by Marc Seifer
MEPHISTOPHELES: Whatever promise on your Books find entry, we strictly carry into act…for the present I entreat Most urgently your kind dismission.
FAUST: Do stay but just one moment longer then, tell me good news, and I’ll release thee.
Dear Mr. Morgan,
Since many years I have known one side of your character intimately. I believe that in my first approach to you I have given you evidence of this knowledge…You have already put aside the money necessary to complete the work begun—in your thoughts—and that is as good as done. But I did not understand you as a businessman until lately.
I have worked for results carrying with them a dignity and force such as to deserve your attention. What you wanted was a simple result. Will you let me profit by this later knowledge and give me an opportunity to rehabilitate myself in your opinion as a businessman?5
In October 1903, fully two months before Orville and Wilbur Wright made aviation history, Prof. Sameul P. Langley launched a heavier-than-air ship from the roof of a houseboat situated on the Potomac. With photographers from the Smithsonian Institution present, the craft was slingshot “over the 70 foot rails and in a moment was free upon air. Then it wavered. Down the aerodrome sank…with its daring navigator [emerging from]…the disaster…suffering only a ducking.” The press called Langley’s airplane “a failure,”6 but Tesla rallied to Langley’s defense. “Langley has perceived a great truth,” Tesla wrote in the New York Herald, namely, that “a machine heavier than air could be made to fly…Such a man should be provided with the necessary means to complete his work, great honor attaches to this achievement, [and] also great practical utility which this country can ill afford to lose.”7
Tesla started off 1904 on the offensive with his manifesto and striking publications. Work on the wireless operation was suspended, and essential components were stripped from the tower and returned to digruntled creditors. A skeleton crew kept up appearances and continued the development of his lamps and oscillators. But as his Wardenclyffe notes reveal, there were no theoretical writings during this period;8 all of Tesla’s energies were concentrated in one avenue: raising the funds to resurrect the project. Tesla’s attorneys had located a manufacturer in Connecticut to “make all the metal parts” of his oscillators, but there was still the problem of distribution, and the revenues would not enable him to reopen the Wardenclyffe plant. Another predicament had to do with Mr. Warden himself. Apparently he had not conducted a title search when he purchased the land, and a legal shadow had fallen on the property. Tesla used the entanglement to further delay payment of the mortgage.9
“One consideration,” he wrote Scherff, “is that the Edison-Pupin-Marconi combination, who have given me so much trouble, are in a worse fix.”10
In February, Tesla attended a musical recital and party in Gramercy Park hosted by Stanford White and his wife, Bessie, for 350 of his friends, with dinner afterward at Sherry’s.11 Most likely the inventor crossed paths with Morgan as well as other potential investors. The following month, the inventor conferred with the CEO (chief executive officer) of GE, Charles Coffin. “If [the GE people] refuse they are simply snoosers,” he wrote Scherff.12 Nothing came of the meeting, but in April a solid lead came via John S. Barnes, a well-connected financier who had read Tesla’s article in Electrical World & Engineer. An associate of Col. Oliver Payne’s from the Rockefeller clique, Barnes had invited Tesla to his home for dinner and to discuss the inventor’s plans.
“I have always had the highest regard for Col. Payne, and would be happy indeed should he ever deem me worthy of his association.”
“We are curious as to the details of the Commodore’s bestowal,” Barnes interjected.
“Mr. Morgan has not made a generous donation as you might have inferred from my article,” Tesla craftily retorted. “He is a man with a great brain and has seen that [by forming a business partnership instead] he can make an extremely profitable investment.”13
Although hesitant to make a commitment, Barnes nevertheless suggested that Tesla have his lawyers write up their evaluation of his patent applications.
Because of his link to Colonel Payne, Tesla took the suggestion very seriously. A multimillionaire from the city of Cleveland, Payne had made his fortune as a partner of John D. Rockefeller; the duo had earned fifty cents per barrel for every barrel of oil that was shipped by rail. This enormous kickback had been set up as a rebate for their own crude and as a tariff for every competitor. With their vast holdings and Rockefeller’s ferretlike spirit, they had simply bullied the railroads into this contractual arrangement.14
Known as a haughty fellow and “kin of God,” Payne never did take to John D., but he did maintain the partnership. He had a residence in New York and was a friend and financial benefactor of Stanford White, whom he commissioned to purchase art for him while in Europe and design his nephew’s mansion, Payne Whitney, in the city.
White, who was in an awful fix, nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in debt, mainly from the Northern Pacific fiasco, informed Tesla that Payne had provided him with notable assistance to help ease his burden. White was also disheartened because his girlfriend, young Evelyn Nesbit, had now begun dating a deranged multimillionaire from Pittsburgh, Harry Thaw. “I have heard stories from the Floradora girls that he whipped one of them in bed with a cat-of-nine tails.”
