by Marc Seifer
15. “Tesla and Edison,” Watertower Times, April 24, 1895 [TAE].
16. “Nikola Tesla,” Electrical World, April 14, 1894, p. 489.
17. F. Jarvis Patten, “Nikola Tesla and His Work,” Electrical World, April 14, 1894, pp. 496-99; “Tesla and Edison,” Watertower Times, April 24, 1895 [TAE].
16. Arthur Brisbane, “Our Foremost Electrician,” New York World, July 22, 1894, Sunday supplement.
17. “Tesla’s Triumphs,” St. Louis Daily Globe Democrat, March 2, 1893, p. 4.
20. NT, “Tuned Lightning,” English Mechanic and World of Science, March 8, 1907, pp. 107-108.
21. W. T. Stephenson, “Electrical Light of the Future,” Outlook, March 9, 1895, pp. 384-86.
22. NT vs. Fessenden, April 16, 1902, p. 14.
23. Ibid., Scherffs testimony, p. 89.
24. Patents 454,622 (June 23, 1891); 462, 418 (November 3, 1891); 514,168 (February 6, 1894). In Lectures, Patents, Articles, pp. P-221-27.
25. Michael Pupin papers [BLCU].
26. NT, “High Frequency and High Potential Currents,” February 1892, in Inventions, Researches and Writings (1894), p. 292.
27. Pupin papers, March 28, 1894 [BLCU].
28. Ibid., August 23, 1895.
29. Ibid., May 21, 1895.
30. Ibid., July 25, 1896.
31. NT to RUJ, December 21, 1894 [BLCU].
Chapter 16: Fire at the Lab, pp. 146-151
1. Charles Dana, “The Destruction of Tesla’s Workshop,” New York Sun, March 13, 1895; in Tribute, 1961, p. LS-18.
2. D. McFarlan Moore to NT, June 13, 1931; in Tribute, 1961, p. LS-41.
3. John O’Neill, Prodigal Genius, 1944.
4. J. Ratzlaff and Leland Anderson, eds., Dr. Nikola Tesla Bibliography (Palo Alto, CA: Ragusen Press, 1979), p. 34.
5. T. C. Martin, “The Burning of Tesla’s Laboratory,” Engineering Magazine, April 1895, pp. 101-4.
6. “A Calamitous Fire,” Current Literature, May 1895 [TAE].
7. Michael Boro Petrovich, A History of Modern Serbia (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1976), p. 523.
8. T. C. Martin, “The Burning…”
9. J. Ratslaff and L. Anderson, Tesla Bibliography, p. 34.
10. J. Abraham and R. Savin, Elihu Thomson Correspondence (New York: Academic Press, 1971), p. 352.
11. TCM to NT, May 20, 1895; May 21, 1895; May 28, 1895 [NTM].
12. H. Passer, Electrical Manufacturers, p. 297.
13. “Westinghouse Electric. Ad on Tesla polyphase system.” Review of Reviews, June 1895, p. viii.
14. J. Ratzlaff and L. Anderson, Tesla Bibliography, p. 34.
15. John O’Neill, Prodigal Genius, p. 123. Concerning Tesla’s expenses, including the loss from the fire and the construction of another lab, Tesla wrote, “Before I ever saw Colorado—I think my secretary knows that—I have expended certainly not less than $750,000,” NT, On His Work With A.C., p. 172.
16. NT to RUJ, February 14, 1895 [BLCU].
17. Ernest Heinreich to NT, February 13, 1895 [LC].
18. “Tesla in Jersey,” Rochester Express, April 5, 1895 [TAE].
19. NT to A. Schmid (two letters combined), March 23, 1895; April 3, 1895 [LC].
20. Samuel Bannister to NT, April 8, 1895 [LC].
21. Brisbane, June 22, 1894.
22. “Edison’s Rival,” Troy Press, April 20, 1895 [TAE]. 22. J. Ratzlaff and L. Anderson, Tesla Bibliography, p. 36.
24. “Tesla Solved the Problem,” Philadelphia Press, June 24, 1895 [TAE].
25. “The Electric Combinations,” NY Com. Bulletin, April 18, 1895 [TAE].
