Nikola Tesla and His Works - On the Occassion of the Eightieth Anniversary Page 24

as an individual, manifests itself as ungrateful, selfish, and greedy. Challenges arise, and even lawsuits claiming that Tesla has no right to primacy for his discoveries and inventions. However, the highest patent judge, Townsend, delivers his highest judgment, which is not just an official verdict but a lyrical celebration of the greatest genius of our time. Evil does not stop there. Abuses and exploitation of his inventions follow, but something even worse emerges. A witty writer said that in literature, stealing is allowed under one condition only, on the condition that the writer is killed immediately. He meant surpassing the writer with such a new work that renders his value null. Tesla’s opponents were too weak for such a “murder.” However, they resorted to a lower, cruder, more inhuman, and brutal method. They couldn’t surpass Tesla’s achievements, but they found a new weapon: they killed him with silence. This weapon proved to be terrifying in just ten years. Tesla endured it not for ten, but twenty years or more. Every success, often achieved in nine-tenths of Tesla’s work, was praised loudly but always under deliberately strong names. The account was accurate. Tesla’s name increasingly fell into oblivion, overshadowed by new achievements and less familiarity with older works. His name became something vague, outdated, and far less than its true value. But even that terrifying ordeal, that bitter struggle, previously unknown, Tesla endured. This chapter of his life will be the most poignant, always leaving a deep impression on new generations, the impression left by the lives of people whose tragedy lies in their greatness. In that part of his life, Tesla confirmed the truth of Boža Knežević’s thought that through the narrow corridor of life, a great man passes all battered. From that pretest temptation, which would crush many, Tesla emerged triumphantly. This year, he will celebrate his beautiful old age of 80 in full glory, physically and spiritually vigorous and confident that justice will prevail, and time will mend the injustices inflicted upon him. He believes he will again open his great horn of abundance in full glory and greatness, from which new discoveries and inventions might flow, illuminating and warming this “valley of tears” and “cry,” raising human life to a higher and more dignified level, uplifting and refining humanity.

Nikola Tesla’s great discoveries and inventions will hold a unique place in the history of human progress, but his singular personality will serve as an irreplaceable moral example, an ideal that the best in future generations will strive for through the centuries.

Belgrade

Nikola T. Petrović