Ironically, White held no ill feelings for Morgan, even though the financier was directly responsible for the market crash. At the close of 1903, White and his wife, Bessie, joined the commodore on the Corsair to watch the yacht races, and White’s partner, Charles McKim, was still busily involved in constructing the Morgan Library. One wonders how Morgan might have felt when he boated up to Newport or Bar Harbor and looked to the eastern horizon and saw Tesla’s mushroom-shaped behemoth. “Do you think he will ever reconsider?” the inventor inquired.
“With Morgan, anything is possible” came the architect’s reply. “However, I think at this stage, Colonel Payne is a safer bet.”
A Yankee cornerstone, the good colonel was connected to the highest echelons in government. Through the marriage of his sister, he was linked to William C. Whitney, secretary of the navy, and also to John Hay, secretary of state; Payne’s father, Henry Payne, was a well-known senator, often discussed as a potential candidate for president of the United States.15 This was not a lead to take lightly.
As a favor to this Ohio nobleman, Tesla opened up his storehouse to the Cleveland Leader and conferred with Kerr, Page & Cooper for a way to create a legal document which would delineate the scope and fundamental might of his arsenal of patents. In a comprehensive article entitled “Harnessing the Lightning,” journalist Alfred Cowles noted that the inventor’s prognostications “were so startling that had they come from another source, one would naturally consider them the vagaries of a wandering mind. If he can accomplish what he is undertaking, his fame will, in future centuries, overshadow the greatest names of the past.”
Echoing sentiments Tesla had expressed during their interview, Cowles concluded, “Real inventions are only possible when the mental creation of the inventor proves to be in harmony with natural law; and such inventions, when they are necessities, are in themselves a part of the evolutionary process, where development is an adjustment to environment.”16
How all one whole harmonious weaves,
Each in the other works and lives!
See heavenly powers ascending and descending
The golden buckets, one long line extending.
Tesla presented to Barnes and Payne a comprehensive lawyers’ brief delineating essentially every feature of his master plan. Included were patent specifications and plans for “distributing electric energy without wires for telegraphic, telephonic and industrial purposes,” for storing the energy, localizing transmissions, insuring non-interferability, and for creating separate channels. Also included was Tesla’s work in telautomatics, means for creating high frequencies, his oscillators, and “a method for ins
ulating electric mains by refrigeration to very low temperature…By [this] means, power can be conveyed to great distances cheaply, and literally, without any loss.” The plan also suggested the “perfect solution of the problem of underground distribution in cities and populated districts.” Thus, the ultimate scheme would involve both wireless and conventional means of distributing the electrical energy. Analyzing the viability of each of the twenty-three patents, lawyers Kerr, Page & Cooper concluded, “We know of nothing to anticipate the claims and are of the opinion that they are valid.”17
The report was also circulated to other major players, including Fortune Ryan and Pierpont Morgan. “I SWEAR,” Tesla wrote to Scherff, “if I ever get out of this hole, nobody will catch me without cash!” Simultaneously, he haggled with the coal company to maintain fuel deliveries and with the telephone company to keep his line at Wardenclyffe open. “I am now sure that the two lamps as proposed will be a perfect success and you know that after that I can draw on the U.S. Treasury.”18 Problems with the lamp persisted, however, and it would never be marketed under Tesla’s name.
October 28, 1958
Westinghouse Announcement
Lamp Division
The Westinghouse Corporation [is pleased to] announce [that] a “flat light bulb” which has no filaments, which produces no heat, which is glare free, and which will burn night and day for a year for less than a penny…has been introduced…This marks the first time the public has been able to purchase an electroluminescent lamp as a light source for the home.19
As the Colonel Payne deal fell through, Tesla wrote to Morgan from Wardenclyffe, “I hope the unfortunate misunderstanding, the cause of which I have been vainly trying to discover will be removed…and that you will recognize that my work is the kind that passes into history and worthy of your support.”20
Throughout the spring and summer, Tesla would visit the plant again and again for strength and confirmation. In June he instructed Scherff to make sure that the lawn was manicured at Wardenclyffe, as he was arriving with another potential investor.21 Yet his resolve was beginning to waver; everywhere he turned, he met rejection. He became convinced that his success rested on changing the mind of a single man. In September a dispatch was hand-delivered to Morgan “assur[ing] contracts for several such plants in England and Russia,”22 but no response came from the financier.
During the height of autumn, Morgan conferred with the archbishop of Canterbury.23 Taking this as a mystical sign in the aid of his quest, the engineering cognoscente authored, on October 13, his favorite day of the month, a thirteen-point letter spelling out the entire chain of events to the omnipotent capitalist. The letter began with a discussion of his patent applications, the development of their liaison, and Tesla’s decision to change the nature of the agreement because of Marconi’s piracy. Simply transmitting mere Morse-coded messages was beneath consideration for the pompous conceptualist. As he had aligned himself with the greatest economic force on the planet, this confirmed the necessity of engaging in the larger endeavor.
Your participation called for a careful revision of my plans…Perhaps you have never fully appreciated the sense of this obligation…
Once I lost your support I could not because of your personality and character of our agreement interest anybody else, at least not for several years, until the…commercial value of my patents [was] recognized.
