Wizard

by Marc Seifer

  30. NT, “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy,” Century, June 1900, pp. 173-74.

  31. NT, “How Cosmic Forces Shape Our Destiny,” 1915/1956, p. A-172.

  32. Ibid.

  33. NT, “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy,” Century, June 1900, pp. 184-85.

  34. Ibid., pp. 185-86.

  35. NT, My Inventions. It should also be noted that for many years, in order for a patent to be granted, the inventor had to demonstrate his invention.

  Chapter 24: Waldorf-Astoria, pp. 204-213

  1. NT to RUJ, November 29, 1897 [BLCU].

  2. Virginia Cowles, The Astors (New York: Knopf, 1979), p. 126.

  3. Albin Dearing, The Elegant Inn (Secaucus, N.J.: Lyle Stuart, 1986), pp. 75, 78, 87.

  4. Ibid., p. 81.

  5. NT to U.S. Navy, September 27, 1899 [NAR].

  6. P. Delaney, “Telegraphing From a Balloon in War,” Electrical Review, October 1898, p. 68.

  7. NT to JJA, January 3, 1901 [NTM].

  8. General Dynamics advertisement, Smithsonian, 1990.

  9. “Offer of the Holland Owners,” New York Times, June 4, 1898, 1:4.

  10. NT to U.S. Navy, 1899 [NAR].

  11. “The Patience of Hobson,” New York Times, April 20, 1908.

  12. “The Merrimac Destroyed?” New York Times, June 4, 1898, 1:4.

  13. Martha Young, “Lieutenant Richmond P. Hobson,” Chautauguan 27, 1898, p. 561.

  14. “Lieut. Hobson’s Promotion,” New York Times, June 21, 1898, 1:4.

  15. KJ to NT, December 6, 1897 [NTM].

  16. Ibid., June 6, 1898.

  17. NT, “Tesla’s Latest Advances in Vacuum Tubes,” Electrical Review, January 5, 1898, p. 9.

  18. Cheiro (Louis Hamon), Cheiro’s Language of the Hand (New York: Transatlantic Publishing Co., 1895).

  19. Sphynx. Analysis of Tesla’s palm. Private correspondence, August 1990.

  20. KJ to NT, February 8, 1898 [NTM].

  21. Ibid., March 12, 1898; March 25, 1898.

  22. NK to KJ, March 12, 1898 [BLCU].

  23. Ibid., December 3, 1898.

  24. NK to KJ, November 3, 1898 [BLCU].

  25. Ibid., March 9, 1899.

  26. Marguerite Merrington papers, Museum of New York City; John O’Neill, Prodigal Genius, p. 302.

  27. Virginia Cowles, The Astors (New York: Knopf, 1979), pp. 124-25.

  28. Ibid., p. 135.

  29. NT to JJA, December 2, 1898; January 6, 1899 [NTM].

  30. Ibid., December 2, 1898 [NTM].

  31. NT to JJA, January 6, 1899 [NTM].

  32. Ibid., January 6, 1899; January 10, 1899; March 27, 1899 [NTM]. Whether Tesla actually received the full amount is unknown.

  33. John O’Neill, Prodigal Genius, p. 176.

  34. NK to KJ, November 3, 1898 [BLCU].

  35. R. U. Johnson, Remembered Yesterdays, pp. 418-19.

  36. “The Gentle Art of Kissing,” New York Times, August 15, 1899, 6:2-4.

  37. NT to RUJ, December 6, 1898 [BLCU].

  38. Ibid., November 8, 1898.

  39. “Lieut. Hobson’s Career,” New York Times, June 5, 1898, 2:4.

  Chapter 25: Colorado Springs, pp. 214-219

  1. Desire Stanton, “Nikola Tesla Experiments in the Mountains,” Mountain Sunshine, Jul-Aug 1899, pp. 33-34.(Real name: Mrs. Gilbert McClurg.) Tesla’s 1896 trip to Colorado was discovered by James Corum while researching articles at the Tesla Museum, Belgrade.

