Tesla, Inventor, Can't Pay Taxes

Once Owner of $500,000 Plant Sued for $935 — Now Lives on Credit.

Thirty-three years of unceasing ef. forts for humanity by Nikola Tesla, inventor and engineer, whose name is known wherever electricity is used, have proved to be a labor of love alone. The man who ranks with Edison and Marconi yesterday confessed himself not only unable to pay his personal taxes, but dependent on credit for the necessities of life.

As a living proof of the inability of a genius to convert his gifts into cash, Tesla presented himself as Exhibit A in supplementary proceedings instituted by Corporation Counsel Hardy for $935 personal taxes. Justice Finch, of the Supreme Court, has appointed R. McMath receiver for the inventor. Eighty independent inventions, every one of which has been adopted by the engineering world, have failed to place a penny in the pocket of the man who created them.

Only a few years ago Tesla owned nine-tenths of the stock of the Nikola Tesla Company, a $500,000 corporation, with offices at 8 West Fortieth Street. All of this stock was used as security on loans to be used in making new inventions. Just now the inventor has neither place of business nor home. He is occupying a room at the Waldorf-Astoria which, according to his testimony, he is allowed to occupy while owing the hotel a bill that has been unpaid for years.

"How do you live?" asked Corporation Counsel Hardy, who examined Tesla.

"Why, mostly on credit," he answered, after some hesitation.

"Has the Tesla company any assets?"

"No, not now," said its founder. "It is getting a little in royalties, but not enough to pay expenses."

"Do you own any patents?"

"No, not any more. All of them have been assigned to various creditors or to the company. There were more than 200 patents."

In answer to a question whether there were any judgments against him. Tesla said there were scores of them — and more pending. He said he had no money in the bank nor elsewhere. When asked whether he had any jewelry he said he abhorred it.

Probably the greatest of Tesla's numerous inventions was that of tho alternating motor, into which was compressed the maximum of horse power in the minimum of space and weight of material. His 200-horsepower engine was of such size that it could be placed in a receptacle little larger than a hat box.

A 10-horsepower engine was constructed by Tesla of such diminutive proportions that it might be dangled from the hand by a string. The possibilities of this method of storing power, as well as the numerous uses to which an alternating motor might be put, were such that scientists unhesitatingly said it would bring untold wealth to its inventor.

The Tesla arc light, methods of eliminating waste in distribution of electricity, development of wireless telegraphy and numerous other practical inventions at various times promised to bring wealth to their creator. But money was as hard to lure into the pockets of Tesla as engineering ideas were easy to bring from his brain. Practically all of his engineering dreams have come true without bringing about the realization of one of his modest dreams of financial independence.

Largely as a matter of form, the justice appointed a receiver for Tesla be- cause of the city's claim against him. Neither Tesla nor the receiver expects to find anything to receive.