[By increasing the size of the transmitter] until…the plant can transmit signals to the uttermost confines of the Earth, its earning power becomes, so to speak, unlimited…but it will cost scarcely twice as much [e.g., $300,000]…[This] offered possibilities for a business on a large, dignified scale, commensurate with your position in life and mine as pioneer in this art, who has originated all its essential principles…
You had told me from the outset that I should not ask for more, but the work was of such transcending importance…that I undertook to explain to you the state of things on your first return from abroad. You seemed to misunderstand me. This was most unfortunate…
The audacious schemers who have dared to fool the crowned heads of Europe, the President of the United States, and even His Holiness the Pope have discredited the art by incompetent attempts [far more than they ever could by success] and spoiled the public by false promises which it cannot distinguish from legitimate right…and skill…
I know you must be sceptical [sic] about getting hundredfold returns, but if you will help me to the end, you will soon see that my judgement is true…I have expended about $250,000 in all and a much smaller sum separates me from a giant triumph…$75,000 would certainly complete the plant…
This letter (greatly condensed here) was a fair and accurate assessment of what had occurred and why. Clearly, it was written by a lucid savant, one who had proved himself in industry on many other occasions and one who was on the verge of altering the course of civilization in a dramatic and revolutionary way. Tesla was operating at the level of soul consciousness, and so he removed all defenses and revealed the very depths of his being with the following salutation and sacred vow:
Since a year, Mr. Morgan, there has been hardly a night when my pillow is not bathed in tears, but you must not think me a weak man for that. I am perfectly sure to finish my task, come what may. I am only sorry that after mastering all the difficulties which seemed insuperable, and acquiring a special knowledge and ability which I now alone possess, and which, if applied effectively, would advance the world a century, I must see my work delayed.
In the hope of hearing from you favorably, I remain,
N. Tesla24
October 15, 1904
Dear Sir,
Referring to your letter of the 13th October, Mr. J. P. Morgan wishes me to inform you that it will be impossible for him to do anything more in the matter.25
This cavalier dismissal tore the inventor apart and opened up a tendril that bared not only his wrath against a force that had blocked his crusade but also a poetic eloquence.
October 17, 1904
Dear Mr. Morgan,
You are a man like Bismarck. Great but uncontrollable. I wrote purposefully last week hoping that your recent association [with the Archbishop] might have rendered you more susceptible to a softer influence. But you are no Christian at all, you are a fanatic musoulman. Once you say no, come what may, it is no.
May the gravitation repel instead of attract, may right become wrong, every consideration no matter what it may be, must founder on the rock of your brutal resolve.
It is incredible, a year and a half ago, I could have delivered a lecture here which would have been listened to by all of the academicians of the world…That would have been the time to thank you. [But] you let me struggle on, weakened by shrewd enemies, disheartened by doubting friends, financially exhausted, trying to overcome obstacles which you yourself have piled up before me…
“If this is a good thing, why does not Morgan see you through?” “Morgan is the very last man to let a good thing go.” So it has been going on for two years. I advance, but how? Like a man swimming against a stream that carries him down.
Will you not listen to anything at all? Are you to let me perhaps succumb, lose an immortal crown. Will you let a property of immense value be depreciated, let it be said that your own judgement was defective, simply because you once said no. Can now I make you a new proposition to overcome the difficulty? I tell you I shall return your money a hundredfold.26
The letter was followed up with testimonials to his abilities as espoused by various leaders in his field. It also explained in detail how this operation advanced the work performed at Colorado Springs. On December 16, Tesla sent an ultimatum. He requested either $100,000 to complete the plant or $50,000 “to finish the indispensable parts, make everything perfectly fireproof…and take out insurance,” or “if you do not want to do this, only one thing remains. You release me of all obligations, give me back my assignments and consider the sum you have invested as a generous contribution leaving
it all to my integrity and ability to work out the best results for you and for myself.” Tesla suggested that he could go on a lecture tour to raise the funds; then it would take him “not more…than a week to get a few million in Wall Street.”27
On the seventeenth, Morgan wrote back:
I am not willing to advance you any more money as I have frequently told you. As to your third proposition, I am not prepared to accept this either. I have made and carried out with you in good faith a contract and having performed my part, it is not unreasonable that I expect you to carry out yours.28
December 19, 1904
Dear Mr. Morgan,
Owing to a habit contracted long ago in defiance of superstition, I prefer to make important communications on Fridays and the 13th of each month, but my house is afire and I have not an hour to waste.
I knew that you would refuse…What chance have I to land the biggest Wall Street monster with the soul’s spider thread.
…You say that you have fulfilled your contract with me. You have not.
I came to enlist your genius and power, not because of money. You should know that I have honored you in so doing as much as I have honored myself. You are a big man, but your work is wrought in passing form, mine is immortal. I came to you with the greatest invention of all times. I have more creations named after me than any man that has gone before not excepting Archimedes and Galileo—the giants of invention. Six thousand million dollars are invested in enterprises based on my discoveries in the United States today. [This is not a boast, Mr. Morgan; only my credentials.] I could draw on you at sight for a million dollars if you were the Pierpont Morgan of old.