Nikola Tesla Books
CHAPTER ONE 'Tesla did far more than that; in fact he was responsible for the world's first electrical power project. He harnessed the energy of Niagara Falls and took it to the city of Buffalo.' I was surprised at this information: why had his name not seemed more familiar to me? 'I thought that Edison or Westinghouse developed electric power,' I said. Schneider continued: 'And there are claims that he did far more than that; the extraction of gases, a remote controlled boat, even radio communication. 'Oh come on,' I interjected, 'I won't go that far. We all know that Marconi invented radio.' Schneider paused and looked down at the file. 'There is a group of people who think that Tesla did some pretty dramatic things. It's all documented here but I really don't have time enough to deal with it properly.' He smiled at me. 'I was hoping that you would look at it for me.' I was puzzled. If Tesla had worked on the Niagara Falls power project then he must have been active at the turn of the century. He must have died decades ago. Why was the Research Council interested in a set of inventions which could be anything from fifty to a hundred years old? 'What these people are saying,' Schneider continued, 'is that Tesla's biggest discovery has been ignored by the scientific world.' 'You mean he's some sort of forgotten genius? What is it that he's supposed to have invented?" I asked. 'Oh, something very surprising: broadcast power! He claimed that he could send electrical energy anywhere across the world without the need for wires and, what's more, without any losses at all. One hundred per cent efficient.' 'But that's crazy. Broadcast power like that won't work. What on earth did he mean?' Schneider turned over several pages of the file. 'Some of our own people have had a look at his invention and they don't think much of it. But we have to go into it more carefully and give these people a proper answer. It's not going to be all that easy.' He handed me the file and I began to turn the pages casually. An item from a newspaper caught my eye. I turned the clipping over and read it 14
