Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla (44 page)

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. Tesla
²⁴

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.

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. Tesla
²⁹

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.

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.”
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