His secretary of many years, Dorothy Skerritt, wrote of Tesla, “From under protruding eyebrows his deep-set, steel grey, soft, yet piercing eyes, seemed to read your innermost thoughts … his face glowed with almost ethereal radiance. His genial smile and nobility of bearing always denoted the gentlemanly characteristics that were so ingrained in his soul.”
Although he was quite the social butterfly, he never formed a relationship with any of the ladies—many of whom in “the 400” found him quite handsome, including Anne Morgan, daughter of the famous Wall Street financier J. Pierpont Morgan. There’s been a good deal of speculation about Tesla’s private life in recent years, some of which was the background for Nik Forde’s history in Dry Ice.
* * *
While acquainting myself with the life of Nikola Tesla, I visited the sites of his old haunts here in New York City: the locations of his old laboratories on 40th Street and on West Broadway (formally South 5th Avenue); the many swanky hotels in which he’d lived—the Pennsylvania, the McAlpin, the Maguery, the Waldorf Astoria, and the place where he died, the New Yorker. I was married in another of Tesla’s residences, the St. Regis Hotel. Tesla had a tremendous love for pigeons and somehow these luxury hotels allowed him to keep them with him!
I also went to Shoreham, Long Island, to look at the location of his ill-fated Wardenclyffe Tower. The building, minus the tower, still stands today. It was rather eerie to stand there and imagine Tesla, the supposed mad scientist, firing lightning bolts into the New York night. If you did that today, the EPA would sentence you to prison for eternity.
* * *
Nikola Tesla was born in Croatia to Serbian parents. His father was a minister of the Serbian Orthodox Church, a racial and religious minority at that time. Nikola came to America in 1884 and worked for Thomas Edison. He later became Edison’s most hated rival. Nice career choice, right?
Tesla’s crowning achievement was the invention of alternating current, A/C as we call it, the electricity we use today. He believed it was possible to wirelessly transmit electricity across the oceans using two towers, one on the East Coast of the United States and the other on the shores of England.
He also discovered wireless radio waves and invented radio. Exploring radio waves, he learned that radio waves of various frequencies could do many amazing and wondrous things, like shake a building down to its foundation (which he actually did). He proved that wireless transmission of extra low frequency waves (ELF) could shake the Earth to its core or affect the ionosphere of the planet, creating all types of phenomena. You could fry the electronics of an aircraft in flight … and you could make weather … which inspired Dry Ice.
* * *
Here’s a list of only a few of Tesla’s 250 patents:
The Rotating Magnetic Field
The Induction Motor
The AC Polyphase Power Distribution System
The Fundamental System of Wireless Communication (Legal Priority for the invention of Radio)
RF (radio frequency) Oscillators
Voltage Magnification by Standing Waves
Robotics
Logic Gates for Secure RF Communications
X-Rays
Ionized Gases
High Field Emission
Charged Particle Beams
Voltage Multiplication Circuitry
High Voltage Discharges
Lightning Protection
The Bladeless Turbine
VTOL aircraft
* * *
To me, Tesla was very cool because he played with electricity—and I do mean played—with millions of volts at a time! He amazed audiences at universities, science exhibitions, and World’s Fairs with light shows of various-colored fluorescent tubes.
In playing and experimenting with electricity, he was almost killed on more than one occasion! Yet each time he managed to pull a Harry Houdini and escape. Lightning would dance all about him, zap metal fragments that ricocheted around his lab, yet he escaped without a scratch.
In his autobiography, Tesla wrote about these phenomena, which he believed started when he was a child:
I was almost drowned, entombed, lost, and frozen. I had hairbreadth escapes from mad dogs, hogs, and other wild animals. I passed through dreadful diseases and met with all kinds of odd mishaps. I feel my preservation was not altogether accidental, but was indeed the work of divine power. An inventor’s endeavor is essentially life saving. Whether he harnesses forces, improves devices, or provides new comforts and conveniences, he is adding to the safety of our existence.
There’s no question that Tesla felt he was protected by the hands of God!
* * *
Hopefully for future meteorologists and inventive scientists, I’ve kindled a little interest in “mega science star” Nikola Tesla.
—BILL EVANS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First I want to thank my partner in this techno-weather crime, Marianna Jameson. I truly appreciate her hard work, her style of writing, her wit and charm. Those are the things we share the most, along with a sick sense of humor, which make us great partners. We have made three great books together and I want to thank her for making that happen.
Secondly I want to thank Margaret Cheney for her great work, Tesla: Man Out of Time, which I relied upon for a great amount of background on Tesla the man. I also want to thank the Tesla Memorial Society of New York for their help in providing information on Tesla’s life and times in New York City. They are trying to raise money to turn Tesla’s building at Wardenclyffe, Long Island, into a science museum. Hopefully this book will help raise awareness about Tesla and generate more money for their goal.
