Tesla actually offered his invention to a German company in Strassburg, Alsace, then a part of Germany. Here is what happened:

Tesla worked for many months and finally the problem was solved. Did Edison keep his promise and pay him for all his hard work?. . . absolutely not....Tesla quit the Edison Company in disgust:

After quitting the Edison Company, Tesla had to work as a manual laborer for a year digging the streets of New York. This was the worst time in his life as a poor stranger in a strange land....He was befriended by the foreman of the work gang who persuaded him to form his own company.

Tesla demonstrated his AC motor to the U.S. Institute of Electrical Engineers

In 1888, Tesla held a lecture before the U.S. Institute of Electrical Engineers in New York City. This lecture brought his alternating current system before the world at last.

George Westinghouse brought Tesla's polyphase system to the world!!

In spite of all the advantages of the AC system, Edison refused to acknowledge its superiority over his system, and inventor George Westinghouse of Pittsburgh came to his rescue. As a matter of fact, Edison sulked like a spoilt child, and started what became known in U.S. history as the War of the Currents, or the battles between AC and DC.

By 1886, the Westinghouse Company was one of the biggest and most successful in the entire world.

Westinghouse was a Protestant Christian gentleman and totally unlike the robber barons of that era....His motto was the golden rule, and his employees shared in the success of his company. He believed in doing his good works in secret, and many charities throughout the country were helped by his largess.

He offered to buy all the AC patents from Tesla for the staggering sum of 1 million dollars cash and royalties of $1.00 per horsepower of electricity produced.

Tesla became an instant millionaire!!

Unlike Edison, George Westinghouse was a man of his word, and offered Tesla a staggering sum for all his AC patents:

Tesla electrified Niagara Falls!!

In 1895, the Westinghouse Company and Nicola Tesla built the first hydroelectric alternating current system at Niagara Falls. Tesla was determined that the awesome power of the Falls should be harnessed to the awesome power of polyphase alternating current.

"One of the requirements was that Westinghouse get rid of the contract with Tesla calling for royalty payments of $1.00 per horsepower on all alternating current articles sold under his patents. Financial advisers pointed out that if the business which Westinghouse expected the company would do under the Tesla patents in the ensuing year was anywhere near as great as estimated, the amount to be paid out under this contract would be tremendous, totaling millions of dollars; and this, at the time of reorganization, appeared a dangerous burden, imperiling the ability which they were trying to attain for the new organization. Westinghouse strenuously objected to the procedure. This patent-royalty payment, he insisted, was in accordance with usual procedures and would not be a burden on the company, as it was included in costs of production, was paid for by the customers, and did not come out of the company's earnings. Westinghouse, himself an inventor of first magnitude, had a strong sense of justice in his dealings with inventors." (O'Neill, Prodigal Genius, p. 79).

"It would be a tough job for any executive, no matter how shrewd or clever, to talk a man out of a contract that would net many millions of dollars, or induce him to accept a reduction in rates amounting to millions. Westinghouse called on Tesla, meeting him in the same South 5th Avenue laboratory where he had purchased the patents four years before. Without preliminaries or apologies Westinghouse explained the situation.

"Your decision," said the Pittsburgh magnate, "determines the fate of the Westinghouse Company." "Suppose I should refuse to give up my contract; what would you do then?" asked Tesla.

"In that event you would have to deal with the bankers, for I would no longer have any power in the situation," Westinghouse replied.

"And if I give up the contract you will save your company and retain control so you can proceed with your plans to give my polyphase system to the world?" Tesla continued.

"I believe your polyphase system is the greatest discovery in the field of electricity," Westinghouse explained. "It was my efforts to give it to the world that brought on the present difficulty, but I intend to continue, no matter what happens, to proceed with my original plans to put the country on an alternating current basis."

"Mr. Westinghouse," said Tesla, drawing himself up to full height of six feet two inches and beaming down on the Pittsburgh magnate who was himself a big man, "you have been my friend, you believed in me when others had no faith; you were brave enough to go ahead and pay me a million dollars when others lacked courage; you supported me when even your own engineers lacked vision to see the big things ahead that you and I saw; you have stood by me as a friend. The benefits that will come to civilization from my polyphase system mean more to me than the money involved. Mr. Westinghouse, you will save your company so that you can develop my inventions. Here is your contract and here is my contract—I will tear both of them to pieces and you will no longer have any troubles from my royalties. Is that sufficient?"

Matching his actions to his words Tesla tore up the contract and threw it in the waste basket; and Westinghouse, thanks to Tesla's magnificent gesture, was able to return to Pittsburgh and use the facilities of the reorganized company, which became the present Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, to make good his promise to Tesla to make his alternating current system available to the world." (O'Neill, Prodigal Genius, pp. 81-82).