26. TCM to NT, May 22, 1895 [NTM].
27. TCM to NT, March 12, 1896 [NTM].
28. “Nikola Tesla and the Electrical Outlook,” Review of Reviews, September 1895, pp. 293-94.
29. Ibid.
Chapter 17: Martian Fever pp. 152-157
1. Quoted in New York Sun, March 25, 1896.
2. John D. Gates, The Astor Family (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1981), pp. 112-13.
3. Ibid.
4. Camille Flammarion, “Mars and Its Inhabitants,” North American Review 162 (1896), p. 549.
5. William Pickering, “Pickering’s Idea for Signaling Mars,” New York Times, April 25, 1909, Pt. 5, 1:1-6 [some paraphrasing to improve readability].
6. NT to JJA, February 6, 1895 [NTM].
7. John Jacob Astor, A Journey in Other Worlds (New York: D. Appleton, 1894), pp. 115-16.
8. Ibid., p. 161.
9. George DuMaurier, The Martian (Boston: Little Brown, 1896).
10. Camille Flammarion, Stories of Infinity (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1873).
11. Carl Jung, The Portable Jung (New York: Viking Press, 1961), p. 311.
12. D. Cohan, “Heavenly Hoax,” Air & Space 4-5 (1986), pp. 86-92.
13. E. Morse, Mars and Its Mystery (Boston: Little Brown, 1906), pp. 52-53.
14. Camille Flammarion, “Mars and Its Inhabitants,” North American Review 162 (1896), pp. 546-57.
15. “Strange Lights on Mars,” Nature, August 2, 1894; “Mars Inhabited Says Prof. Lowell,” New York Times, August 30, 1907, 1:7; “Signalling to Mars,” Scientific American, May 8, 1909.
16. Perceival Lowell, The Canals of Mars (New York: Macmillan, 1906), pp. 376-77.
17. W. Von Braun et al., The Exploration of Mars (New York: Viking Press, 1956), pp. 84-85.
18. Ibid.; J. Abrahams and R. Savin, Elihu Thomson Correspondence.
19. NT, Tribute, p. LS-18.
20. “Is Tesla to Signal the Stars?” Electrical World, April 4, 1896, p. 369.
Chapter 18: High Society, pp. 158-166
1. Quoted in Paul Baker, Stanny: The Gilded Life of Stanford White (New York: Free Press, 1989), p. 137, circa February 25, 1894.
2. Frederick Finch Strong, “Electricity and Life,” Electrical Experimenter, March 1917, pp. 798, 831.
3. Jennie Melvene Davis, “Great Master Magician Is Nikola Tesla,” Comfort, May 1896 [NTM].
4. “The Field of Electricity: Edison, Tesla and Moore at Work,” untitled newspaper clipping, Omaha, Nebraska, June 14, 1896 [TAE].
5. SW to E. D. Adams, May 14, 1891; August 16, 1892 [ALCU].
6. SW to Adams, December 1891; October 1891 [ALCU].
7. SW to NT, February 25, 1894 [ALCU].
8. SW to NT, February 5, 1895 [ALCU].
9. Ibid.
10. Michael Mooney, Evelyn Nisbet and Stanford White (New York: Morrow, 1976), pp. 193-99; Paul Baker, Stanny, pp. 249-50.
11. SW to NT, November 30, 1895 [ACU].
12. George Wheeler, Pierpont Morgan and Friends: Anatomy of a Myth (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973), p. 17.
13. G. Scherff, 1902 [BLCU].
14. R. U. Johnson, Remembered Yesterdays, pp. 480-81; “True Buddhism, Brooklyn Standard Union,” February 4, 1895, in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, vol. 2 (Calcutta, India: Advaita Ashram, 1970); Tad Wise to author, April 10, 1996.
15. RUJ to NT, October 25, 1895 [BLCU].
16. NT to KJ, October 23, 1895 [BLCU].
17. Matthew Josephson, The Robber Barons (New York: J. J. Little & Ives Co., 1934), pp. 332-34.
18. H. J. Satterlee, J. Pierpont Morgan, p. 214.
19. TCM to NT, November 7, 1895; November 17, 1895 [NTM].
20. NT to JJA, December 20, 1895 [NTM].
21. NT to RUJ, December 13, 1895; December 22, 1895 [NTM].
22. NT to SW, January 4, 1896 [NTM].
23. NT to RUJ, January 10, 1896 [BLCU].
24. Swami Vivekananda to W. T. Stead (ed., Review of Reviews), in Letters of Swami Vivekananda (Pithoragarth, Himalays: Advaita Ashrama, 1981), pp. 281-83; The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (Calcutta, India: Advaita Ashrama, 1979).
