by Marc Seifer
At this point, Tesla refers to what he perceives as Morgan’s breach of contract:
When we entered our contract I furnished: (1) patent rights; (2) my ability as an engineer and electrician; (3) my good will. You were to furnish (1) money; (2) your business ability; (3) your good will. I assigned patent rights which in the worst case are worth ten times your cash investment. You advanced the money, true, but even this first clause of our contract was violated. There was a delay of two months in furnishing the last $50,000—a delay which was fatal.
I complied conscientiously with the second and third obligations. You ignored yours deliberately. Not only this, but you discredited me.
There is only one way to [go], Mr. Morgan. Give me the money to finish a great work…Or else, make me a present and let me work out my salvation. Your interest is sacred to me and my hearty wishes for your happiness and welfare will always be with you.
Faithfully yours,
N. Tesla29
To demonstrate goodwill, Tesla enclosed a royalty check on one of his patents and an advance copy of his theoretical masterpiece “The Transmission of Electrical Energy Without Wires as a Means of Furthering Peace.” A fortnight later, on January 6, 1905, Morgan sent the 49 percent balance legally due the inventor.
THE WARDENCLYFFE PEACE PLAN
Published in Electrical World & Engineer, Tesla’s treatise ran nearly six thousand words. It began with a discussion of how “philanthropy” and “the practical utilization of electrical vibrations,” that is, a mass communication system, might bring about “universal peace.” In defining and analyzing this theme, Tesla noted that it may come about suddenly, as the result of a slow accumulation of past efforts through history. “We must think cosmically…The race enmities and prejudices are decidedly waning…So far, however, universal harmony has been attained only in a single sphere of international relationship: that is the postal service…
“A few strong countries [might] scare all the weaker ones into peace,” Tesla suggests, “[but] to conquer by sheer force is becoming harder and harder every day.” Just as cruise missiles, CNN, and the world news organizations have altered markedly the way war is conducted today, by having machines fight instead of human (Nintendo war), and by usurping the old conventional chains of command, Tesla prophesied similarly in 1905: “Had only a few [of my] ‘telautomatic’ torpedoes been constructed and adopted by our navy [instead of rejected], the mere moral influence of this would have been powerfully and most beneficially felt in the present Eastern [Russian-Japanese] complication. Not to speak of the advantages which might have been secured through the direct and instantaneous transmission of messages to distant colonies and scenes of the present barbarous conflicts.”
His treatise went on to describe a new “quasi-intelligent” missile guidance system that he was developing which would have a “greater range and unerring precision,” but also that “misunderstanding” is the basis of wars. Speaking to Morgan in veiled terms that help to explain why so many of Tesla’s most important theoretical writings can be found in the pages of the New York Times, the Herald Tribune, the Sun and the World, the inventor wrote: “Mutual understanding would be immensely facilitated by use of one universal tongue…Next to speech we must consider permanent records of all kinds…Here the newspapers play by far the most important part…Disregarding the force of electrical invention, that of journalism is the greatest in urging us to peace…That which is most desirable…in the establishment of universal peaceful relations is—the complete ANNIHILATION OF DISTANCE. To achieve this wonder, electricity is the one and only means.”
If Morgan were to fund him, universal peace would ensue. This was quite a responsibility he placed on his benefactor’s shoulders. Continuing for five more fact-filled pages, Tesla described in vivid detail his entire world telegraphy operation, precisely how it worked, and what it attempted to accomplish. Referring to the thunderstorm he had witnessed that summer night in the Colorado Rockies and his discovery of stationary waves, Tesla concludes: “On that unforgettable day, the dark God of Thunder mercifully showed me in his vast, awe-sounding laboratory [the geomagnetic pulse]. I thought then that it would take a year to establish commercially my wireless girdle around the world. Alas! my first “world telegraphy” plant is not yet completed, its construction has progressed but slowly during the past two years. And this machine I am building is but a plaything, an oscillator of a maximum activity of only ten million horsepower, just enough to throw this planet into feeble tremors, by sign and word—to telegraph and to telephone.”
Although trying to assure Morgan that Wardenclyffe would not usurp the power companies, Tesla had to go on: “When shall I see completed that first power plant, that big oscillator which I am designing?…Which will deliver energy at the rate of one thousand million horse-power—one hundred Falls of Niagara combined in one, striking the universe with blows—blows that will wake from their slumber the sleeping electricians, if there be any, on Venus or Mars!…It is not a dream, it is a simple feat of scientific electrical engineering, only expensive—blind, faint-hearted world!”
Had he shown restraint, would this treatise have served its purpose, transforming the capitalist into the philanthropist? Probably not. In any event, Tesla further injured his position by ending the essay with a final stab: “Perhaps it is better in this present world of ours that a revolutionary idea or invention instead of being helped and patted, be hampered and illtreated in its adolescence—…by selfish interest, pedantry, stupidity and ignorance; that it be attacked and stifled; that it pass through bitter trials and tribulations, through the heartless strife of commercial exis[t]ence. So do we get our light. So all that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combatted, suppressed—only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.”30
February 17, 1905
Dear Mr. Morgan,
Let me tell you once more. I have perfected the greatest invention of all time—the transmission of electrical energy without wires to any distance, a work which has consumed 10 years of my life. It is the long sought stone of the philosophers. I need but to complete the plant I have constructed and in one bound, humanity will advance centuries.
