Tesla: Signals. Rivals. Ruin.Episode 101:36
The Weapon Tesla Left on Paper
An aging, solitary Tesla speaks of aircraft-melting beams as his death leaves federal officials intensely interested in his papers.
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Transcript
The inventor Nikola Tesla's papers drew strong federal interest, as Freedom of Information Acts revealed.
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American engineer and physicist who guarded his private life.
Accounts later described him as a loner, a perennial bachelor, working apart from corporate associations.
During World War II, Tesla discussed beams that could melt aircraft.
At wartime press conferences, Tesla framed the beam weapon as a defense against aircraft.
Scientists showed little serious interest in Tesla's alleged Mars communications.
His work included alternating-current systems, a usable alternating-current motor, and a remote-controlled boat.
But Wardenclyffe was completed in 1902, then lost after Tesla's financial problems in 1915.
During World War I, Wardenclyffe was eventually used for scrap.
In 1915, Tesla said his patent circuits were immune to static and other interference.
He also claimed a wireless world system could connect 100 people with secrecy.
Tesla's Mars reports faded from public attention, leaving only unanswered questions.
Tesla died at 86, after decades of ambitious electrical experiments.
After World War II, material from Tesla's library was shipped to Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Where it leaves off
Tesla was dead, but the federal interest in his papers raised a new question: who would control what he left behind?
Sources
- Sample text for Library of Congress control number 2001037808catdir.loc.govsecondary
- Introduction - Nikola Tesla: Topics in Chronicling America - Research Guides at Library of Congressguides.loc.govsecondary
- Messages to and from Outer Spaceloc.govsecondary
- Nikola Tesla Sees a Wireless Vision - New York Times, Sunday - October 3, 1915 - Open Tesla Researchteslaresearch.jimdofree.comprimary
- Table of contents for Nikola Tesla and the taming of electricitycatdir.loc.govsecondary
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