Tesla's wireless transmission of electricity

In 1899, in Pike's Peak, Colorado, Tesla demonstrated the feasibility of transmitting electricity through the earth without the use of wires....He chose Pike's Peak because of its remote location, and the availability of electricity from a local power station.

Tesla discovered that the earth was a very good conductor of electricity and that he could set the earth in electrical oscillation just like the mechanical oscillation that almost caused an earthquake in Manhattan.

Here is an artist's rendition of the wireless Tesla world power system:

When Tesla had demonstrated the feasibility of his wireless power system, he rushed back to New York to begin construction on a transmitter located at Wardenclyffe, Long Island, New York. Morgan stonewalled him and created a panic on Wall St. in 1907. Millionaire John Jacob Astor, Tesla's close friend and financier, died on the Titanic in 1912.

Tesla financier John Jacob Astor was drowned on the Titanic!!

Tesla stayed at the Waldorf Astoria hotel and commuted to his laboratory in downtown Manhattan. The hotel was owned by millionaire John Jacob Astor IV who was a close friend and financier of Tesla:

The White State line was owned by J.P. Morgan. At the last moment, Morgan decided not to sail on his ship....Madeleine survived, and according to John Jacob Astor's will, Madeleine would have received income from a $5,000,000 trust fund as long as she did not remarry.

Tesla, Einstein, and the luminiferous ether!!

Up to the year 1900, most scientists believed in what was called the luminiferous ether or simply the ether. This was simply space or the invisible medium that carries electromagnetic waves. Here is the dictionary definition of that term:

Strange is it not how Tesla didn't think about splitting these atoms to obtain enormous power. He knew that his system of wireless transmission harnessed to Niagara Falls would provide all the safe, clean power that was necessary to run the modern industrial world.

Nikola Tesla's electric car

After the AC induction motor, we think that the greatest invention of Tesla was the electric car. This was no ordinary battery driven car because this car took its power from the ether, just like an automobile antenna picks up radio waves from the ether.

In 1931, under the financing of Pierce-Arrow and George Westinghouse, a 1931 Pierce-Arrow was selected to be tested at the factory grounds in Buffalo, N.Y. The standard internal combustion engine was removed and an 80-H.P. 1800 r.p.m. electric motor installed to the clutch and transmission. The AC motor measured 40 inches long and 30 inches in diameter and the power leads were left standing in the air—no external power source and no recharging of any batteries was necessary.

At the appointed time, Nikola Tesla arrived from New York City and inspected the Pierce-Arrow automobile. He then went to a local radio store and purchased a handful of tubes (12), wires and assorted resistors. A box measuring 24 inches long, 12 inches wide and 6 inches high was assembled housing the circuit. The box was placed on the front seat and had its wires connected to the air-cooled, brushless motor. Two rods 1/4" in diameter stuck out of the box about 3" in length.

Mr. Tesla got into the driver's seat, pushed the two rods in and stated, "We now have power". He put the car into gear and it moved forward! This vehicle, powered by an AC motor, was driven to speeds of 90 m.p.h. and performed better than any internal combustion engine of its day! One week was spent testing the vehicle. Several newspapers in Buffalo reported this test. When asked where the power came from, Tesla replied, "From the ether all around us".

Tesla's electric car drove J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller, and Henry Ford CRAZY!!

With the discovery of electricity, everybody expected that all cars would be electric and run on rechargeable batteries. Tesla had gone one better and actually produced a working automobile that ran on electricity taken from the surrounding ether like an antenna picks up radio waves. This would revolutionize travel just like his AC induction motor had revolutionized the industrial world.

The 3 stooges Morgan, Rockefeller, and Ford had to sabotage his idea at all costs....No air polluting gasoline engine meant no oil monopoly for Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company. No oil monopoly meant no excuse for Rockefeller to own the U.S. government, and no excuse to be involved in foreign countries . . . especially those surrounding Russia.

All of Tesla's papers were confiscated by the FBI after his death!!

As Tesla approached his final years, most of his close friends and benefactors were dead. The man who had electrified the planet was almost forgotten by the world....Most of his last days were spent feeding the pigeons in Bryant Park in front of the public library on Fifth Ave.

The great discoverer went to meet the Creator of electricity on Jan. 7, 1943.

Tesla was never married and had no direct heirs. He left no will, so all his papers were seized by the FBI and shipped to Washington City where they were classified as TOP SECRET.

His inventions were later to become the bases for the weapons of mass destruction developed by the Pentagon:

• Drones
• Copyrights
• Patents
• Go Back

Related in this Category