I am the only man on this earth to-day who has the peculiar knowledge and ability to achieve this wonder and another one may not come in a hundred years…Help me to complete this work or else remove the obstacles in my path.
I was heartily glad to see you in such splendid health yesterday. You are good for another 20 years of active life.
Faithfully yours,
N. Tesla31
Pressures continued to mount. Warden’s lawyer pressed for a mortgage payment, and one of Tesla’s previous workers, a Mr. Clark, was suing for past wages. When some of the bad news arrived at his Waldorf suite, the inventor “tore the letter sufficiently to prevent any undesirable person [from] read[ing] the terrible open secret of Wardenclyffe.” Tesla tried to maintain a balance by persevering with the development of his oscillators and other inventions, such as a transformer, a condenser, and a steam turbine, but these operations were long-range projects that would not provide immediate payoffs on the order needed to reopen the wireless operation. “The obstacles in my way,” Tesla wrote Scherff, “are a regular hydra. Just as soon as I chop off a head, two new ones grow.”32
Tesla began to write exclusively in pencil during this period, his writing becoming less distinct, lacking the boldness and clarity which had characterized it at earlier periods. Beginning to feel run-down on a more regular basis, Tesla likened his task to that of a weight lifter. “Every ounce counts now,” he told his manager.
March 10, 1905
My dear Luka,
Won’t go to dinner [with you]. I am hard at work to get [Mrs. Filipov] that fine automobile.33
At the end of March, Tesla was “thunder struck at the Waldorf” when Warden’s lawyer stormed the premises demanding immediate payment. The raising of even one of Mr. Bol
dt’s eyebrows was enough to unsettle the struggling entrepreneur. “Hope to get out [to Wardenclyffe] Sunday.” Tesla wrote Scherff. “Need it badly.”34
Tesla set to work with his lawyers in April, finalizing patent applications for England, France, and Italy. But his inability to adequately compensate his workers on Long Island was creating a “[de]moral[izing] effect at Wardenclyffe. Perhaps we are nearing a revolution down there?” he inquired of Scherff. “Disappointments…and dangers…troubles and troubles again” continued to plague him.35 He was beginning to crumble.
May 1, 1905
My dear Tesla:
I know it will please you to hear of the great happiness that has come to me. Miss Grizelda Houston Hull…has consented to become my wife and the wedding has been [planned] for May 25th…Do you know, my dear Tesla, you are the very first person, outside of my family that I thought of and which the ceremonies will be very simple, I wish to feel you present in standing close to me on this occasion so full of incoming in my life.
Indeed, I could not feel the occasion complete without you.
Sincerely yours,
Richmond Pearson Hobson36
The joyful occasion was a needed respite, Tesla “chatting” with Hobson’s mother-in-law, hiding his worries, and characteristically teasing his friend. “Hobson,” he declared, “now that you are married, your career is over.”37 This, of course, was far from the truth, as rumors had long been circulating about the possibility of grooming the charismatic lieutenant for the presidency.
“I must do something for our dear Mr. Tesla,” Katharine told Robert on the ride home.
“What could you do that he hasn’t?”
“Appeal to the king,” she answered wistfully. Upon their arrival home, Katharine ran to the house to hide her tears.
While Morgan was away in Europe for his summer sojourn, Tesla met with Jacob Schiff, a man in the midst of lending the Japanese large sums of money in their war against the Russians. “S. said that perhaps he may take it himself,” Tesla wrote hopefully to Scherff. “I believe that he will be a valuable man to me.”38
In August, Morgan returned. Tesla sent Scherff to hand-deliver his newest list of patents granted, which the octopus grabbed in his tentacles and tossed into the wastebasket.
November 11, 1905
Dear Mr. Scherff,
Thirteen seems to be my lucky number. First of all, I met with Mr. F. just for a moment as he was going out of his office. He was most friendly and said that he was sorry he had to go out, but he will talk with me some other day. I HAVE MY MAN as sure as the law of gravitation. I know it.39
December 14, 1905
My dear Mr. Tesla,
I have received your letter of the 13th and in reply would state that I am not willing to invest any more money in the enterprise. I should be very glad if Mr. Frick would join you. You could have no better associate and I should be very glad to work with Mr. Frick in the matter, putting in what I have against his $100,000 to which you allude.
Yours very truly,
J. Pierpont Morgan40
Christmas was approaching, and Tesla had apparently struck a deal with another of the superrich. Frick, we remember, had earned upward of $60 million in 1901, when U.S. Steel was created. Ryan and Schiff were also involved in this new potential syndicate. Tesla wrote Morgan to thank him for allowing the liaison to come about. “You and Mr. Frick can take whatever you like. [I shall be satisfied] with a very small interest,” Tesla wrote in a first draft. “I understand your attitude perfectly. You adhere strictly to principles. Never in my life have I [met] a man who even in a small [way can approach] the state [as described] by Goethe.”41
Yet again Tesla reviewed their relationship, his decision to change the contract, and his ultimate wish to transmit power for industrial purposes. Why? Morgan sidestepped a meeting with Frick in December. An ill wind was blowing. Tesla began to crumble, his handwriting now barely legible, written as a meager, wispy stroke in pencil.
