The problem, Tesla had discovered, was the fact that this man was “the” Thomas Edison. He’d proven himself. “I was amazed at this wonderful man who, without early advantages and scientific training, had accomplished so much,” Tesla concluded. In contrast to the Serb’s extensive education, Edison had scant formal training, yet he was still as bright as the bulbs he’d invented. Edison wasn’t just smart in innovation; the man known as the father of invention was wise when it came to knowing how the world worked. How business worked. How people worked.
Even with newfound confidence that he was up to the challenge, Tesla found himself without many scientific or business contacts. And more important, he lacked financial backers. But in March 1885, Lemuel Serrell—a former agent of Thomas Edison’s—along with patent artist Raphael Netter, stepped in and gave Tesla the guidance he needed.
Serrell understood the extent of Tesla’s brilliant mind, and he took the time to break down the business side of the invention process, allowing Tesla to understand the important concept of making fragmented improvements to already established inventions, in order to prove his skill set. In return, Tesla paid Serrell and Netter for their services.
But working on another person’s invention was relatively foreign to Tesla, as he had always spent his time creating extravagant inventions in his head, like building unique worlds piece by piece with his imagination until everything was functional in his mind. He had never considered looking at the flaws of existing inventions and modifying them with an eye on patenting the improvements. It took Serrell’s insight and tutelage to show Tesla that there was money to be made by improving existing inventions. And more important for the unproven immigrant, patenting these improvements would help him build a name for himself.
On March 30, 1885, Serrell and Netter helped Tesla patent his first improvement of an existing device by eliminating the flickering that often made arc lights a crackling nuisance. Not long after, in May and June of that year, two more patents were issued, including an improvement to the dynamo commutator to prevent sparking. In July, a fourth patent was added to his collection, making four patents in a mere four months.
This work did exactly what Tesla had hoped; it helped him gain business contacts, two of whom would soon become both a blessing and a curse. During his meetings with Serrell and Netter, Nikola Tesla met Robert Lane and B. A. Vail, two New Jersey businessmen who saw potential in the young inventor. To Lane and Vail, Tesla was a magnificent pearl that had been hidden from view; here was a man who had proven he could make technology more practical, and no one had yet cracked the shell to see the brilliance inside. Now that Lane and Vail had discovered Tesla, they were determined to cash in on their find.
Tesla’s mind was in perpetual motion, inventions constantly assembling themselves in his overactive brain, and these two men were there to supply the capital that would allow these visions to be brought to life. In exchange for their capital investment, Lane and Vail would hold control of the patents and the company itself. Impulsively, Tesla agreed to partner with these two businessmen, and Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing was established in Vail’s hometown of Rahway, New Jersey. But before they got to Tesla’s alternating current system, Lane and Vail made Tesla promise to commit himself to the Rahway project.
With vague assurances that the company would soon begin work on Tesla’s alternating current system, Tesla began working on a solitary project for the good part of a year’s time: designing, developing, and implementing the first and only municipal arc lighting system in the town and factories of Rahway. Although his alternating current visions would continue to dominate his mind, Tesla went at the Rahway arc lighting project with tenacity, drawing the attention of George Worthington, the editor of the renowned Electrical Review journal, who featured Tesla’s system on the front page of the August 14, 1886, issue.
In turn, over the following months Tesla and his partners advertised the company’s work in the publication, hiring a mechanical artist from New York City to draw the lamp and dynamo, while Tesla wrote copy that claimed theirs was “the most perfect” and “entirely new” arc lighting system. The company, and more important, the Tesla name, was getting noticed.
Unfortunately, after the work on the Rahway project had been exhausted and Tesla broached the subject of working on alternating current—as his partners had promised—it became clear that Vail and Lane had no desire to invest in what they had determined was a “useless” invention like AC. Tesla was outraged, having doubled his efforts with the Rahway project for the sole purpose of expediting the process and getting to work on his AC plans sooner.
To Vail and Lane, though, the company had done all they had envisioned, and they dealt Tesla the “hardest blow I ever received” when they forced him out of his own company with “no other possession than a beautifully engraved certificate of stock of hypothetical value.” Like Edison had done to him more than a year earlier, Vail and Lane had duped Tesla out of any material gain for his hard work.
* * *
The winter of 1886–87 found Tesla taking various service jobs repairing electrical equipment, followed by a period of digging ditches for Western Union’s underground cables. While his extensive education and training went to waste, Tesla endured what he would call his season of “terrible headaches and bitter tears, my suffering being intensified by my material want.”
Despite this difficult time in his life, Tesla did manage to file a patent for a new kind of motor that utilized the relationship between heat—and the lack of it—to produce and remove a magnetic force. This notion had been inspired by something Tesla had learned during his disappointing tenure under Thomas Edison.