  2. NT/Reginald Fessenden litigation, August 5, 1902 [BLCU].

  3. NT. “Some Experiments in Tesla’s Laboratory With Currents of High Potential and High Frequency,” Electrical Review, March 29, 1899, pp. 193-97, 204.

  4. T. Hunt and M. Draper, Lightning, p. 110.

  5. Ibid.; NT, On His Work in A.C., 1916/1992, p. 109.

  6. T. Hunt and M. Draper, Lightning, p. 110.

  7. Ibid.

  8. NT/RF litigation, August 5, 1902, p. 12 [BLCU].

  9. Drawings pertaining to the design of the Colorado Springs experimental station were created in 1896 and 1897. In the same manner, while at Colorado, Tesla also worked out plans for his next transmitter, which was erected on Long Island. NT, My Inventions, pp. 116-17.

  10. T. Hunt and M. Draper, Lightning, p. 108.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Ibid.

  13. According to present-day understanding, the ionosphere, or Kennelly-Heaviside layer, does not act as a carrier of the electrical waves, as Tesla hypothesized, but as a reflector, causing the energy “to bounce back and forth rapidly for long-distance transmission,” and that is how it goes around the entire curve of the earth (Stanley Seifer, private correspondence, 1985).

  14. NT/RF litigation, August 5, 1902, p. 51 [BLCU].

  15. Alexander Marincic, “Research on Nikola Tesla in Long Island Laboratory.” Tesla Journal 6, no. 7 (1988/89) pp. 25-28.

  16. NT/RF litigation, August 5, 1902, [BLCU].

  17. NT to George Scherff, June 22, 1899 [LC].

  18. NT/RF litigation, August 5, 1902, p. 26 [BLCU].

  19. The primary of the coil was a specially prepared cable spanning the inside perimeter of the building itself, and the secondary was a tubular shaped smaller coil in the center of the structure which encircled a transmission tower that rose from a support column as a single spire. With a removable roof to augment the adjustment of the aerial, and a small bulb at its apex, the transmitter could be extended to a variable length that could reach a maximum of 200 feet from the ground. A. Marincic, Colorado Springs Notes Commentary, in Nikola Tesla, Colorado Springs Notes, A. Marincic, ed. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, 1979).

  20. Due to Tesla’s extraordinary powers of eidetic imagery, a myth, perpetuated by O’Neill and Tesla’s own autobiography, arose suggesting that the inventor worked out all designs and calculations solely in his mind. The original curators of the Tesla Museum therefore kept the Colorado notebook a secret, as they did not want to destroy this image of the inventor’s extraordinary mental abilities. According to the present curator, Dr. Marincic, “The appearance of the Colorado notebook would show Tesla to be human, that he made mistakes, and so on.” Marincic’s position was totally different. He felt that the more people understood the real Tesla, the better would be the appreciation of his accomplishments. It was for this reason that Marincic prepared the notebook which was published by the musuem in 1979 (Tesla Museum, A. Marincic, Colorado Springs, August, 1990.)

  21. NT/RF litigation, August 5, 1902, [BLCU].

  22. NT, My Inventions, p. 86. See also Colorado Springs Notes, p. 174: “Now it was of importance to increase the magnifying factor…”

