Wizard

by Marc Seifer

  Pupin realized that by equally spacing pulsations of AC, the rapidity and number of transmissions could be increased greatly. Unfortunately, his February 1894 patent prospectus was easily covered in Tesla’s existing inventions and high-frequency lectures.25

  Tesla had announced in London, in February 1892, that “if the wave length of the impulses is much smaller than the length of the wire, then corresponding short waves…would [greatly] reduce the capacity [making it] possible to send over the wire high frequency currents at enormous distances. [Furthermore], the character of the vibrations would not be greatly affected.” The creation of a “screen” to “cut the wire into smaller sections” would make it possible to transmit many telephonic messages over the transatlantic cable.26

  These patents and published announcements in no way deterred Pupin. He felt that he had discovered something, and he began a long campaign against the U.S. Patent Office in attempts to bulldoze his way into a legal foothold. The prize, if successful, would be enormous, as he would have exclusive rights on a way to successfully transmit at the same time large numbers of noninterfering long-distance telephonic and telegraphic conversations over the same wires. Pupin’s nemesis was John Seymour, commissioner of patents.

  The Columbia University professor’s first strategy was to write up a patent application. He submitted it on February 10, 1894, claiming, “I certainly consider myself the first to make a practical application of this principle to multiple telegraphy.”27

  Seymour’s reply a few months later was that Pupin’s “claims…are rejected on the arrangement of apparatus shown…by patents by Thomson and Rice…[and by] Tesla’s article Experiments in Alternating Currents.” Seymour also cited the exact page and figure number, concluding that Pupin had merely “multiplied Mr. Tesla’s electric light circuits,” which in no way was a new invention.28

  Hiring a lawyer to help him put together a legalistic-looking circular, Pupin argued that he had indeed been the inventor of the “Art of Distributing Electrical Energy by Alternating Currents.” The typeset brief, which resembled an official court document, read in part as follows: “Tesla produced luminous effects, and did not consider multiplex signalling…He does not disclose several exciting circuits acting on the main line, with means for tuning each exciting circuit independently…The applicant was the first to apply the principle upon which the claims are based and did more than merely multiply the Tesla electric circuit.”29

  Seymour wrote back: “Claims 1, 2 and 3 are again rejected on Tesla. It is well known in the art that several periodicities may be simultaneously impressed on the same line…The examiner can see no more in these claims than a multiplication of Tesla’s circuit in a manner well understood in the art.”30

  Pupin was adamant. He was convinced that he had been the first to invent the obvious and, furthermore, that he had a total right to make use of Tesla’s oscillators, as they were now being generally accepted as the optimum-frequency generators for long-distance electrical transmissions. By studying each rejection notice by the U.S. Patent Office, Pupin kept refining the language of his patent in order to try and come upon a way that would secure a legal foothold for him. Moreover, Pupin continued to convince himself that indeed this invention was his.

  Altering history in his mind and erasing Tesla in his classroom, Pupin would continue his battle to secure this highly lucrative patent on the means of transmitting many simultaneous messages over long distances. His battle would continue for another six years, until after John Seymour retired.

  The year 1894 was a banner one. In July the spectacular portrait of Tesla appeared in the World. He had major coverage in Electrical World, the New York Times and Review of Reviews, and his AC polyphase system was going to be utilized at Niagara Falls. Tesla had formed a partnership with financiers from Wall Street, he had invited the historical giants of his age to his workplace, and he had made marked improvements in experiments in wireless communication.

  The year closed with an invitation by Tesla to the Johnsons to come to his shop. “Dear Luka,” Tesla wrote on December 21, “You have not forgotten the visit to my laboratory tomorrow I hope. Dvořák will be there and a number of other celebrities in America’s elite.”31

  Anton Dvořák, fifteen years Tesla’s senior, had immigrated from his native Czechloslovakia in 1892, to be appointed director of the National Conservatory of Music. Forever homesick, Dvořák stayed in the United States for only three years, but during that time he composed some of his most famous works, particularly the New World Symphony. After the performance, Dvořák visited the wizard’s lab. Christmas and New Year’s Eve with the Johnsons would round out one truly remarkable year.