25. JJA to NT, January 18, 1896 [NTM].
Chapter 19: Shadowgraphs, pp. 167-170
1. “Phosphorescent Light,” New York Mail and Express, May 22, 1896 [TAE].
2. Michael Pupin, From Immigrant to Inventor (
New York: Scribners, 1925), p. 306.
3. John O’Neill, Prodigal Genius, 1944.
4. Søren Kierkegaard, Either or Or, 1848, translated by David and Lillian Svenson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1944).
5. NT, “On Roentgen Rays,” Electrical Review, March 11, 1896; in Nikola Tesla: Lectures (1956), p. A-27.
6. Ibid., p. A-29.
7. Ibid., p. A-30.
8. NT, “On Roentgen Radiations,” Electrical Review, April 8, 1896; in Nikola Tesla: Lectures (1956), p. A-43.
9. NT, “Roentgen Rays or Streams,” Electrical Review, , December 1, 1896; in Nikola Tesla: Lectures (1956), p. A-52.
10. Ibid.; “On the Roentgen Streams,” Electrical Review, December 1, 1896; in Nikola Tesla: Lectures (1956), p. A-56.Tesla also associated this idea to Kelvin’s “ether vortexes.”
11. NT, “On Roentgen Rays: Latest Results,” Electrical Review, March 18, 1896; in Nikola Tesla: Lectures (1956), pp. A-32-38; “On Roentgen Radiations,” Electrical Review, April 8, 1896; in Nikola Tesla: Lectures (1956), p. A-41.
12. NT. “On the Roentgen Streams,” Electrical Review, December 1, 1896; in Nikola Tesla: Lectures (1956), p. A-58.
13. NT. “On the Hurtful Actions of Lenard and Roentgen Tubes,” Electrical Review, May 5, 1897; in Nikola Tesla: Lectures (1956), p. A-65.
14. “Tesla Opposes Edison,” NY Evening Journal, December 2, 1896 [TAE].
15. “Tesla Says ‘Let us hope’.” Philadelphia Press, November 20, 1896 [TAE].
16. “Scoffs at X rays for the blind,” NY Morning Journal, December 3, 1896 [TAE].
17. “Combined Devices,” NY Evening Journal, December 2, 1896; “Triumph of Science: Combination of Tesla and Edison contrivances,” Louisville KY Courier Journal, November 24, 1896 [TAE].
18. “Edison Caught a Fluke,” NY Morning Journal, August 10, 1897 [TAE].
Chapter 20: Falls Speech, pp. 171-177
1. Charles Barnard, “Nikola Tesla, the Electrician,” The Chautauguan 25, (1897), pp. 380-84.
2. “Nikola Tesla: An Interesting Talk With America’s Great Electrical Idealist,” Niagara Falls Gazette, July 20, 1896, 1:1.See also T. Valone, “Tesla’s History in Western New York,” in S. Elswick, ed., Tesla Proceedings (1986), pp. 27-51.
3. William Preece to NT, 1896 [NTM].
4. E. C. Baker, Sir William Preece: Victorian Engineer Extraordinary (London: Hutchinson, 1976), pp. 269-70.
5. NT, “Marconi and Preece,” New York World, April 13, 1930, p. 229, in J. Ratzlaff, Tesla Said, p. 229.
6. KJ to NJ, August 6, 1896 [NTM].
7. RUJ to NT, July 28, 1896 [LC].
8. RUJ to NT, November 7, 1896.
9. “History Making Celebration of the Only Electrical Banquet the World Has Ever Seen,” Buffalo Evening News, January 13, 1897, 1:1-2; 4:2-5.
