The Tower Meant to Speak Everywhere

Name: The Tower Meant to Speak Everywhere
Genre: Documentary

Wardenclyffe rises as Tesla's bid to turn wireless experiments into a secret, interference-resistant world system.

This episode needs All Access, from $4.99 a week.

Transcript

In 1902, Tesla's laboratory facility at Wardenclyffe was completed.
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American engineer and physicist.
Tesla said his wireless “world system” would allow as many as 100 people to talk.
The laboratory housed equipment for Tesla’s wireless experiments beneath the Wardenclyffe tower.
In 1915, Tesla said his patent circuits resisted static and even nearby lightning.
A young wireless operator waits beside spark equipment in the tower's charged silence. No interference.
Tesla later claimed his world system could let as many as 100 people speak with absolute secrecy.
For Tesla, distance was not a barrier; it was the problem technology had to erase.
Surviving New York Public Library letters cover Wardenclyffe, radio dynamics, and remote-controlled devices.
NYPL letters concern Wardenclyffe and radio dynamics; financial problems cost Tesla its lease in 1915.
In 1915, Tesla said his patents had already recorded the solution.
The lost lease left Tesla without control of Wardenclyffe.
During World War I, Wardenclyffe was eventually used for scrap.

Wardenclyffe could survive lightning in Tesla's theory, but it could not survive his financial problems.

All Access is $4.99 a week, $14.99 a month or $39.99 a year. The annual plan starts with three days free.

Renews until you cancel. Terms · Privacy