Thanks to the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia, for their kindness and help.
I want to thank Jerry E. Smith for his book Weather Warfare and for his take on Tesla and the HAARP Program.
I want to thank the greatest editor in the world, Melissa Singer at Tor. I am so proud to be your weatherman every day. Thank you for making our words “sing.” Thanks to Tom Doherty and the wonderful staff at Tor/Forge. I would especially like to thank Linda Quinton from Tor/Forge. I very much appreciate your wonderful support; you always show so much confidence in my work, which is a great feeling, and I thank you for your kindness and friendship.
I want to thank my wonderful wife, Dana, who has no problem telling me when the writing and my ideas stink. When she looks at me and politely says, “Okay, that’s … that’s okay,” I know the work is great. I want to thank my children, Maggie, William, Julia, and Sarah, for their patience when I shut the doors to the den. I love you with all my heart.
I especially want to thank Nikola Tesla for giving me a great book. It is unfathomable to me that to this day, the recognition of Tesla’s legacy is nowhere near the appreciation for the legacy of Babe Ruth in the game of baseball. Tesla was that big in his field. I truly hope that one day, future generations will come to appreciate the genius that was Nikola Tesla.
—BILL EVANS
In the course of researching and writing Dry Ice, I received the help and support of many individuals.
First thanks must go to Bill Evans for his fascination with the work of Nikola Tesla and his enthusiasm for this project.
Thanks to my buddy from my days in the aerospace industry, Ron Zellar, who is a creative genius when it comes to things that orbit this planet or otherwise exist in outer space, or don’t actually exist at all. Once again, Michael Rowan was my go-to guy for everything that floats, flies, explodes, or salutes. Both of you helped immeasurably when it came to the science, both real and imagined. Richard Smith provided his usual stellar technical support and expert advice on all matters related to software and computers.
Thanks, too, to fellow author Barbara Caridad Ferrar, who was generous with sharing her insight into the mindset and outlook of a first-generation Cuban-American woman.
I offer my heartfelt thanks and deepest respect to the researchers on “the Ice” at the Dumont d’Urville Station, P
rincess Elisabeth Antarctica, Sky Blu Logistics Facility, Halley Research Station, McMurdo Station, and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, and the many others connected with the British Antarctic Survey, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, and the U.S. National Science Foundation. You willingly put civilization on hold and your lives on the line to advance the cause of science and give the rest of us things to chat about at cocktail parties. I wouldn’t change places with any of you, but I cannot thank you enough for your dedication and good humor, as well as your websites, diaries, blogs, photographs, and the other great information you have shared so openly. You rock.
Despite all the generous help from the subject-matter experts mentioned above, I know there will be errors. All mistakes are my own.
My favorite former spook and fellow author, Jody Novins, was once again invaluable for her willingness to share some insights into the world of capital-I intelligence, and for having a dark, sharp, and lovely sense of humor. Thanks, too, to author Karen Kendall for being my beta reader, for offering excellent advice on myriad topics, and for being able to make me laugh like no one else can. Agent and attorney Elaine English and author Laura Resnick provided lots of insight and assistance. I thank all of you for always being at the other end of the phone when I’ve needed you.
A little closer to home, thanks to my usual peeps: Nancy Mitchell, Pam Taeckens, Vicki Rowan, and Debbie Marsh, who always have my back, and to Cathy and Steve Vollmer, for describing what it feels like to be in the Oval Office. Thanks, also, to Maribeth Wonson, who was the high bidder at the CMS Fine Arts Auction and won the opportunity to have a character named after her in this book. It was a pleasure getting to know you and I hope you’re pleased with your namesake.
The many talented and wonderful people at Tor/Forge have my deepest thanks for their hard work and immense talent. Most especially, this book would not be what it is without the talent, insight, candor, and deeply appreciated patience of Melissa Ann Singer, editor extraordinaire and all-around fabulous woman. Thank you times a million.
Usually last on the list but always first in my heart are my husband and children, for whom I am very, very, very thankful.
—MARIANNA JAMESON
BY BILL EVANS AND MARIANNA JAMESON
FROM TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES
Category 7
Frozen Fire
Dry Ice
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.
DRY ICE
Copyright © 2011 by William H. Evans and Marianna Jameson
All rights reserved.
A Tor® eBook
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Evans, Bill.
Dry ice / Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 978-0-7653-2472-6
1. Agricultural industries—Fiction. 2. Meteorology—Research—Fiction. 3. Corporations—Corrupt practices—Fiction. 4. Natural disasters—Fiction. 5. Meteorologists—Fiction. 6. Antarctica—Fiction. I. Jameson, Marianna. II. Title.
PS3605.V364D79 2011
813'.6—dc22
2011013446
First Edition: August 2011
eISBN 978-1-4299-8156-9
First Tor eBook Edition: August 2011
Dry Ice Page 36