It had become known internally at Edison Electric that an 1884 experiment using coal to heat and power electricity had resulted in the coal overheating and eventually culminated with the production of a gas that ignited and caused an explosion so powerful it blew out the windows of the laboratory. Tesla, upon hearing the many tellings and retellings of the story, got lost in the science of the accident. He knew that heat forced a loss of magnetic attraction, and conversely when cooled reintroduced the magnetic force, only to be lost again when back in contact with heat. If, he determined, this cyclical pattern could be harnessed and maintained, it could cause a continuance of movement, with the end result being a rather effective motor. Thus, his thermomagnetic motor was contrived and then patented, all while he toiled in the ditches he was digging for Western Union. It was reminiscent of his miraculous birth during a violent storm; some good always seemed to come with the bad for Tesla. Such would be the case with his ditch-digging work.
Tesla had explained his thermomagnetic motor to the foreman of his crew, who in turn notified the superintendent of Western Union, Alfred S. Brown, about the invention. Brown, who had previously read about Tesla in the Electrical Review feature, decided he needed to meet with this genius scientist who was wasting his brilliance digging ditches.
Brown knew the limitations of direct current, and he swiftly contacted his friend Charles F. Peck, a distinguished lawyer, to see if he wanted to partner with Tesla. Peck had vast knowledge of patents along with ample business sense, and he also had a good deal of capital to offer. The problem, Tesla learned, was that Peck believed alternating current to be a waste of time, so much so that he declined Tesla’s invitation to witness his AC tests and demonstrations. Tesla needed to win this man over, and he needed to do it with flair.
“Do you remember the ‘Egg of Columbus’?” Tesla asked Peck when he’d finally gained an audience with him.
Peck nodded, acknowledging that he knew of the myth.
Christopher Columbus, as the story goes, had also met with disbelievers about his theories and his desire to explore the far reaches of the sea. As a challenge, Columbus allegedly asked his doubters to balance a hard-boiled egg on its end, which of course led to many failed attempts and frustrations. Columbus then offered a wager: If he could balance an egg on its end, would they gr
ant him an audience with Queen Isabella? They laughed and agreed, certain that if they couldn’t do it, there was no way this man would be able to. Columbus, with no hesitation, struck a gentle blow on the end of an egg and cracked its shell, and with little effort placed the egg on its end. He had balanced the egg just as he’d claimed he would. His disbelievers were impressed with the man’s fresh way of thinking and ingenuity, and soon after Columbus had his meeting with Queen Isabella. The rest, of course, is history, as Columbus was given the ships and funding for his journey to the Indies.
Noticing Peck was not amused or intrigued by his allusion, Tesla quickly added that he’d do it “without cracking the shell.” Peck’s eyes glimmered, so Tesla went in for the kill. “If I should do this, would you admit that I had gone Columbus one better?”
When Peck agreed that doing so would impress him enough to gain his support, Tesla dashed away and secured a hard-boiled egg. He headed to a local blacksmith, who fashioned a copper plating for the egg, several brass balls, and pivoted iron discs. Next, Tesla constructed a circular wooden enclosure with polyphase circuits along the perimeter and headed back to see Peck and show him how he could go “one better” than Christopher Columbus.
With confidence, Tesla placed the egg in the center of the enclosure and turned on the current. The egg spun, at first with an awkward wobble. Then the speed picked up and the egg righted itself and spun on its end. Tesla looked at Peck and grinned. He had balanced the egg on its end … without cracking the shell. Even better, he had also demonstrated the fundamental principles of alternating current with this rotation of a magnetic field.
Reproduction of Tesla’s “Egg of Columbus” display
Handshakes were exchanged, and Tesla, Brown, and Peck formed Tesla Electric Company. They agreed to split the patents fifty-fifty, and then structured their deal so profits and resources were split with a third going to Tesla, a third to Brown and Peck, and the remaining third being invested in future inventions. This last component helped to calm Tesla’s apprehension about going into business with others, especially after his horrible experiences with Edison, Vail, and Lane. An additional salary of two hundred and fifty dollars per month further assured Tesla that Brown and Peck were investing in a long-term future with him—one that would focus on his obsession: alternating current.
* * *
In April 1887, Tesla Electric Company opened for business in the upper level of a building at 89 Liberty Street in New York City, which was adjacent to what is today the World Trade Center. The lab was scant, with merely a workbench, stove, and a Weston dynamo as furnishings.
Nikola Tesla
On the lower level, Globe Stationery & Printing Company ran a steam engine during the daytime, a fact that benefited Tesla. Brown and Peck took advantage of this by utilizing the steam engine for power at night, converting Tesla—like his rival Thomas Edison—into a night-owl worker, a habit that would extend throughout the rest of his life.
Brown and Peck had complete confidence in Tesla’s alternating current system, and Tesla was able to quell his paranoia and distrust for business partners as the relationship proved to be one of mutual respect and trust. Because of this, Tesla agreed to work on other inventions while developing alternating current.
With Peck handling most of the patent business and supplying the bulk of the capital and Brown serving as a technical expert, the three partners became such a good team that it took less than a year for Tesla to design three complete systems of AC machinery (single-, two-, and three-phase currents), produce dynamos for all three phases, construct motors for producing power from the dynamos, and put together transformers for automatic control of the machinery. Tesla calculated the complex math behind his inventions, allowing Peck to file detailed patents.
