In the Footsteps of Genius Page 11

given recognition for pioneering work in this field.

A move to a safer place

One of the first public recognitions for the enormous work which he did in the development of automation Tesla received in an editorial of the magazine Time in 1944, on the occasion of the construction of certain military vehicles with remote control. Time wrote:

“The basic principles of remote control of vehicles were laid down in an era which received the name ‘wireless transmission.’ At the first exhibition of electronics held in this city, more than forty years ago, Nikola Tesla demonstrated the remote control of a model of a submarine. Soon after that the investigations were continued by Germans, Americans, English and French…”²⁰

Unfortunately, Tesla, although he had done so much for the era of automation, did not wish to waste time on the further development of the basic principles of automatics. He had the impression, then quite correct, that the world was still unprepared to accept the application of automatons. His efforts were directed toward the realization of still greater ideas — if these were at all realizable.

His laboratory in New York was no longer suitable or safe for the testing of such projects, or, more precisely, his experiments had become too dangerous for the densely populated New York.

“My generators,” he wrote to Leonard Curtis, who protected his rights, “produce a current of 4 million volts. These are secret experiments. I must secure an independent supply of current and uninterrupted work in my own and isolated laboratory.”²¹

Curtis, on good terms with the Colorado Springs Electric company, at once set out to solve Tesla’s problem. The solution which he found would have far-reaching consequences.

Experiments in Colorado Springs

“Everything is arranged, the lot is free. You will stay at the Hotel Alta Vista. I have some shares in the City Electric company, so you will get the current free.”

A telegram received from his representative Leonard Curtis, from Colorado Springs, promised Tesla that he would at last be able to realize the project on which he had been working for the past few years.

In Colorado, Tesla intended to devote himself to the realization of a twofold aim: to make a wireless system superior to Marconi’s, and to find a way of sending enormous quantities of energy to all ends of the world. For both ideas he could rely only on the knowledge and experience which he alone had acquired.

He set out from New York by train on May 1, 1899. George Scherff took over the care of the laboratory in New York. Tesla left him a precise and long list of instructions for the purchase and housing of the new equipment — and so much money that, in fact, it could cover only the costs of the rent and the maintenance of the laboratory. He thought, let them manage, and soon they would all jointly share the glory and the money from the new experimental range.

As soon as he arrived in Colorado Springs he went to a hotel. He chose room 207 (the number is divisible by three, and the room was on the first floor, so he did not have to use the elevator). He instructed the chambermaid to leave him 18 towels every day.

The land for the future laboratory was about two kilometers east of Colorado Springs, at 1800 meters above sea level.

He announced to the journalists that he had come to build a device which would be able to send messages by wireless from Colorado to Paris, probably by the time of the Paris Exposition of 1900.

In the previous decade Tesla had already filed a whole series of patents in the field of wireless transmission of energy and messages, beginning with the basic devices for the production of high frequencies and voltages.²² His apparatus could produce a current of four million volts, and now he intended to build a still more powerful one. The tests had to be conducted in the greatest secrecy — or, at least, in the kind of secrecy possible in a small town in which a famous inventor with a whole heap of strange equipment had suddenly appeared.

During the building of the experimental station Tesla traveled daily to the building site by chaise. He always sat so that his legs hung over the side, ready to jump off if necessary. He equally had no confidence in horses and elevators. (Soon the horses in Colorado Springs would have just as much reason not to trust him, for when he announced his experiments the electricity which spread over the surrounding meadows in all directions frightened and drove the poor animals to flee headlong.)

Unexplained phenomena

On the fence around the building site a warning was placed: “Do not approach — very dangerous.” When the building of the station was finished, on the board was written: “Let every hope be abandoned by all who enter.” Rumors quickly spread that Tesla’s new devices could kill a hundred people with a single flash.

The station, after its completion, dominated the whole area. From the open part of the roof a tower rose 24 meters from the ground. On it was still another, narrower one, with a copper sphere at the top, 37 meters high.

The transmitter which Tesla then built in Colorado would later be proclaimed his greatest invention. The truth is that this invention of Tesla’s still arouses the most interest to this day. Whenever it has been discussed in recent years, it has caused