In the Matter of Nikola Tesla

by Anthony Flacco

  The disgusted workers still did not respond. Nikola stepped to the closest dynamo and patted it. His hand came up filthy.

  “Not that these were not fine already, I am sure.” But then a detail on the generator’s main circuit caught his eye. “On the other hand, gentlemen, this entire method of handling the pressure behind the load is—” The men’s expressions stopped him from going any farther.

  “I’ll get my men. I’ll get them right now. We’ll work all night.”

  He turned and hurried out.

  * * *

  Two weeks later, with the city generators back in working order but with power no longer coming to the lab free of charge, George Scherff arrived at work early one morning and was pleasantly surprised to see that one of his men was already waiting for him to unlock the place. George was so impressed by the fellow’s initiative that he invited him to share his coffee and set a pot to boil on a lab bench over a handmade electric heating element.

  George observed that it was the newest man, the one he had hired for Mr. Tesla back in New York shortly before leaving for Colorado. He had already noticed with admiration that the fellow consistently showed interest and initiative greater than the others, second only to his own. It was a natural opportunity to get to know the man a bit better. Minutes later they sat sipping the brew and casually talking.

  “Anyway, Mr. Scherff,” the fellow remarked, using the formal means of address that the boss encouraged everyone to maintain at work, “I wonder if you couldn’t get Mr. Tesla to write down more of his ideas for us. I mean, if we had complete schematics to work from, then on a day like today when we arrive before he does, we could already be at work when he gets in.”

  Scherff smiled. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but Mr. Tesla seldom writes down any more than one worker needs in order to make one part. He takes almost no notes at all and has a photographic memory for detail, so I think he feels that putting a lot of things on paper is an unnecessary drain on his time.”

  “Mm. I see. Why do you suppose he doesn’t publish more?”

  “He does, usually after the patents on any given device are granted, but personally I think he can’t be published much more than he already is because at the outermost reaches of his imagination, where he is most comfortable, the scientific community either does not believe or will not accept his thinking.”

  “Mm,” the man nodded, sipping his coffee. He seemed to get another idea. “Don’t you suppose that he has reason to fear that if he doesn’t publish, someone like Edison will get wind of his discoveries and publish them himself? Claim credit for them?”

  Scherff frowned. “How could anyone do that?”

  “Who knows? I just mean that Edison almost succeeded in stopping Mr. Tesla from getting his alternating current power to the public. Maybe a man like that will want to find a way to jump the gun on him the next time.”

  “Don’t worry,” Scherff reassured him. “Mr. Tesla is so far ahead of Thomas Edison and every other experimenter working today that without him, the things he is working on might not be discovered at all for many years to come. Perhaps many generations.”

  “That’s for sure. Like that “free power to the world” scheme? I mean, without Nikola Tesla to figure it out, it might not happen at all.”

  “Exactly,” Scherff replied.

  The curious man nodded with a grim smile and resumed sipping on his coffee. He didn’t ask any more questions that morning.

  * * *

  Late that summer, Nikola Tesla and George Scherff stood one evening on a windy plain twenty-six miles east of Colorado Springs. They had just finished setting up a bank of exactly two hundred light bulbs of fifty watts each, all mounted on a large wooden table. The bulbs were wired together, but there were no wires leading from the table to any source of power other than a metal ground stake and a small tuning box.

  Scherff was terribly agitated and looked around as if he expected to be confronted by armed men. He held a lamp just high enough for Nikola to work at inspecting the connections, but watched with increasing anxiety until he glanced at his watch and shouted over the gusting wind. “Sir, if we burn out the city’s generators again, I seriously doubt that we’ll get away with just fixing them this time.”

  “Ha! They should thank us!”

  The wind ate his words. “What?”

  “I said they should thank us! They’ll get an extra five years out of those dynamos with the thicker coiling we installed!”

  “But sir, I’m not at all sure that they really grasp what you did for them. If we overload them again—”

  “No, no, no—tonight we are only drawing enough power to light these bulbs.” He glanced into the sky. “This is perfect! I love windy nights!”

  “Well then, now that we’re alone out here and there’s no way anyone could eavesdrop on us, perhaps you could share a little more of the detail with me, I could feel more assured.”

  Nikola grinned. “Assured? George! There’s no danger to us! The concept is simplicity itself!” He drew George close to him and put one arm around George’s shoulder while he pointed to the bank of light bulbs with the other. “The receiver your team constructed is right there under the lights and wired to all of the bulbs. This time, when the tower crew activates the main coil—even at a relatively low charge—the receiver will vibrate in resonance the same way that a crystal glass vibrates in resonation to a high note of music! You see?”

  “But sir, just tell me—please—is there really no power source inside the rig? I mean, you didn’t have one of the other teams building, I don’t know, small hidden batteries or something?”

  Nikola laughed, delighted. “No! No! You see? Unnecessary! All of the power we use tonight will come from the lab, 26 miles away from here! It will work because I learned the correct frequencies from lightning storms. Sky music! Enough power for all the world!”