  23. NT/RF litigation, August 5, 1902, p. 30 [BLCU].

  24. NT, Colorado Springs Notes, pp. 28, 34.

  25. NT to JJA, September 10, 1900 [NTM].

  26. GS to NT, June 14, 1990 [LC].

  27. GS to NT, June 22, 1899 [LC].

  28. NT to GS, June 6, 1899 [LC].

  29. A. Marincic, in Colorado Springs Notes, p. 15.

  30. NT/RF litigation, Lowenstein testimony, August 5, 1902, pp. 99-101, 106 [BLCU].

  31. NT, CSN, 1979, p. 37.

  32. NT/RF litigation, Lowenstein testimony, August 5, 1902, pp. 106-8 [BLCU].

  33. NT, Colorado Springs Notes, p. 61.

  34. Ibid.

  35. NT to GS, July 4 and 6, 1899 [LC].

  Chapter 26: Contact, pp. 220-229

  1. NT to RUJ, January 25, 1901 [BLCU].

  2. NT to JH, December 8, 1899, in Colorado Springs Notes, p. 314.

  3. NT, “Talking With the Planets,” Current Literature, March 1901, p. 360.

  4. Pyramid Guide, 1977 [LA].

  5. NT, Colorado Springs Notes, pp. 109-110.

  6. NT/RF litigation, August 5, 1902 [BLCU].

  7. Ibid., pp. 127-33.

  8. NT, “Talking With the Planets,” February 9, 1901, Colliers, pp. 405-6; Current Literature, March 1901, pp. 429-31.

  9. NT, “Interplanetary Communication,” Elect
rical World, September 24, 1921, p. 620.

  10. NT, “Signalling to Mars,” Harvard Illustrated, March 1907, in Tesla Said, pp. 92-93.

  11. GS to NT, July 1, 1899 [LC].

  12. New York Times articles on wireles operators: D’Azar, September 3, 1899, 17:7; Marble November 7, 1899, 1:3; Riccia September 10, 1899, 10:4.

  13. GS to NT, October 2, 1899 [LC].

  14. NT to GS, September 27, 1899 [LC].

  15. On July 28, in the Colorado Springs Notes Tesla also utilizes the word feeble. This same word appears in the 1901 article “Talking With the Planets.” See also, Marc Seifer, 1979; 1984; 1986.

  16. W. Jolly, Marconi (New York: Stein & Day, 1972), pp. 65-66.

  17. Recent biographers, such as Hunt and Draper, attributed the impulses to “radio waves coming from the stars” or to pulsars. Tesla researcher Prof. James Corum suggests that he may have intercepted pulsed frequencies emanating from Jupiter or “the morning chorus,” which are charged particles that “slosh back and forth between the North and South poles in the early morning.” Additional possibilities include other natural phenomena associated with the lightning storms or telluric currents, faulty equipment, or self-delusion.

  18. NT. Interplanetary communication. EW, September 9, 1921, p. 620.

  19. R. Conot, Streak of Luck: The Life Story of Edison (N.Y.: Bantam Books, 1981), pp. 415-17.

  20. Charles Batchelor, papers [TAE].

  21. R. Conot, Streak of Luck, pp. 415-17.

  22. Julian Hawthorne, “And How Will Tesla Respond to Those Signals From Mars?” Philadelphia North American, 1901 [BLCA].

  23. Ibid.

  24. Anonymous, “Mr. Tesla’s Science,” Popular Science Monthly, February 1901, pp. 436-37.The Tesla quotes are from NT, “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy,” Century, June 1900.

  25. NT to U.S. Navy, September 16, 1916 [NAR].

  26. Francis J. Higginson to NT, May 11, 1899 [NAR].

  27. NT to U.S. Navy, July 11, 1899 [NAR].

  28. Ibid., August 20, 1899.

  29. Ibid., September 14, 1899.

  30. Ibid., September 27, 1899.

  Chapter 27: Thor’s Emissary, pp. 230-235

  1. NT, “Tesla’s reply to Edison,” English Mechanic & World Science, July 14, 1905, p. 515, in Tesla Said, pp. 88-89.

  2. Ibid., August 3, 1899.

  3. Ibid., November 6, 1899.

  4. John Ratzlaff and Fred Josst, Dr. Nikola Tesla: English/Serbo-Croatian Diary Comparisons, Commentary and Tesla/Scherff Colorado Springs Correspondence. (Millbrae, Calif.: Tesla Book Co., 1979), p. 73.

  5. NT to GS, September 6, 1899 [LC].

  6. NT to GS, September 22, 1899, in Ratzlaff and Jost, Dr. Nikola Tesla, p. 114.

  7. Nancy Czito, Personal interview, November 1983, Inventor Commemoration Day, Washington, D.C.

  8. NT, October 1919, p. 516; in Tesla Said, p. 216.

  9. Leland Anderson, “John Stone on Nikola Tesla’s Priority in Radio and Continuous-Wave Radiofrequency Apparatus,” Antique Wireless Association Review, 1:1, 1986.