10. Nikola Tesla, “Niagara Falls Speech,” Electrical World, February 6, 1897, pp. 210-11. Reprinted in Nikola Tesla: Lectures (1956), pp. A101-8.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Buffalo Evening News, January 12, 1897; see also D. Dumych, “Nikola Tesla and the Development of Electric Power at Niagara Falls,” Tesla Journal 6, 7, 1989-90, pp. 4-10.
14. Ibid.
Chapter 21: Luminaries, pp. 178-181
1. R. U. Johnson, Remembered Yesterdays, p. 402.
2. Ibid., March 13, 1896.
3. JJA to NT, January 29, 1897 [NTM].
4. SW to NT, January 29, 1897 [ACU].
5. NT to RUJ, March 28, 1896; salutation, March 12, 1896 [BLCU].
6. NT to RUJ, April 8, 1896 [BLCU].
7. R. U. Johnson, Remembered Yesterdays, pp. 402-3.
8. Ignace Paderewski and Mary Lawton, The Paderewski Memoirs (New York: Scribners, 1938), p. 205-6.
9. NT to KJ, April 8, 1896; April 9, 1896 [BLCU].
10. NT to KJ, April 10, 1896 [BLCU].
11. NT to R. Kipling, April 1, 1901 [BLCU].
12. NT to KJ, March 10, 1899 [BLCU].
13. NT to KJ, March 9, 1899 [BLCU].
14. Peter Browning, ed., John Muir in His Own Words (Lafayette, Calif.: Great West Books, 1988).
15. NT to KJ, November 3, 1898 [BLCU].
16. P. Browning, John Muir in His Own Words, p. 12.
Chapter 22: Sorcerer’s Apprentice, pp. 182-192
1. “Tesla Electrifies the Whole Earth,” New York Journal, August 4, 1897, 1:1-3.
2. Lee DeForest, Father of Radio: An Autobiography (Chicago: Wilcox & Follett, 1950), pp. 76, 81, 85.
3. NT, Nikola Tesla: Lectures, (1956). Essential patents for oscillators and transmitters: 454622 June 23, 1891; 462418 November 3, 1891; 514168 August 2, 1893; 568176-180 April 20, 1896-July 9, 1896; remote control: 613809 July 1, 1898; wireless communication: 649621 September 2, 1897; 1119732 January 18, 1902.
4. “Wizard Edison Here,” Buffalo (N.Y.) News, August 30, 1896 [TAE].
5. “Nikola Tesla on Far Seeing—The Inventor Talks Interestingly on the Transmission of Sight by Wire,” New York Herald, August 30, 1896. See also Ratzlaff & Anderson, 1979, p. 45.
6. NT, “Developments in Practice and Art of Telephotography,” Electrical Review, December 11, 1920, in Lectures (1956), pp. A-94-97.
7. A. Korn to NT, May 1931, in Tribute (1961) pp. 25-27.
8. NT, “Developments in Practice and Art of Telephotography,” Electrical Review, December 11, 1920, in Lectures (1956), p. A-97.
9. Chauncey Montgomery McGovern, “The New Wizard of the West,” Pearson’s Magazine, May 1899, pp. 291-97.
10. NT to Parker W. Page, August 8, 1897 [KSP].
11. Patent no. 649621, September 2, 1897; in Lectures (1956) pp. P293-96; C. M. McGovern, “The New Wizard of the West,” p. 294.
12. Ibid., pp. P293-96.
13. Preece quoted in E. C. Baker, Sir William Preece 1976, p. 270.
14. Vyvyan quoted in D. Marconi, My Father, Marconi (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962), p. 138.
15. W. Jolly, Marconi (New York: Stein & Day, 1972), p. 48.
16. D. E. W. Gibb, Lloyds of London (London: Lloyds of London Press, 1957), p. 158.
17. Frank Jenkins, “Nikola Tesla: The Man, Engineer, Inventor, Humanist and Innovator,” in Nikola Tesla: Life and Work of a Genius (Belgrade: Yugoslav Society for the Promotion of Scientific Knowledge, 1976), pp. 10-21. Original source, O’Neill, 1944.
18. NT vs. Marconi, court transcripts, pp. 440-41 [LA].
19. C. M. McGovern, op. cit., 1899, p. 297.
20. “A Crowd to Hear Tesla,” New York Times, April 7, 1897, 12:2; J. Ratzlaff and L. Anderson, Tesla Bibliography, p. 49.