  “I hope so, sir,” George replied, trying hard to hide his misgivings. “I do hope so.” He checked his watch by the lantern light once more. “And if the tower crew is on their mark, your ‘concert’ will begin in five… four… three… two… one…

  Nothing happened. Scherff looked to Nikola, then back to the still-dark bulbs.

  Nothing happened some more.

  Nikola frowned and checked his own watch.

  Still more nothing.

  And then… all 200 bulbs flickered. Scherff gasped. They flickered a second time, then began a weak but steady glow. He cried out in amazement and dropped the lantern to the ground while the bulbs glowed brighter, brighter, until finally both men stood in a patch of intense light from all two hundred of the fifty-watt bulbs. Scherff’s face went rapt with wonder. He stepped to the bank of lights, coming very close, studying them, then turned to Nikola and shouted, “Mr. Tesla! In the name of God! It really…”

  Nikola stood staring at the glowing bulbs with a calm smile, while Scherff reached out his fingers to touch the brilliant lights. “Power,” he muttered. He went on, louder, “Power without wires! We are transmitting power to light bulbs without any wires! You are making history tonight, Mr. Tesla!”

  Nikola inhaled deeply and clasped both of Scherff’s arms. “No. We both are, Mr. Scherff. We both are.” He checked his watch again. “That should do it.”

  A moment later, the power faded as scheduled and the lights went dark. This time George Scherff was the one to place his arm over Nikola’s shoulder. “Congratulations! It’s unbelievable, sir! But it’s true all the same!”

  At that point Nikola was so overcome he felt weak on his feet. Scherff reached out to steady him. “Come away now, sir. I know you haven’t slept in days. I’ll bring a crew back to gather up all of this tomorrow.”

  “What if someone finds it first?” Nikola asked, suddenly troubled.

  “Finds what, sir?” Scherff laughed. “There’s nothing here but a rack of light bulbs, mounted on coils, with a ground wire and an antenna! What would that tell them?�
�� He gently led Nikola toward their waiting carriage. “Come away now. Get some rest. Then you can go back to New York and announce your success to our backers. Now they’ll have to give us all the funding we need!”

  Nikola was so lost in his reverie that he made no reply; he simply allowed George Scherff to lead him off while he muttered, “Think of what this is going to mean to the world! We have to get back to New York City right away.”

  Scherff laughed again. “None too soon, either! The people around here have no idea what you’re up to. You make lightning and talk to storms. To them, it looks like magic.”

  Nikola climbed into the carriage and replied under his breath. “Magic. I wonder if she agrees?”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Two Days Later

  Aboard a Passenger Train

  It was late at night while the thundering locomotive hauled the eastbound train toward New York City. Every passenger on board had been lulled into sleep by the rocking motion of the cars, leaving no one besides Nikola awake at the late hour except the engineer, the brakeman, and two conductors. This night was a thing of special reverie. The joy of this journey filled him so completely that he felt as if he would never need to eat or sleep again.

  His newly proven reality of the transmission of electrical power without the use of wires was the first and most vital step in his quest to deliver free energy to the world. All that remained was to build perhaps half a dozen transmitting stations large enough to boost the electrical waves until they encircled around the planet, providing electrical power to anyone with a receiver which would be little more than the antenna and a ground wire. The poorest peasants would soon have the ability to pump their wells and irrigate their fields. People of slightly greater means would be able to power all manner of machines for no more cost than the machines themselves. With universal access to free electric power, crops could be grown almost anywhere and poverty itself could be made to vanish.

  For the first time in his life, Nikola had a definite sense of deliverance from his fear of proving his father’s dire predictions for him to be right. He had recently learned the perfect American word to describe this new feeling: gramercy. He acquired the word when he was made an honorary member of the highly prestigious Player’s Club. The Club was located next to a tiny urban haven known as Gramercy Park, and the salient moment came for him when he arrived at the appointed hour.

  He noticed the adjacent little park and saw the sign naming it, and found himself so captivated by the word that he immediately confounded his hosts by showing no interest in the occasion itself until he located someone who could explain the origin of the word “gramercy” to him. It was no easy task. None of his American hosts could define it or particularly cared to try. It was only when an English butler happened to overhear Nikola’s request that an answer was obtained.

  While Nikola listened, he made a mental diagram of the word, beginning with its original root in French: “Le Grande Merci,” a phrase describing an overwhelming experience of gratitude. In English, the “Grande Merci” of French had evolved into Grand Mercy, adding a color of compassion to the feeling of thanks. In American English, the term was contracted down to a single word and became the current “Gramercy.” The answer delighted him the first time he heard it.

  And now on this night it was a perfect description of his mental state. Gramercy filled him. He overflowed with it.

  “It is so perfect,” he whispered to Karina when her image appeared.

  “This night?” she asked.

  “Well, yes,” he replied. “But that’s not what I mean.”

  “Do you mean something like this?” Karina asked. She reached out and stroked her fingertips along his forehead.

  Nikola felt the impact of her energy hit him so hard it collapsed his body and left him inert while a mixture of images and feelings poured into him. With it the very essence of gramercy sprang to life for him.