  10. NT to GS, October 29, 1899 [LC].

  11. Alexander Marincic, Colorado Springs Notes, 1979, p. 421.

  12. NT, Colorado Springs Notes, 1979, p. 111.

  13. John O’Neill, “Tesla Tries to Prevent World War II” (Originally unpublished chapter from Tesla biography), Tesla Coil Builders Association, July—August, 1988, pp. 13-14.

  14. NT to RUJ, October 1, 1899 [BLCU].

  15. NT, Colorado Springs Notes, 1979, p. 219.

  16. O’Neill, 1988, p. 14.This work has been replicated by Professor James Corum by setting up two coils near each other, one with a low frequency (90 KH) and the other with a high frequency (200 KH). When exciting both coils, small fireballs sometimes appear. Placing a “thumbprint of carbon” on one of the coils also helps augment the process. It is possible, in this latter case, that the microparticles of carbon, when electrified, attract additional charges. Robert Golka, another Tesla researcher, has also produced fireballs. He suggests that rotational motion of a boundary layer of charges may be involved in the process. James Corum, “Cavity Resonator Developments,” lecture before the International Tesla Society, Colorado Springs, August 1990.

  17. NT, Colorado Springs Notes, 1979, p. 228.

  18. NT, “Can Radio Ignite Balloons?” Electrical Experimenter, October 1919, pp. 516, 591-92.(Archives, Gernsback Publications, Farmingdale, NY).

  19. As “the loss [of propagated waves] is proportional to the cube of the frequency…with waves 300 meters in length, economic transmission of energy is out of the question, the loss being too great. With wave-lengths of 12,000 meters [loss] becomes quite insignificant and on this fortunate fact rests the future of wireless transmission of energy.” NT, “The Disturbing Influence of Solar Radiation on the Wireless Transmission of Energy,” Electrical Review and Western Electrician, July 6, 1912; in Tesla Said, pp. 121-27.

  20. NT, Colorado Springs Notes, 1979, p. 76.

  21. H. Winfield Secor, “The Tesla High Frequency Oscillator,” Electrical Experimenter, March 1916, pp. 614-15, 663.

  22. NT, “Can Radio Ignite Balloons?” Electrical Experimenter, October 1919, p. 591.

  23. Ibid.

  24. John O’Neill, Prodigal Genius, p. 187; NT, Colorado Springs Notes, 1899/1979, p. 348.

  25. KJ to NT, December 22, 1899 [NTM].

  Chapter 28: The Hero’s Return, pp. 236-244

  1. RUJ to NT, July 7, 1900 [LC].

  2. Colorado Springs Gazette, “Nikola Tesla to Come Here,” October 30, 1903, 1:7; Tesla Sued for $180 by Electrical Co.,” April 6, 1904, 3:1; “NT Says He Is Not Indebted to Duffner,” September 6, 1905, 1:2.See also Ratzlaff and Anderson, pp. 79, 81, 86.

  3. “Signor Marconi Arrival from Europe,” New York Times, January 3, 1900, 1:3.

  4. Dragislav Petkovich, “A Visit to Nikola Tesla,” Politika, vol. XXIV, no. 6824, April 27, 1927 [LA].

  5. Stanko Stoilovic, “Portrait of a Person, a Creator and a Friend,” Tesla Journal, 4/5, 1986/87, pp. 26-29.

  6. Pupin papers, patent no. 652,231, June 19, 1900 [BLCU].

  7. Stanko, “Portrait,” Tesla Journal, pp. 26-29.

  8. U.S. patent letters to Pupin, June 30, 1896; July 25, 1896, Pupin papers [BLCU]; see also Inventions, Researches, and Writings, 1894, p. 292, and previous discussion in chapter 15.

  9. NT, “Tesla’s Wireless Torpedo,” New York Times, March 20, 1907, 8:5, in Tesla Said, p. 96.

  10. NT, “The Transmission of Electrical Energy Without Wires as a Means for Furthering Peace,” Electrical World & Engineer, January 7, 1905, p. 22.

