In the Footsteps of Genius Page 22

Tesla’s latest works they could reach a valid assessment for any other measures that might be taken.

“After a thorough examination,” Trump wrote, “it is my opinion that in the scientific legacy of Dr. Tesla there is nothing of value for further investigation or anything which could be used against us if it fell into the hands of the enemy… Tesla’s most significant achievements date from the beginning of this century. In the last, at least fifteen, years all his scientific efforts were of a speculative, philosophical and in a certain way promotional character — most often in connection with the production and the wireless transmission of energy — but they contained no new elements, working principles or methods for the realization of such possibilities.”

To Dr. Trump’s very extensive dossier photographs and microfilms of the examined material were attached. The original documents which Trump then examined are today in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade. After that Tesla’s whole legacy, in February 1943, was placed at the disposal of Sava Kosanović.

Protection against espionage

Like Trump, Swezey too, Tesla’s great friend and perhaps one of the best connoisseurs of his personality and work, did not in those years believe that Tesla had really left behind works which could bring about something revolutionary new.

“Tesla was exceptionally productive for about ten years before the end of the last century and for an equal period after the beginning of the new century. What he did later perhaps carried the seeds of early creativity, but it was never brought to practical realization…”

Perhaps this is to a certain extent true; however, between 1945 and 1947 the Air Technical Service Command (ATSC) at Wright Field, Ohio, where some of the most strictly guarded investigations were conducted, the Military Intelligence (MI) in Washington and the Office of Alien Property (OAP) exchanged several interesting letters and telegrams.

On August 21, 1945, the ATSC requested permission from the command in Washington to send Bois Fitzgerald to Washington for seven days “in order to secure certain documents in which foreign powers are showing interest.”

On September 5, 1945, Colonel Hollyday of the ATSC wrote to Loyd Shaulis of the OAP, confirming the agreement with Fitzgerald and requesting photographs from Trump’s dossier, “for they are needed for a national defense project,” and promising that he would return them in due time. According to the statements from the recently published book by Margaret Cheney, “Tesla — a man out of time”⁴¹