  16

  FIRE AT THE LAB (1895)

  The destruction of Nikola Tesla’s workshop, with its wonderful contents, is something more than a private calamity. It is a misfortune to the whole world. It is not any degree an exaggeration to say that the men living at this time who are more important to the human race than this young gentleman can be counted on the fingers of one hand; perhaps on the thumb of one hand.

  CHARLES DANA1

  It was “one fine Sunday afternoon in 1894,” as Tesla was strolling up Fifth Avenue with twenty-five-year-old D. McFarlan Moore, a colleague of great promise in the field of fluorescent lighting, when the Serbian savant “deliberately stopped” and pensively proclaimed, “Moore, after we have signalled from any point to any point on the earth, the next step will be signalling to other planets.”2

  Before the inventor could undertake such an enormous task, he first had to perfect wireless effects over long distances on the earth. One of his plans was to send messages from his laboratory to receiving equipment which he was going to place on a Hudson River steamboat.3 Unfortunately, on March 13, 1895, Tesla’s laboratory burned to the ground. The “whole floor collapsed and equipment dropped to [the] second floor.”4

  For one fleeting moment, the civilized world was in shock, for the demolition of the maestro’s atelier was a tragedy of incalculable proportions. Fortunately, Tesla was not injured, for he was asleep in his hotel at the time. “Two tottering brick walls and the yawning jaws of a somber cavity aswim with black water and oil were all that could be seen [that fateful] morning…of a laboratory which to all who had visited it was one of the most interesting spots on earth.”5

  This “coming great man,” Current Literature noted, “[who] lives his life, as in a dream, forgetful of the lapse of time, and living only for the future…[was about to] revolutionize the cost and economies of electric lighting, and place it within the reach of the humblest and poorest of people…To have all of…his innumerable marvels…swept away at one stroke is a calamity to the whole world as well as to himself.”6 Perhaps in part to help cheer Tesla up and “in honor of the Serbian-American pioneer of electric communication, the Postal-Telegraph Union of Serbia caused a sensation by connecting a simultaneous concert in Belgrade and Nis by telephone so that both audiences could hear it.”7

  “The Tesla laboratory was, in a sense, a private museum,” T. C. Martin wrote. “The owner kept in it many souvenirs of bygone toil and experiment.” After describing in detail its contents, Martin concluded: “Perhaps the most painful loss of all is the destruction of Mr. Tesla’s notes and papers. His memory is all right, and flashes on any experiment of the past with the revealing power of a search-light, but the time it will take for the inventor to recreate his ongoing investigations will also cost other experimenters years of sweat and pain…[Nevertheless,] while the ashes of his hopes lay hot…Tesla was at work again with clenched determination.”8

  The strain was enormous, and Tesla steeled himself to fight off depression. One paper reported that he suffered a “physical collapse.”9

  To help keep his spirits up, Martin met with the inventor at a local cafe to give him more free copies of their book; he may have also given him money.10 “Ere, it please your majesty,” the editor said with a bow, “your experiments have been repeated in
Berlin under your name with the Emperor’s brother, Prince Henry, assisting. If you did not get a daily bolster from me you would have a relapse into dullness as you do when you miss your daily dose of electricity.” The duo sat down to review Martin’s article on the burning of the lab so that a more accurate description of its lost contents could be enumerated.”

  Westinghouse was still in the midst of battling William Stanley of the William Stanley Company and Elihu Thomson of GE in patent litigation, as each was continuing to produce AC induction motors illegally while at the same time implying that the invention was of their own design. Together, these two concerns outsold Westinghouse by 10,000 kilowatts for the period 1893-97.12 According to some, their motors and generators were more efficient. Stanley, who continued to brazenly promulgate the sale of his polyphase system in advertisements in the electrical journals, had by this time increased his operation from fifteen men to a few hundred, and GE was more than twice that size.

