventor forwarded a transcript of the entire French litigation proceedings, wherein Marconi’s work was overturned in favor of his. If Jack could help fight the legal battle in the United States, the wireless enterprise, which they contractually shared, could be revived.

  Jack, however, was not smitten by the same vision of destiny and graciously declined to become involved in Wardenclyffe in any way. He had not ruled out the turbines, however, and told the inventor to keep him informed of any progress.

  Tesla returned to the Edison Waterside Station with a new transfusion of 23 Wall Street blood. To reflect the reactivation of the resurrected alliance, the inventor set out to search for more fashionable chambers. Within a few months he took up residence in the brand-new Woolworth Building. Decorated with a gold-leafed emerald-colored mosaic ceiling in the lobby and located by city hall, near Wall Street on Park Row, the gothicstyled Woolworth soared above the city to the dizzying height of eight hundred feet, eclipsing the Metropolitan Towers as the loftiest skyscraper in the world. Tesla took the Johnsons along to the gala opening. The banquet began with the illumination of the building’s eighty thousand lightbulbs by President Woodrow Wilson, who pressed a button in Washington, D.C. Tesla met with the mayor, Mr. “Dime Store” Woolworth, and other dignitaries, and then Katharine lured her two escorts into one of the twenty-four high-speed elevators to the roof, where they could gaze out over the sprawling megalopolis.

  “Do not worry about finances, Luka,” Tesla said confidently. “Remember, while you sleep, I work and am solving your problems.” Johnson brought up the old AC polyphase debacle, and Tesla replied that there were “billions invested [in it] now. I won every suit without exception and had it not been for a ‘scrap of paper,’ I would have received in royalties Rockefeller’s fortune, but just the same, I feel I am safe to invite you to dinner.”

  Tesla’s wit and latest maneuver once again brought a needed smile to the oft-brooding Mrs. Filipov. As usual, when the wizard returned to her orb, she seemed to step back from the veil. Johnson, however, reiterated his concern that without a job, 327 Lexington Avenue could go on the market.

  “Please take my words seriously,” Tesla insisted. “Do not worry, and write your splendid poetry in perfect serenity. I will do away with all difficulties which confront you. Your talent cannot be turned into money, but mine is one which…can be transformed into car-loads of gold. This is what I am doing now.”26 During this period, Tesla continued to pay back monies owed the Johnsons as he labored with his new engines.

  Throughout the latter half of 1913, the inventor prepared a careful marketing plan to exploit his new device. Not only would he show Hammond that he had made a costly mistake, he would also set up an industry that would ensure the finances necessary to return to his beloved Long Island tower. His best leads came from the Ford Motor Company in the United States and the Bergmann Works in Germany.

  Tesla had known Sigmund Bergmann since his first days in America. Bergmann had emigrated from Germany even before Tesla and became a valued employee/private partner and manufacturer for Thomas Edison. Maintaining a separate company from the other Edison works, Bergmann became highly successful. He returned to Germany in the early 1900s, becoming one of the leading manufacturers for the kaiser,27 a man who had also attempted to woo the Serb, especially before the turn of the century, when he was demonstrating his fantastic inventions in Europe and America.

  In September, Tesla forwarded photographs of his turbines and invited Morgan to the Waterside Station to see them in person; however, Morgan was sailing for Europe. “Perhaps when I return some time in December,” Morgan replied, “it will be possible for me to go into the question.”28 While the new Wall Street czar sailed for the Old World, Tesla s
et up meetings with emissaries from the most consequential markets. In a letter sent to Morgan upon his return, Tesla outlined his numerous strategies for achieving financial success. His list included:

  1. Sale of exclusive license for Belgium through the advisor of the King [for] $10,000 cash and fair royalty.

  2. Concessions for Italy through an associate at Crispi [for] $20,000 and royalty. Not yet consummated.

  3. Exclusive license for the U.S. to the Wing Manufacturing Company for turbo draught blowers.

  4. Exclusive license for train lighting, Dressel Railway Lamp Works.

  5. [Manufacture of] automobile lighting with engine exhaust gas.

