During his illustrious scientific career, Nikola Tesla developed many inventions that changed the world, including his unique design for a rotating magnetic field motor that enabled the use of alternating current on a commercial basis, wireless communication across vast distances, and even early “shadowgraphs,” precursors to X-rays. He also made forays into areas that, while he did not succeed in commercializing, set the stage for future developments, including wireless remote control of boats and other devices (robotics). Tesla did make some grandiose claims that did not come to fruition, the biggest of which included the wireless transmission of power through the Earth, plus a directed energy weapon. He also claimed to have communicated with intelligent beings from the planet Venus or Mars.
Tesla died peacefully during the night of January 7, 1943 in Room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel in New York City, where he had lived in poverty the last ten years of his life. “The superman died as he had lived—alone,” his first biographer John O’Neill wrote shortly after Tesla’s passing. The local coroner declared his death to be from “natural causes incident to senility.”
At nearly eighty-seven years old this would normally be the end of the story, but this was 1943 and the United States was in the midst of World War II. Everyone was suspicious of everyone and fears of spies infiltrating the populace were routine. O’Neill perhaps planted the initial seed for conspiracies to grow when he wrote “operatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation came and opened the safe in his room and took the papers it contained, to examine them for a reported important secret invention of possible use in the war.”
The stage was set for a series of mystery plays that continue to the present day.
[Adapted from my book, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. Chapter 8 looks at conspiracy theories following his death.]
David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!
Regarding, “…wireless transmission of power through the Earth,” and the present day…. there’s a company now called “Visiv Technologies” that’s apparently experimenting with a Wardenclyffe-like system. They have a transmitting tower constructed near Carl’s Corner in Texas, and I assume there to be some kind of receiving scheme elsewhere. Curious whether or not it can be made to actually work, since all of my university studies implied that it was based on a misconception Tesla had about the nature of electromagnetic energy. However, I’ve also read some things to suggest that it might actually work at extremely low frequencies… maybe useful for energy transmission, though not so much for communication.
Interesting. A quick Google search suggests Viziv is focusing on electricity distribution, especially after disasters that destroy existing electricity systems, using Zenneck surface waves. Will be interesting to see if they can get it to work.