The Tesla Papers Page 2

Note: My parents emigrated from what in the early 1900's was Austria- Hungary, Province of Croatia. From earliest childhood in the environs of Pittsburgh I heard of the talents and genius of Nikola Tesla. All fellow neighbors, friends and relatives were extremely proud of him and of course much of that rubbed off on me.

SNK was told about my mission to Tesla after his release from the hospital and he immediately reimbursed me and thanked me profusely. That is when I learned that from time to time he was called upon for funds to help tide Tesla over as he was then receiving $600 monthly from the Tesla Institute in Belgrade. How the funds were being transferred I do not know, but per- haps through the Yugoslav Information Center as there was no direct communication between the U. S. and Yugoslavia.

It was about this time that SNK told me of his trip to the U. S. either in 1926 or 1932 to see his famous uncle. Tesla told SNK he often went to the movies as he found sitting in a movie house very conducive to thinking out problems and solutions. He said he did his best thinking watching movies. SNK accompanied him on some of those movie dates!

Early in the morning of January 8, 1943 Dr. Nicholas Mirkovich, an economist working in our office on reconstruction planning of Eastern Europe, called me with the news of Tesla's death, that SNK was down at the Hotel and would be calling if anything was needed. He did call asking me to come down.

When I arrived in the room were: SNK, Kenneth Swezey, a locksmith and one other person who I think was George Clark, but he did not stay much longer. I learned that representatives of the police and various "government officials" had been there earlier. I never did learn who ordered the locksmith. Mr. Swezey came to the hotel immediately after reading the news in the "New York Times". This was SNK's first meeting with him. Mine, likewise. There were two rooms in the suite: the one we were in containing the bed, table, few chairs and a few other pieces of non-descript furniture, as well as the large upright office size safe; the other room was used as a storage room. The locksmith was in the process of resetting the tumblers for a new combination which he wrote out and gave to SNK. This combination was given to me soon afterward for safekeeping and was not used until July 12, 1952 when SNK opened the safe for the first time in what was to become the Tesla Museum in Belgrade.

SNK and Swezey looked briefly through the contents of the safe. No detailed scrutiny was made. It had double doors. Inside were a number of drawers and in the upper right-hand corner a compartment with a square door which closed and opened by key. In this compartment was found the gold Edison Medal which was awarded to Tesla in 1917 by the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. After inspection SNK put it back into the compartment, locked it with a key which was one of many on a keyring found in the safe, placed the keyring into one of the small drawers, closed the doors, twirled the knob and the safe was closed, and locked.

Nothing was taken from or out of the safe except a book of seventy commemorative letters from leading scientists and engineers from all over the world which Kenneth Swezey had assembled for Tesla's 75th birthday. This SNK gave to Swezey. SNK took no papers but he did take photographs which had been used for publicity purposes and some copies of Tesla's articles which had been printed earlier. (Copies available.)

SNK asked me to choose something from the room which I might like to have as a memento. My eye was caught by a small crystal bottle or vial which was about three-quarters full of what looked like very fine, dark gravel. Later I learned this was gravel he used to treat the sick pigeons that came to his window. At the same time I noticed notes in several places throughout the room:

MAID

Please do not disturb anything here
or clean or dust. I attend to this
myself. Fix bathtub and toilet and
leave plenty of towels.

The Custodian of Alien Property had everything packed and sealed. This included contents of the second room which consisted of boxes, cases, files and crates of papers, reports, books, correspondence and records. All was taken to the Manhattan Warehouse & Storage on Seventh Avenue where Tesla had some items in storage from an earlier date.