Nikola Tesla FBI Files - Page 149

{ THE MISSING PAPERS →→ 274 to Dr. Trump were Willis George, Office of Naval Intelligence, Third Naval District, Edward Palmer, chief yeoman, USNR, and John d Corbett, chief yeoman, USNR. Dr. Trump reported afterward that r examination was made of the vast amount of Tesla's property that had been in the basement of the New Yorker Hotel for ten years prior to his death, or of any of his papers except those in his immediate possession at the time of death. It should be remembered that Tesla's scientific reputation had been in eclipse for a number of years and that there had been many efforts to discredit his claims in radio, robotry, and alternating current. Dr. Trump was a busy man, just as the staff of the FBI was stretched thin by its preoccupation with investigating wartime sabotage. "As a result of this examination," wrote Dr. Trump, "it is my considered opinion that there exist among Dr. Tesla's papers and possessions no scientific notes, descriptions of hitherto unrevealed methods or devices, or actual apparatus which could be of significant value to this country or which would constitute a hazard in unfriendly hands. I can therefore see no technical or military reason why further custody of the property should be retained.* He added: "For your records, there has been removed to your office a file of various written material by Dr. Tesla which covers typically and fairly completely the ideas with which he was concemed during his later years. These documents are enumerated and briefly abstracted in the attachment to this letter." In closing Dr. Trump said: "It should be no discredit to this distinguished engineer and scientist, whose solid contributions to the electrical art were made at the beginning of the present century, to report that his thoughts and efforts during at least the past fifteen years were primarily of a speculative, philosophical, and somewhat promotional character-often concerned with the production and wireless transmission of power-but did not include new sound, workable principles or methods for realizing such results." The file (of which Dr. Trump's notes were only an abstract) consisted apparently of either photostats or microfilm made by the naval officers present, and the original papers apparently remained in storage, later to be transmitted to Yugoslavia. The examination had failed to disclose any alien-owned property subject to the vesting power of the Alien Property Custodian under the Trading with the Enemy Act Tesla's papers and personal effects were released in THE MISSING PAPERS 275 February of 1943 for disposition by Kosanović, the administrator of his ....... · Dr. Trump's abstract included the following: "Art of Telegeodynamics, or Art of Producing Terrestrial Motions at Distance-This document, in the form of a letter dated June 12, 1940, to the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., proposes a method for the transmission of large amounts of power over vast distances by means of mechanical vibrations of the earth's crust. The source of power is a mechanical or electromechanical device bolted to some rocky protuberance and imparting power at a resonance frequency of the earth's crust. The proposed scheme appears to be completely visionary and unworkable. Westinghouse's ply indicates their polite rejection.….. "New Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-Dispersive Energy through Natural Media-This undated document by Tesis describes an electrostatic method of producing very high voltages and capable of very great power. This generator is used to accelerate charged particles, presumably electrons. Such a beam of high-energy electrons passing through air is the concentrated nondispersive' means by which energy is transmitted through natural media. As a component of this apparatus there is described an open-ended vacuum tube within which the electrons are first accelerated. "The proposed scheme bears some relation to present means for producing high-energy cathode rays by the cooperative use of a high-voltage electrostatic generator and an evacuated electron acceleration tube. It is well known, however, that such devices, while of scientific and medical Interest, are incapable of the transmission of large amounts of power in nondispersed beams over long distances. Tesla's disclosures in this memorandum would not enable the construction of workable combinations of generator and tube even of limited power, though the general elements of such a combination are succinctly described. "A Method Producing Powerful Radiations—an undated. memorandum in Tesla's handwriting describing a new process of generating powerful rays or radiations. This memorandum reviews the works of Lenard and Crookes, describes Tesla's work on the production of high voltages, and finally in the last paragraph gives the only description of the invention contained in the memorandum.….. 'Briefly stated, my new simplified process of generating powerful rays consiste 149