  He felt her making him aware that the emptiness of space was an illusion. Instead he suddenly saw space as packed at every point with an invisible and un-seeable force that transmits energy vibrations in the same way that the surface of a pond hosts the ripples made by raindrops. He saw that the force was as unknown to the world’s living as the pond’s water is to its fish.

  Gramercy expanded his vision until his awareness left his body and expanded in all directions. He understood that all physical matter was nothing more than varying combinations of vibration, appearing solid only because the physical body cannot pass through them because of its conflicting vibrations. He saw this vast conglomeration of vibration weave itself through the vastness of so-called “empty” space. He saw plainly that the human mind may experience some of these vibrations as physical matter, but in his state of gramercy he saw they can all be defined as the living tissue of the mind of God.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Grand Central Station

  New York City

  “Mr. Tesla!” cried John Astor, grabbing Nikola’s hand and pumping it up and down. Nikola’s smile was so broad that Astor didn’t notice his attempts to pull his hand away. The bustling chaos of the debarking passengers filled Manhattan’s train station with a din that made it almost impossible to hear, but Astor took Nikola’s arm and led him off, happily jabbering away despite the noise. George Scherff hurried along beside the two men, laboring to keep up. He carried a heavy valise under each arm, having insisted on handling Nikola’s as well as his own.

  “Let your crew go on back to their homes or else back to your laboratory, Mr. Tesla!” cried Mr. Astor. “I was so delighted to receive your cable about the success of your Colorado experiments that I immediately told our benefactor! He has asked to see you right away!”

  Scherff called out over the noise of the train station, “I prefer to stay with Mr. Tesla, if you don’t mind, sir.”

  “Quite right, Mr. Scherff!” Nikola hollered back, adding to John Astor, “George Scherff has been an indispensable part of this operation, Mr. Astor.”

  “Fine, fine!” Astor fairly sang it. He was giddy with excitement, anticipating the welcoming response into which he was about to usher them.

  The three men and the two heavy valises all piled into a taxi carriage amid an urban hustle that barely lessened after they left the train station. Moments later they were on their way downtown.

  Nikola was so drained by his sleepless journey that he failed to ask about the identity of their financier. The name hardly seemed to matter, only the fact that the benefactor could not fail but to be delighted over the results he had sponsored.

  The mutual state of joy and the flush of success was so strong with all three men that Nikola and Scherff barely blinked when the carriage pulled to a stop in front of the office building of J. Pierpont Morgan. “So this is the secret you have kept from us?” Nikola exclaimed with delight.

  “Only because Mr. Morgan insisted on anonymity,” Astor assured him. “However, after hearing of your splendid success, he is no longer concerned about remaining a silent partner.”

  “Wonderful!” Nikola cried. “It is only right that he step forward and take credit for his part in a ground-breaking discovery!”

  The three men headed up to the top floor office. By now they were in such good spirits that Nikola and Scherff both forgot their travel fatigue.

  Half an hour later, when they came back out and happily flagged another taxi carriage, the heavy pedestrian traffic on both sides of the street prevented them from seeing another of the men who had worked in Nikola’s Colorado lab. This other Tesla lab worker crossed the street and hurried inside Morgan’s office building as soon as the high-spirited men rode away.

  The man didn’t bother to knock when he walked into Morgan’s office, but when he closed the door behind himself, Morgan showed no surprise at seeing him.

  “How did it go with our man Tesla?” the visitor asked.

  Morgan stared back at him with a blank expression that
he had spent years perfecting into an unreadable mask. Not a trace of hatred or rage showed on his face at the indignity of being manipulated by some underpaid government bureaucrat.

  “It’s all taken care of, my good man. I praised his genius, assured him of more funding, and allowed as to how I’m going to be sleepless while I wait for his next round of stunning results.”

  The man laughed. “Oh-oh! That sounded awfully friendly, Mr. Morgan! You sure he won’t find your attitude out of character?”

  “Is that some sort of joke?”

  “Pretend it isn’t.”

  “All right… No. He was not suspicious, I am quite sure. The process of flattering an inventor is no different than that of flattering a stage actress. They’re so busy hearing what they want to hear that nothing else gets through.”

  “So what’s the deal, then?”

  “Like you asked—I congratulated him and agreed to bankroll what he calls “phase two,” for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

  “But in return you keep control, right?”

  It was Morgan’s turn to sneer. “Do you have any idea how long I have been successfully doing business?”

  “On your inherited money.”

  “Yes, damn it! Yes! I will hold sole control over his wireless technology for as long as I continue to fund its development. All right? Now if you don’t mind—”

  “I do mind, Mr. Morgan. I have a job to do for this country, just like you do. Now what is this ‘phase two’ of his?”

  “He wants to use the money to buy a little piece of seacoast land that he has his eye on near the New York shoreline. He calls it Wardenclyffe. Or maybe that’s what the locals call it. Anyway, it’s close enough to his Niagara generators to tap into their power and drive his new system.”

  “That ‘system’ will be the one broadcasting all of that, ah, free power?”

  “So he says.”