Nikola Tesla FBI Files - Page 147

THE MISSING PAPERS →→→→ 270 under the imprint of the Tesla Museum at Belgrade, were eagerly awaited by many scientists. But even this work left important questions unanswered. The bulk of his papers having vanished from America, reliable Information was harder to come by than the recurring rumors of conspiracy, espionage, and patent theft. Scientists thought it strange that some aspects of his Colorado Springs research found in scattend sources did not appear in the Yugoslav-published Notes. Only by placing together fragmentary information could the magnitude of his experiments be comprehended. Around 1928 O'Neill, by merest chance, had happened to see a legal advertisement in a New York newspaper announcing that six boxes placed in storage by Nikola Tesla would be sold by the storage warehouse for unpaid bills. Feeling that such material should be preserved, he went to the Inventor and asked permission to try to obtain funds to reclaim the material. "Tesla hit the ceiling," he recalled. "He assured me he was wall able to take care of his own affairs.... He forbid me to buy them or do anything in any way about them.” Shortly after the inventor died, O'Neill got in touch with Sava Kosanović, told him about the boxes, and urged him to protect them. He was never able to get a positive statement from Kosanović that he had obtained the boxes and examined the contents. "He gave evesive assurances that there was no reason for me to worry..." Others too were interested in the papers. A young American engineer engaged in war work consulted Tesla on a ballistics engineering problem because he could not get time on an overworked computer, and Tesla's mind was known to offer the nearest thing to it Soon he became fascinated with Tesla's scientific papers and was allowed to take batches of them home to his hotel room where he and another American engineer pored over them each night. They were returned the next day, a procedure which continued for about two weeks prior to the Inventor's death. Tesla had received offers to work for Germany and Russia. After the inventor died, both engineers became concerned that critical scientific information might fall into foreign hands and alerted United States security agencies and high government officials. The relevant records that I have obtained from federal agencies under the Freedom of Information Act reveal strange twistings and inconsistencies in the handling of the Inventor's estate. Tesla left tons of papers, barrels and boxes full of them. But he left no will. He was THE MISSING PAPERS →→→→ 271 survived by five nieces and nephews, of whom two lived in America at the time of his death. Curiously, the FBI released his estate to the Office of Allen Property, which promptly sealed the contents. Since Tesla was an American citizen, the OAP's concem in the matter was hard to justify After a court hearing, however, the estate was relapsed to Ambassador Kosanović, one of the heirs. Swenay, who also had hoped to write a biography of Tesla (his death intervened), received the following account in 1963 from a former side of Ambassador Kosanović's: "Back in 1943... when Tesla died, it was a matter of very short time when Mr. K was issued a certificate from or by the Office of Custodian of Alien Property conveying to Mr. K full rights to the Tesla papers.... he had them all packed up and sent off to the Manhattan Storage Company where they remained until ready for packing and shipping off to Yugoslavia in 1952. Mr. K paid for storage charges.... All this time the certificate from the Allen Property Office was in my possession (in case of need).... "You will perhaps remember that a number of times Mr. K. mentioned the fact that the custodian at the storage warehouse told him that some goverment guys were in to microfilm some of the papers when we opened the safe in the present museum building (in Belgrade, Yugoslavia) the bunch of keys, which was the last thing Mr. K. flung into the safe at the New Yorker Hotel before the combination was re-set to a new combination, were not found in the safe, but in an entirely different box. Also the gold medal (the Edison Medal) was missing from the safe.... Anyway, for years and years Mr. K was bothered by the fact that Tesla papers had been gone thru and just before his departure from Washington in 1949-50(?) he decided to follow my suggestion to call Edgar & Hoover (sic) and ask him. Me Hoover denied categorically that the FBI had gone into the papers.….. The aide said Tesla had told his nephew that "he wished to leave his works, property, etc., to his native country" (Not only is this uncorroborated but the papers were in English.) Immediately after Tesla's death an exchange of telegrams flew between FBI Agent Ennworth of the field division of the New York Bureau and the director of the New York Bureau of the FBI. The day following discovery of the body, Agent Foxworth reported: "Experiments and research of Nikola Tesla, deceased. Espionage M. Nikola Tesla, one of the world's outstanding scientists in the electrical field, died January seventh, nineteen forty three at the Pada tang .. 2. 147