  Embroiled in the numerous patent disputes, the Westinghouse Company decided to take out a full-page advertisement which proclaimed:

  Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company

  sole owners of the

  Tesla Polyphase System

  The display continued: “The novelty of Mr. Tesla’s inventions was recognized by Prof. Elihu Thomson, who said in discussing the Tesla inventions before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1888: ‘I have certainly been very much interested in the description given by Mr. Tesla of his new and admirable little motor. I have, as probably you may be aware, worked in somewhat similar directions and towards similar ends. The trials which I have made have been by the use of a single alternating current circuit, not a double alternating circuit.’”13

  Although GE intimated that the Tesla motor was dangerous because it gave off too many sparks, there is no evidence that the fire in Tesla’s lab was caused by his equipment. It had started in the floor below, in a dry-cleaning establishment. Some investigators intimated that a careless night watchman may have been responsible, perhaps by smoking near oily rags.14

  Estimates of the uninsured loss ranged as high as a million dollars, but the actual damage was probably closer to $250,000. O’Neill suggests that Adams came to the rescue by advancing $40,000 in return for a piece of the company.15 However, Adams was already a partner, and thus, he, Tesla, and the other partners all suffered losses. Still, there is some evidence that Adams did provide further assistance at this time.16 Royalties from Europe and continuing modest annual payments from the Westinghouse Company helped offset the misfortune, but clearly Tesla now needed to raise additional revenue in order to open up a new place.

  In particular, Tesla received a number of letters from friendly members of the Westinghouse Company. Ernest Heinreich, an engineer and author, wrote, “I hasten to offer you my sincere regret,” Not knowing the situation, he continued, “I trust that you were well insured and will be able very soon to find another suitable location to carry on your work.”17

  Tesla was uninsured, but he had generated too much momentum to slow his progress. Within a few days, he was out scouting new locations. In the interim, he turned to the one lab where he knew vital equipment would be on hand. For the next few weeks, Nikola Tesla rolled up his sleeves at Tom Edison’s workshop at Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, a laboratory that “shuts out everybody who has not been given a pass by Mr. Edison himself, or one of his assistants.”18 Simultaneously, he contacted Albert Schmid for more equipment, scoffing, as was his nature, at any expense which might be incurred. “I shall rely, as to the price, entirely on the fairness of the Westinghouse Co.,” Tesla said, concluding: “I believe that there are gentleman in that company who believe in a hereafter.”19

  Vice president and general manager Samuel Bannister shipped, as a gift, some early Tesla models which had been saved from the World’s Fair and wrote of his regret concerning “your misfortune…I am glad to know that you took off your coat to work to get everything back into shape as soon as possible.”20 However, this was little consolation, as the Westinghouse Company would begin to bill Tesla for the cost of machinery lost in the fire which was on loan; they also charged him for new equipment.

  In April, partly in response to Brisbane’s announcement that Tesla was “greater even than Edison,”21 the rivalry between the two men, at least in the press, intensified. “Who Is King, Edison or Tesla?” the Troy Press of New York inquired.22 Joseph Jefferson, speaking in Boston, left no doubt about his position. “Edison has been deposed,” the thespian proclaimed, “and Tesla has been coronated [new potentate].”23

  The “Twin Wizards of Electricity” met in May in Philadelphia, along with Alexander Graham Bell, at the National Electrical Exposition. For the first time ever, Tesla’s AC was transmitted the grand distance of five hundred miles. Tesla was disappointed that no appreciable amount of power was transported along the existing telephone lines for fear, by the underwriters, that damage or a fire could result. Nevertheless, the experiment was a complete success and dwarfed the achievements of the old hundred-mile Lauffen-Frankfurt record.