  6. Use of my wireless system [with Lowenstein] on several battleships.

  7. Agreement with L. C. Tiffany Co. on new invention.

  8. Prospective agreement with Mr. N. E. Brady of the Edison Company in regard to the manufacture of turbines. Very good chance for big business.

  Manufacturing had begun at some of these places, and royalty contracts were negotiated with most. “As you can see, Mr. Morgan, here are decidedly valuable results very gratifying to me but, on the other hand, I am almost despairing at the present state of things. I need money badly and I cannot get it in these dreadful times. You are about the only man to whom I can look for help. I have stated my case.”29

  Morgan agreed to defer interest payments on the amount, which was now up to $20,000, but decided not to increase the loan. Tesla, however, simply required the funds and followed up the letter with a testimonial from Excellenz von Tirpitz, minister of marine, “who has been requested to the German Emperor relative to the Tesla Turbine who is greatly interested in this invention.” Von Tirpitz had “promised his Excellency that the machine will certainly be here on exhibition about the middle of January, so you know what that means.” Tesla also informed Morgan that if the deal was consummated, Bergmann would come through with royalties on the turbine of $100,000 per year.30

  Considering Jack’s keen antipathy for the Germans, their connection to the Jewish banking houses (he was notoriously anti-Semitic), and the long-standing policy of the House of Morgan to shun financial arrangements with Germany after they had double-crossed Pierpont many years before, it would seem unlikely that Jack would reverse his decision. However, unlike his father, the son was able to compromise and allow his heart to rule at times. He graciously changed his mind and forwarded the additional funds.31

  As Tesla awaited news from the Bergmann Works, he labored to perfect a new speedometer he had invented. The device, much simpler than the one then being used, would cost half as much to produce and had a market in the hundreds of thousands. Considering that his selling price would be around twenty-five dollars each, the potential for large profits was great, and Tesla offered the deal to Morgan. Jack declined and asked again for the interest payment due on the loan.

  “In the turbine proposition,” Tesla replied, “I have received a painful setback. I installed the machine at the Edison Plant and made some very gratifying tests, but soon discovered that the castings of the bearings were full of small holes which allowed the water to enter and made it hazardous to run.” Tesla had to renew the parts, “but spent considerably more money than expected.” He also had lawyers fees to contend with because of the upcoming suit with Marconi, so he requested that Morgan either be patient or help with the bills to complete the turbine project or protect their other common interest.32

  Besides the deaths of Astor and Pierpont Morgan, this period also marked the departure of two other lions from Tesla’s den, George Westinghouse and naturalist John Muir; both men died in 1914. Westinghouse’s death was cushioned by some weeks of declining health, but Muir’s passage took Tesla by surprise. “He seemed so vigorous in mind and body when I saw him not long ago,” the technological conservationist told the Johnsons.33 Only a few years before, the sky had been blanketed with hundreds of thousands of passenger pigeons, and the beauty of nature had been rekindled with Muir’s inspirational writings. As Tesla strolled to his favorite spot by the Forty-second Street library to spread seed among the bird’s domestic cousins and consider a new tack for instituting his wireless scheme, the last passenger pigeon disappeared from the earth. Jack Morgan spent time with one of the few Jews he liked, Daniel Guggenheim, organizing Kennecott Copper, “America’s biggest copper producer.”34

  Tesla sent his tribute to Westinghouse to Electrical World. It was published with the comments of other colleagues, such as William Stanley, Lewis Stillwell, and Frank Sprague.

  I like to think of George Westinghouse as he appeared to me in 1888, when I saw him for the first time. The tremendous potential energy of the man had only in part taken kinetic form, but even to a superficial observer the latent force was manifest…An athlete in ordinary life, he was transformed into a giant when confronted with difficulties which seemed unsurmountable. He enjoyed the struggle and never lost confidence. When others would give up in despair, he triumphed. Had he been transferred to another planet with everything against him he would have worked out his salvation…His was a wonderful career filled with remarkable achievements…He was a great pioneer and builder whose work was of far-reaching effect on his time and whose name will live long in the memory of men.35

  40

  FIFTH COLUMN (1914-16)

  Navy Department

  Washington, D.C.