Tesla Electric Company was well on its way, and the name Nikola Tesla was slowly starting to cross the lips of more people in the fields of science and business. Still, something was missing. Tesla needed a way to broadcast his name on a grand scale.
8 MEETING OF THE MINDS
You could argue that without legendary producer Berry Gordy, pop star Michael Jackson would never have become the “King of Pop.” Gordy saw genius in young Michael, and it was through his guidance that Michael exploded onto the music scene. Further, those who witnessed the relationship between Howard Cosell and Muhammad Ali would agree that without Cosell the world would not have known Ali on the grand scale on which he dominated the American media. True, Ali, who was born as Cassius Clay, would have had a boxing career without Cosell’s presence, but it was by way of the reporter’s continual coverage that everyone came to love and respect the boxer who floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee. Likewise, in the scientific world it can be said that without Thomas Commerford Martin, there wouldn’t have been a Nikola Tesla, and perhaps no alternating current. For without the man known as “T.C.” to most, it’s doubtful Nikola Tesla would have grown in reputation and notoriety as he did.
T. C. Martin—a man of distinguished physical features: a shaved head, piercing eyes, and a gaudy mustache—was a professional writer who had worked for Thomas Edison from 1877 to 1879. In search of a change in scenery, he left on good terms with Edison and settled in Jamaica for a short time before returning to New York in 1883 as editor of the moderately successful scientific journal Operator and Electric World. Using his relationship with Edison, T.C. brought the publication into the spotlight by featuring the father of invention on a regular basis. Before long, T.C.’s name became known and well respected in scientific circles—seen as an affable visionary with a natural intuition for marketing and social promotion—but he wanted more out of his job, leading him to organize an internal coup at Operator and Electric World. With coeditor Joseph Wetzler by his side, they left for Electrical Engineer, which soon became the most respected publication in the field due to T.C.’s reputation and the quality of work he helped produce. In 1887, T.C. was named president of the newly formed American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), an organization that would advance his career, and later Nikola Tesla’s.
Model of Tesla’s AC induction motor
In July 1887, T.C. learned about Tesla and his alternating current experiments. Intrigued, he set up a visit to his Liberty Street laboratory.
Immediately impressed by Tesla’s brilliant ideas and his confident demeanor, T.C. talked Tesla into being featured in the publication. T.C. commented that Tesla had “eyes that recall all the stories one has read of keenness of vision and phenomenal ability to see through things. He is an omnivorous reader, who never forgets … A more congenial companion cannot be desired.”
An important relationship had been formed, one that would last for decades and result in mutual gains on both sides and also produce the most important compilation of Tesla’s writings in 1893, edited by T.C., aptly titled The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla.
In 1888, though, the problem was that Tesla’s name was not known like Edison’s, and Tesla didn’t have the desire to self-promote nor the skills to do so. This was, remember, the boy who had once tried to compliment one aunt by explaining that she was not as ugly as the other. In Tesla’s own mind, he was an immigrant who still had much to learn about the American way of life. He needed to find a way to get his name out there, and T. C. Martin was the perfect man to help him do this.
At the beginning of the year, T.C. arranged for former Cornell University engineering professor and esteemed scientist William Anthony to test Tesla’s AC motors for efficiency. T.C. realized Tesla needed a respected person in the field to vouch for his work, and he believed Anthony, who had recently accepted a new position at Mather Electric Company in Connecticut, was the person they needed to stand behind Tesla’s AC invention.
William Anthony
With his unkempt beard catching the eye of all who met him, misleading some to believe he was more of a lumberjack than an academic, Anthony came to the Liberty Street lab upon T.C.’s request. Anthony’s test
s continually yielded great results. In turn, Tesla agreed to visit Cornell to display his motors to professors and students. After thorough tests had concluded, Anthony was certain Tesla had something special with his alternating current system. T.C. and Anthony urged Tesla to present at an upcoming AIEE convention, one that would hold attendance of some of the most brilliant—and most important—scientific minds in the world.
Tesla shuddered at the idea of presenting in front of a large group of experts. It wasn’t a lack of knowledge that worried him; it was the large audience that bothered him. If Tesla had had his wish, he would have been perfectly content hiding himself in his laboratory away from as many people as possible.
Adding to Tesla’s unwillingness to give the lecture was the fact that although he had gotten over most of his apprehension that had resulted from the betrayal of Edison, Vail, and Lane, he still harbored some paranoia when it came to sharing his work publicly. As T.C. explained, Tesla was unwilling “to give the Institute any paper at all” on his work, so much so that he was not convinced by T.C. and Anthony to give the lecture until the day before the convention. Hastily, Tesla relented and wrote out everything in pencil on the eve of the presentation.
* * *
May 15, 1888
American Institute of Electrical Engineers Convention,
Columbia College, New York, New York
“I now have the pleasure of bringing to your notice a novel system of electric distribution and transmission of power by means of alternate currents,” said Tesla, with his eyes fixed on his audience. He had just started his lecture, which he had titled “A New System of Alternate Current Motors and Transformers,” and he was poised and confident. His opening statements concluded with the assertion that his system would “establish the superior adaptability of these currents to the transmission of power.”
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