  “The most amazing thing at this exposition,” Edison remarked, “is the demonstration of the ability to deliver here an electric current generated at Niagara Falls. To my mind it solves one of the most important questions associated with electrical development.” Bell concurred, stating, “This long distance transmission of electric power was the most important discovery of electric science that had been made for many years.”

  “[Bell] with Edison, looking into the future, realized that by means of this discovery cities and towns remote from the places of electrical generation would be able to obtain the services of this agent…with great economy…[and with] a practical convenience far superior than is now possible.”

  Tesla, “who solved the problem,” stated, “I am now convinced beyond any question that it is possible to transmit electricity…by water power…to commercial advantage over a distance of 500 miles at half the cost of generation by steam [or coal]…I am willing to stake my reputation and my life upon this declaration.”24

  No record exists of what was said between Tesla and Edison on this occasion, but it seems likely that each was privately amused by the rivalry played out in the press, that Tesla thanked Edison for the temporary use of his laboratory, and that Edison expressed his condolences for the loss of Tesla’s workplace.

  GE was now losing the propaganda campaign on all fronts. Even Edison was admitting Tesla’s accomplishment. Rumors began to circulate that an agreement with Westinghouse was reached on the pooling of patents, but a total solution was a number of years away, partly because GE had so many divisions that were pirating the apparatus, and partly because Westinghouse saw no immediate advantage in making a deal.25 After one significant loss in the courts, the headquarters of GE was forced to abandon its position; but they would continue to bargain because their financiers controlled the Niagara enterprise. Moreover, the size of that venture prevented Westinghouse from tackling it alone. T. C. Martin, however, naively thought that a complete reconciliation and vindication for Tesla was at hand. “This would [now] mean the acknowledgement of supremacy of your polyphase patents,” he wrote. “I suppose each will license the other.”26

  It does not appear that Tesla enlightened him on the finality of the deal he had signed, because one full year later, the editor discussed the subject again. “I cannot tell you how pleased I am about the news of the recognition of your patents by G.E. Company, and I hasten to congratulate you…[This] ought to fill your pockets with your own money,” Martin concluded.27

  At least from a historical perspective, vindication was at hand, for now it was accepted even by the opposition that Tesla’s work alone was making possible the “yoking into service of old Niagara herself”;28 but the inventor would never reap any financial gains other than those he had already settled for.

  “This discovery forms the basis,” Review of Reviews announced, “of the Niagara Company
’s attempt to utilize that enormous power which for centuries has been running to waste, and thus to turn machinery in towns and cities so far away as Buffalo, 20 miles distant, and perhaps New York and Chicago.” And then the magazine dropped the bombshell. “And it underlies the hardly less bold venture of the Westinghouse and Baldwin companies to drive a through railway express by electricity. It is not too much to say that the Tesla motor is behind all the large attempts at power transmission by electricity which are being made throughout the country, not only in the fields of manufacture and transportation, but also in mining, irrigation and farming.”29

  August, 7, 1895

  My dear Mr. Westinghouse,

  I learn from the journals of your friendly agreement with the Baldwin Locomotive works…The news of your consolidation has been an agreeable surprise. Such a splendid union of means and abilities cannot fail to be of interest to both parties concerned.

  Yours very truly,

  N. Tesla

  Tesla was in need of new capital. The Westinghouse Corporation was billing him for lost equipment and for new machines ordered, and yet they had just gained two gargantuan contracts in two entirely separate fields, both based on his creation. Surely the corporation would overlook a few thousand dollars owed, especially when it was Tesla’s personality that played a key role in gathering such principals of the Niagara Company as Edward Dean Adams, John Jacob Astor, and William Birch Rankine into the fold.

  It also occurred to the inventor that use of his induction motor in an entirely novel field such as railway transportation was, in a sense, outside the original intent of their contract. Should not he also benefit from such a fortuitous turn of events? Tesla would continue, somewhat naively, to bring new potential clients to Pittsburgh, almost as if he were their private ambassador, but he would never receive additional compensation for the service.