December 24, 1905
Dear Tesla,
I have been sorry to hear of your recent illness—well concealed from your friends and the public—and I am also now very glad to hear of your recovery. Please stay well and strong.
Yours sincerely,
T. C. Martin42
January 24, 1906
Dear Mr. Morgan,
I have just learned that the Germans have commenced the construction of a plant in all respects similar to mine which they expect to complete in a year…Now, Mr. Morgan, you do not wish such a horrible thing to happen. If Frick will aid me, I can without delay, put my plant in operation by July next. Please see him at your earliest opportunity. I have not much time to lose.43
With the Johnsons just back from Europe and a meeting with “His Majesty in Rome,” Kate decided to seize the moment. Completely on her own, Mrs. Robert Underwood Johnson called a hansom. “Twenty-three Wall Street,” she said boldly. Morgan would not see her.44
February 2, 1906
Dear Mr. Morgan,
Please see Mr. Frick…He is going to call on you. Time is flying.45
A fortnight later, Tesla wrote again, pleading with Morgan to allow the formation of “a reasonable foundation upon which I am justly entitled.” Tesla requested that Morgan agree to take one-third of the enterprise, thereby reducing his share by approximately 20 percent. “Please do not spoil the letter by unnecessary reference to your unwillingness of furnishing more money. The whole town knows it.”46
Morgan did his best to scuttle the deal, and with it Tesla fell. His body shook violently, and his eyes began to bulge out of his head. Forgetting to shave or even shower, the ailing engineer grabbed the first train to Shoreham and ran from the station to his precious tower, just a few hundred yards away. Clutching the girders for support as he climbed, the pulverized sorcerer ascended fifteen stories to the apex and looked out at the flat land which lay undisturbed for miles in every direction.
April 10, 1906
Dear Mr. Tesla,
I have received your letter and am very glad to know that you are vanquishing your illness. I have scarcely ever seen you so out of sorts as last Sunday; and I was frightened.
Yours sincerely,
George Scherff47
In May there was a portentous explosion in Bridgeport which caused a shock wave that was felt in Shoreham. “I hope my tower will not be subjected often to such tests,” Tesla wrote Scherff. It was less than a month after the great San Francisco earthquake, but the jolt served to reawaken a new reserve of energy. Working with Scherff and a few men at the plant, Tesla continued development of his condenser and steam turbine which he was planning on placing inside a torpedo.
Concerned about the stability of the buildings America was constructing, Stanford White wrote the city of San Francisco, telling them to pass “stringent laws…The hot riveted steel building stood the shock wonderfully,” he concluded.48
White, like Tesla, was a victim of financial misfortune and he began drinking heavily. Only fifty-four, his health was in decline, and he was suffering from tuberculosis. In February the architect had planned to auction off $300,000 worth of his tapestries, sculptures, and paintings in order to reduce his debt by half, but a fire wiped out the uninsured holdings just two weeks prior to the sale.
Harry Thaw, having married Evelyn Nesbit, was having White followed day and night. On June 25, 1906, with Evelyn present, Thaw snaked his way down the aisle of the Roof Garden restaurant at Madison Square Garden, pearl-handled pistol in hand. While entertainer Harry Short sang “I Could Love a Thousand Girls,” Thaw spotted and shot the “Beast” between the eyes. Stanford White, designer of Madison Square Garden, the agriculture building at the Chicago World’s Fair, the Niagara Falls power plant, the Capitol in Providence, the Washington Arch in New York, Rosecliffe and the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, the Casino in Narragansett, the Boston train station, the Players’ Club, numerous churches and other mansions, the new extension on the White House, and War
denclyffe was dead.
Few attended White’s funeral for he had been accused of raping a sixteen-year-old girl. But Tesla came.49 The dream vanquished; the Gilded Age ended.
Throughout the year, Tesla’s handwriting began to unglue, and by August it completely disintegrated, supporting the hypothesis that he suffered a nervous collapse at that time.50 Entering his own private hell, the inventor was forced to endure an emotional enervation which caused a corresponding dysfunctional shift in his personality. Self-alienation took hold, bitterness and displaced anger became manifest as the quirks in his nature became more pronounced. Letters even to his closest friends would be signed N. Tesla, not Nikola. The untimely death of William Rankine at the age of forty-seven in September was another nail in the coffin of his dreams.
In a barely legible letter dated October 15, 1906, the last in this incredible series to Morgan, Tesla informed the Wall Street monarch that Messieurs Ryan, Schiff, and Frick were all willing to enter the partnership.
Every opportunity is there…I have high regards for you as a big and honorable man…There is greater power in the leaf of a flower then in the paw of a bear. That is as much as I’ll ever say…You are reputed as a builder of properties, but if you prefer in this instance to chop down poles…go ahead.51