Priority in Alternating Current Motors

Mr. Nikola Tesla, says the London Electrical Engineer, on Oct. 7, 1887, filed an application for patents in America, having already built and shown his machine in work and formed a company to exploit it some months before this. Mr. Tesla was run very close in claim for priority by Mr. Haselwander, whose machine, built in 1887, is now being shown at work at the Frankfort Exhibition. We have inquired of Messrs. Lahmeyer & Co., of Frankfort, who hold the Haselwander patents, as to the exact dates of the construction of this motor. They state that the first Haselwander rotary-current motor was constructed in the summer of 1887, and was set to work on Oct. 12, 1887. The first application for a patent for the said motor was made on July 21, 1888. As the patents were applied for by Tesla on Oct. 12, 1887, and were actually issued on May 1, 1888, 17 days before the publication in England of Prof. Ferraris’ Italian paper on “Alternating Motors,” and two months and a half before the date of Haselwander’s patent, this would seem to settle the question, at any rate with the present data before us, in favor of Mr. Tesla.