Tesla v. Edison: On His Own

Tesla On His Own

With the success of the 1893 World's Colombian Expo, Tesla popularity grew exponentially. Within a year after the demonstration of his system , Thomas Commerford Martin, published the first book on Nikola Tesla's research. The book was cleverly named, "The Inventions, Research, and Writings of Nikola Tesla". A few years later Nikola Tesla research from Martins' book was featured in an article of The Century Magazine. He would eventually befriend New York's Elite such as Samuel Clemens (Also known as Mark Twain). Close friends Mark Twain, Joesph Jefferson, and Robert Johnson could often be found touring Tesla's Laboratory. It is said that the main character in Twain's story A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Nikola Tesla and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) had quite the interesting friendship over the years.
Twain “cured” Tesla of an illness through his writing:

“I had hardly completed my course at the Real Gymnasium when I was prostrated with a dangerous illness or rather, a score of them, and my condition became so desperate that I was given up by physicians. During this period I was permitted to read constantly, obtaining books from the Public Library which had been neglected and entrusted to me for classification of the works and preparation of the catalogues. One day I was handed a few volumes of new literature unlike anything I had ever read before and so captivating as to make me utterly forget my hopeless state. They were the earlier works of Mark Twain and to them might have been due the miraculous recovery which followed. Twenty-five years later, when I met Mr. Clemens and we formed a friendship between us, I told him of the experience and was amazed to see that great man of laughter burst into tears.”

And Tesla once cured Twain’s constipation by having him stand on a “healing machine”.
And in later years, Clemens would regularly visit with Tesla, engaging in stunningly intelligent entertainment such as shooting an x-ray gun at his head for fun. There’s even rumors that Twain’s story A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court, an early sci-fi classic, based its main character around Tesla.
Advice: Avoid boring friends.

American Author, Mark Twain in Tesla's Lab, 1895

Joesph Jefferson (Left) and Mark Twain (Right) in Tesla's Laboratory
Tesla is in the background,but was moving when this picture was shot.

Within the years to follow Tesla would make astonishing discoveries and inventions that would seem to defy all natural understandings of physics. It was in his 5th Ave Laboratory that Tesla came across many new technological advancements.

- In 1895, While Tesla was experimenting with vacuum tubes and developing a higher-frequency bulb he had noticed that it seemed to cause a sort of deterioration in areas which faced the bulb. He recognized that the bulb he had invented seemed to produce a strange radiation. Noticing this he experimented further and found that he could produce what he called, "Shadow-graphs".

An x-ray photograph (called "shadowgraph" by Tesla) of Tesla's foot."

Tesla's Boot and Foot in one of Tesla's "Shadow-Graphs"

One of the earliest x-ray photographs, this one of Tesla's hand.

A Shadow-Graph of Tesla's Hand

After sharing his discovery with German scientist, Wilhelm Roentgen, who had been working on a similar project, Roentgen was later credited for the invention of the X-Ray later that same year.

- On July 19th, 1896, Tesla and The Westinghouse Company were hired to better harness the power of Niagara Falls by integrating their highly-efficient A.C. generators. The project was completed in November, Tesla had incorporated Ten, 5,000 Horsepower generators in the Edward Dean Adams Station. All together Nikola Tesla's first Hydro-electric power plant was a success. transmitting electricity to Buffalo, New York which was over 22 miles away.

Edward Dean Adams Station in Niagara Falls, New York

One of the original Westinghouse-Tesla generators from Niagara Falls.

A close up picture of the A.C generator

- On December 8th 1898, Tesla publicly demonstrates the use of Wireless Transmission by controlling a model boat remotely. His "Automaton" technology was designed to encourage the notion that in the future droned warfare could render wars to be useless, and Wars would be fought through peaceful means of discussion. There were even rumors that the Automaton had artificial intelligence capabilities, supposedly one of the witnesses at the demonstration overheard someone scream out, "whats the cubed root of 64?" and the Automaton's lights blinked 4 times.

Tesla operating world's first remote-controlled vehicle.

A newspaper illustration of Tesla's demonstration

Photograph of Tesla's boat detailing the prop and rudder.

A photograph of Tesla's Automaton

By the time Tesla had created his Automaton, Italian Inventor Gugliemo Marconi had already been awarded the patent for the wireless telegraphy, Marconi's aim was to create a signal strong enough to transmit "Across the Pond". In the following years Marconi made great strides, but was constantly turned down for a patent due to Tesla's previous patents claimed prior. When an engineer working for Tesla had commented on Marconi's successes, Tesla replied, "Marconi is a good fellow. Let him continue. He's already using seventeen of my patents." Sadly, his confidence was not backed when he found out that the patent office had recently reversed its decision and awarded the patents to Marconi. Many believe that the sudden change in policy had much to do with Marconi's fiscal influence.

Gugliemo Marconi, and his radio equipment

Earlier in 1894, Tesla had created a transceiver and receiver that could transmit frequencies from one area to another. Later he discovered how to transmit and receive powerful radio signals when they were tuned to resonate with one another, magnifying the strength and distance of the frequencies. By Spring of 1895, Tesla was confident that he would be able to transmit and receive a strong signal from 50 miles away... but that chance never came due to a devastating fire in his lab.

Backed by financier J.P. Morgan, Tesla aims to build a new laboratory, one with a transmission tower capable of sending a signal across the globe. This project would be one of Tesla's biggest failures, as J.P Morgan began to lose faith in Tesla's designs he backed out of his agreements and left Tesla and the project to be abandoned by 1906. Tesla's disregard for the necessity of business had left him with no money and a ruined reputation.

Tesla's WardenClyffe Tower

In December of 1906, Marconi had successfully transmitted the letter "s" across the Atlantic Ocean.

By his later years in life, Tesla and almost no money to his name and no credit for his work. Is only relationships were with the pigeons who would stoop outside his window. Tesla died alone in an apartment on January 7th, 1943 at the age of 86.

1 comment:

DillonMay 21, 2015 at 1:04 AM
I also happen to mention Mark Twain in my blog (as a major political satirist), so it is very interesting to see his relevance in your blog topic as well as the connections to our understanding of U.S. history, whether it be about technological innovations or political commentary. I would be interested in reading more about how Tesla was inspired by Mark Twain.