Nikola Tesla Books
have obsoleted a few billion dollars worth of power generators and equipment already in use today. But the benefits gained from a "Universal Power System" might have far out-weighed anything that we can even comprehend today. Vast new industrial enterprises, heretofore uneconomical, might have opened up new jobs for millions of the earth's people. As Tesla said, "THIS ONE DISCOVERY WOULD PUT THE WORLD AHEAD A CENTURY." Heat, light and power could be produced so economically that even the Eskimos could enjoy the benefits from Tesla's greatest contribution to humanity. The advances made in our industrial age, by the inauguration and use of alternating current and the electric motor, might appear trivial by comparison to his "triumph of all discoveries."
New frontiers might be opened, unlimited power for all of America, for all the world, inexpensive power for the farmer to light and heat his home, to drive his tractors, to harvest his grain, to increase his food output, electric power for millions of homes so economical that every appliance including the furnace could be operated electrically. New industries would spring into existence. Our nation and in fact the world, would truly move into an "electrical age", which might be the real beginning of a "GOLDEN AGE OF CIVILIZATION". The economic conditions of the entire world would be repidly improved. Economic pressures would be reduced to lessen the dangers of another war and complete destruction by the ICBM with H-Bomb warheads. Automobiles, trains and aeroplanes would be driven by high speed electric motors, the most efficient form of power. Could it be that there were some who did not care to understand Tesla's invention?
To state that Nikola Tesla was a very unusual man is putting it very mildly. To state that he lived in another world, might be more suitable. Tesla appeared to possess almost "super-natural powers". He thought in an abstract world of his own ... the "fourth-dimensional world". Few people could understand what he was thinking or doing. Most of his work was too far advanced for other scientists to comprehend. Thus, Dr. Tesla stood aloof and far ahead of the entire scientific world. He was the Master Scientist and Discoverer of our age. His students became the famous scientists of America. Millikan, Compton, Armstrong, Alexanderson, Von De Graff, are but a few of those who were his students. Even Steinmetz and Marconi came to him for technical assistance and advice.
When Tesla applied for patents, there were no patent attorneys capable of understanding the technical aspects of his inventions. Consequently, he was forced to write most of his own patents. Like many great men, he was regarded as "eccentric" by those who could not comprehend his work. In later years, even the scientific world "scoffed" at some of his claims and statements. They considered Tesla old and senile. There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which can not fail to seep men in everlasting ignar This principle is contempt prior to examination. When anything new is proposed, the strongest opposition to it usually arises from the class whose "pockets are affected by the proposed change." From this viewpoint, it is not difficult to understand the opposition that Dr. Tesla was up against; why he is almost unknown to the American public. After his death in 1943, the government took custody of his papers, documents and the remains of his 50 years of scientific research work. Later, this material went to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, where the Tesla Institute was established in 1948.