21. For a discussion of this unpublished lecture, see L. Anderson (ed.), On His Work with Alternating Currents 1916/1992.
22. “Telegraphy without wires,” Scribners Monthly, 1897, pp. 527x28.
23. NT vs. Reginald Fessenden litigation, op. cit., 1902 [BLCU].
24. Westinghouse Co. annual report, Electrical Review, June 30, 1897, p. 313.
25. Westinghouse memorandum, July 7, 1888.
26. NT to JJA, January 6, 1899 [NTM].
27. NT to E. Heinreich, December 4, 1897 [LC].
28. Marica to NT, March 27, 1891, in A. Marincic, ed., Tesla’s Correspondence with Relatives (Belgrade: Nikola Tesla Museum) [Zoran Bobic, transl.].
29. “Tesla at 79 Discovers New Message Wave,” Brooklyn Eagle, July 11, 1935, 1:1, 3:4; see also O’Neill, 1944, pp. 158-64.
30. Allan Benson, “Nikola Tesla: Dreamer,” The World To-Day, 1915, pp. 1763-67 [Archives, Health Research, Mokelumne Hill, Calif].
Chapter 23: Vril Power, pp. 193-203
1. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Coming Race (London: Routledge, 1871).
2. NT, “Tesla’s Latest Invention: Electrical Circuits and Apparatus of Electrically Controlled Vessels,” Electrical Review, November 16, 1898, pp. 305-12.
3. NT to RUJ, July 12, 1900 [BCU].
4. This connection between Tesla and Bulwer-Lytton was originally noticed by Desire Stanton, a newspaper columnist in C
olorado Springs in 1899. See I. Hunt and W. Draper, Lightning in His Hands: The Life Story of Nikola Tesla (Hawthorne, Calif.: Omni Publications, 1964.
5. Bulwer-Lytton, Coming Race.
6. NT to JJA, January 27, 1897; July 3, 1897 [NTM].
7. NT to JJA, December 2, 1898 [NTM].
8. Virginia Cowles, The Astors (New York: Knopf, 1979), pp. 130-31.
9. NT, My Inventions, pp. 107-9.
10. John Oliver Ashton to Lee Anderson, July 17, 1953 [LA].
11. “Tom Edison’s Son Explodes Desk by Accident,” New York Times, May 3, 1898, 7:1.
12. “Tesla’s Latest Invention,” Electrical Review, November 9 and 16, 1898.
13. NT, “Torpedo Boat Without a Crew,” Current Literature, February 1899, pp. 136-37.
14. “Mr. Tesla and the Czar,” Electrical Engineering, November 17, 1898, pp. 486-87.
15. NT, “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy,” Century, June 1900, p. 188.
16. M. Huart, “The Genius of Destruction,” Electrical Review, December 7, 1898, p. 36.
17. Mark Twain to NT, November 17, 1898 [NTM].
18. “Mr. Tesla and the Czar,” Electrical Engineering, November 17, 1898, pp. 486-87.
19. “Was Keely a Charlatan?” and “Science and Sensationalism,” Public Opinion, December 1, 1898, pp. 684-85.
20. NT to RUJ, January 1, 1898 [BLCU].
21. NT to RUJ, January 1, 1898 [BLCU].
22. NT to RUJ, November 28, 1898 [BLCU].
23. NT, “Mr. Tesla’s reply,” Electrical Engineer, November 24, 1898, p. 514.
24. Marc Seifer, Nikola Tesla: Psychohistory, 1986, p. 272. Survey derived from Ratzlaff and Anderson, 1979.
25. “His Friends to Mr. Tesla,” Electrical Engineer, November 24, 1898, p. 514.
26. TCM to Elihu Thomson, January 16, 1917, in H. Abrahams and M. Savin, Selections from the Scientific Correspondence of Elihu Thomson (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1971), p. 352.
27. T. C. Martin, “The Burning of Tesla’s Laboratory,” Engineering, 11:1, April 1895.
28. NT, “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy,” Century, June 1900, pp. 175-211.
29. NT, “How Cosmic Forces Shape Our Destiny,” 1915, in Nikola Tesla: Lectures (1956), p. A-122.