  September 14, 1916

  Sir:

  In the files of the Bureau of Steam Engineering is found a copy of a letter by Nikola Tesla to the Light House Board, under date of September 27, 1899, from the Experimental Station, Colorado Springs. This letter is evidently an answer to a communication from the Light House Board, requesting information as to Tesla’s ability to supply wireless telegraph apparatus.

  This letter may be made use of in forthcoming litigation in which the Government is involved…as the discovery of suitable proof of priority of certain wireless usages by other than Marconi might prove of great aid to the Government.

  Sincerely Yours,

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Acting Secretary of the Navy1

  Within two weeks of the beginning of World War I, Germany’s transatlantic cable was severed by the British. The only reasonable alternative for communicating with the outside world was through Telefunken’s wireless system. Suddenly, the Tuckerton and Sayville plants became of paramount concern. The Germans obviously wanted to maintain the stations to keep the kaiser abreast of President Woodrow Wilson’s intentions, but the British wanted them shut down.

  In March 1914, Marconi was made a senatore in Italy, a distinguished man of science, and he spoke before the royal couple. In July in Great Britain, the land of his mother, he was decorated by the king at Buckingham Palace. Now the fight against Telefunken would be fought on military as well as commercial grounds as it became clear that the Germans were using their plants to help coordinate submarine and battleship movements. The wireless lines also marked the burgeoning alliance forming between Italy and the British Empire.2

  As a pacifist, Wilson maintained a strict policy of neutrality, a position bolstered by war hero and former president Teddy Roosevelt, himself a contender for the upcoming 1916 election. Although officially neutral, the sentiments of the majority of the American population was with England, particularly after Germany stormed through the peaceful kingdom of Belgium. Nevertheless, fully one-tenth of the population was of German stock, and their sentiments were with the other side. George Sylvester Viereck, the country’s leading poet, colleague of Johnson, and Tesla friend, began to sense the growing shift away from neutrality, especially after the U.S. Navy appropriated the Tuckerton plant to send its own “radio coded messages abroad.”

  Having just returned from Berlin and the midst of war, Viereck courted Teddy Roosevelt and emissaries of President Wilson. Simultaneously, he began a new publication with other leading German Americans. Initially welcomed by the press, the Fatherland soon achieved a subscription base of 100,000.
3

  Ignoring Viereck’s plea for neutrality, Wilson prepared a presidential decree “declaring that all radio stations within the jurisdiction of the United States of America were [to be] prohibited from transmitting or receiving…messages of an unneutral nature…By virtue of authority vested in me by the Radio Act,” the president continued, “one or more of the high powered radio stations within the jurisdiction of the United States…shall be taken over by the Government.”4

  Throughout the beginning of the war, Tesla stepped up his legal campaign against Marconi and continued to advise and receive compensation from Telefunken. Since the country was officially neutral (America would not enter the war for another three years), the arrangement was entirely aboveboard. Nevertheless, few people knew about the German-Tesla link, although the inventor made no secret of it to Jack Morgan.

  February 19, 1915

  Dear Mr. Morgan,

  I am expecting to embody in their plant at Sayville some features of my own which will make it practicable to communicate with Berlin by wireless telephone and then royalties will be very considerable. We have already drawn papers.5

  Camouflaged by the smoke screen of the American-sounding Atlantic Communication Company, Telefunken swiftly moved to increase the power of its remaining station at Sayville. Located near the town of Patchogue out on the flats of Long Island, just a few miles from Wardenclyffe, the Sayville complex encompassed a hundred acres and employed many German workers. With its main offices in Manhattan and its German director, Dr. Karl George Frank, an American citizen, Telefunken was legally covered, for no foreigner could own a license to operate a wireless station in the country. (Thus, Marconi also had an American affiliate.) It was an easy matter for Tesla to confer with Atlantic in the city and also go out to the site of the plant.