Nikola Tesla Articles
three words, just to say whether you are healthy, you would please us so much and relieve me of at least some worry. Wishing you firm health, Marica kisses you in spirit with gratitude.”
A Crowd of Tesla’s Young Lady Friends
Sleet driven by a strong wind beat against the windows of Tesla’s laboratory on East Houston Street 46. Assistant Kalman Czito was helping him adjust some machine. Tesla glanced out the window, noticed the blizzard, and remembered Lika and the letter he had just received from Marica. But he had to return to work. Suddenly the telephone rang:
“We did it, Mr. Tesla!” thundered George Westinghouse on the long-distance line from Pittsburgh. “I have just signed the contract under which your alternating current, Mr. Tesla, will be installed to light the World’s Fair in Chicago. Dear friend, the Columbian Exposition is the first electric fair in history, and with it you are moving straight into history.”
The Columbian Exposition was conceived as a celebration of the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, although in reality it was held a year late. President Grover Cleveland invited many distinguished guests and crowned heads, including royal majesties from Spain and Portugal. He even agreed to personally turn the golden switch with his own hand that would release the current and flood the city of tomorrow with light, start the fountains and mighty machinery, raise the flags, and mark the grand opening of the extravaganza. The fact that the president, as the first man of America, agreed to turn the switch showed great courage. Namely, electricity had been introduced into the White House as the official residence of American presidents in 1891, but until then no president had been allowed even to touch a switch because of fear of electricity.
From May to October 1893 about twenty-five million Americans and their guests saw the famous Columbian Exposition in Chicago — at that time one-third of the population of the United States.
The greatest crowds gathered in front of the halls where the famous Nikola Tesla demonstrated his experiments. Wearing a white tie and tailcoat, he stood among the magical devices of high-frequency technology, showing series of electrical wonders. On one part his electric tubes glowed with the names of scientists such as Faraday, Joule, and Maxwell, and among them the name of Zmaj (the poet Jovan Jovanović), which Tesla proudly displayed with love even in America.
“A crowd of Tesla’s young lady friends arrived under strict escort from New York. They flirted with him…” Margaret Cheney noted.
The Chicago fair and Tesla’s inventions were his complete triumph. Everyone was enchanted by Tesla. He was only 37 years old at the time.