  11. Admiral Higginson to NT, October 8, 1900 [NAR].

  12. Vojin Popovic, “NT, true founder of radio communications,” in Nikola Tesla: Life and Work of a Genius (Belgrade: Yugoslavia Society for the Promotion of Scientific Knowledge, 1976), V. Popovic, ed., p. 82.

  13. The letter also makes reference to Tesla’s continuing partnership with Peck and Brown, Tesla owning 4/9ths of all royalties on the invention. NT to GW, January 22, 1900 [LC].

  14. Bernard A. Behrend, The Induction Motor and Other Alternating Current Motors: Their Theory and Principles of Design (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1921), pp. 261-62.

  15. “The Tesla Patents,” Electrical Review, September 19, 1900, pp. 288-92; see also discussions on priority of AC in earlier chapter.

  16. GW to NT, September 5, 1900 [LC].

  17. 685,012; 787,412; 725,605.

  18. Swami Vivekananda to E. T. Sturdy, February 13, 1896, in Letters of Swami Vivekananda (Pithoragarth Himalayas: Advaita Ashrama May Avati, 1981), pp. 281-83.

  19. RUJ to NT, March 6, 1900 [LC].

  20. NT to RUJ, March 6, 1900 [LC].

  21. NT, “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy,” Century, June 1900, pp. 175-211.

  22. NT to Corinne Robinson, [HL].

  23. NT to JJA, May 2, 1900; March 30, 1900.

  24. NT to RUJ, June 21, 1900; June 29, 1900 [LC].

  25
. “A Tesla Patent in Wireless Transmission,” Electrical World and Engineer, March 26, 1900, p. 792.

  26. NT to RUJ, June 15, 1900 [LC].

  27. “Science and Fiction,” Popular Science Monthly, July 1900, pp. 324-26.

  28. NT to RUJ, July 12, 1900 [BLCU].

  29. R. A. Fessenden, “Wireless Telegraphy,” Electrical World and Engineer, January 26, 1901, pp. 165-66.

  30. KJ to NT, August 2, 1900 [NTM].

  31. NT to KJ, August 12, 1900 [BLCU].

  32. JJA to NT, September 1900 [NTM].

  33. NT to JJA, October 29, 1900 [NTM].

  Chapter 29: The House of Morgan, pp. 245-255

  1. NT, “Our Future Motive Power,” Everyday Science and Mechanics, December 1931, pp. 78-81, 86.

  2. Ibid.

  3. H. Satterlee, J. Pierpont Morgan, An Intimate Portrait, p. 344.

  4. NT to RUJ, January 29, 1900 [BLCU].

  5. Werner Wolff, Diagrams of the Unconscious (New York: Grune & Stratton, 1948), p. 267.

  6. H. Satterlee, J. Pierpont Morgan, Morgan, An Intimate Portrait, p. 344.

  7. NT to JPM, November 26, 1900 [LC].

  8. H. Satterlee and J. P. Morgan, An Intimate Portrait, p. 345.

  9. Cass Canfield, The Incredible Pierpont Morgan: Financier and Art Collector (New York: Harper & Row, 1974).

  10. A. Satterlee and J. P. Morgan, An Intimate Portrait, p. 343-44.

  11. G. Wheeler, Pierpont Morgan and Friends: Anatomy of a Myth (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973), pp. 61-62.

  12. NT to JPM, October 13, 1904 [LC].

  13. Note: All conversations between Tesla and Morgan have been recreated from their correspondence. Some literary license has been taken when in conversation form. Blocked quotes are verbatim. NT to JPM, November 26, 1900 [LC].

  14. NT to JPM, December 10, 1900 [LC].

  15. “Marconi’s Signals,” New York Times, April 8, 1899, in Jolly, p. 66.

  16. “New Electric Inventions: Nikola Tesla’s Remarkable Discoveries,” New York Recorder, June 15, 1891.

  17. “Besides, in this country, I have protected myself, though not quite so completely, in England, Victoria, New South Wales, Austria, Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Russia and Switzerland” NT to JPM, December 10, 1900 [LC].