Nikola Tesla FBI Files - Page 157

# 1: THE LEGACY →→ 290 unlike Tesla's own, a Department of Defense fact sheet compares particle beams to "directed lightning bolts" -although without explicitly admitting that such a weapon has in fact been developed. It is difficult to assess the current state of the beam-weapons program because virtually everything about it is heavily classified. Apparently the technology involved has proved to be complex and difficult, raising questions about the project's feasibilty, but many experts nevertheless seem to be hard at work on the problem. At the same time, the activities of the other nations in this area have been monitored carefully by agencies of the federal government. Indeed the possibility of creating a family of particle-beam weapons has been a subject of serious discussion in this country for at least the past twentyfive years, and it is, in my opinion, of no little significance that as long ago as 1947 the Military Intelligence Service Identified the writings about a particle-beam among Tesla's scientific papers as being "of extreme importance." Since he had no laboratory in the later years of his life, Tesla was unable to develop his ideas. But it is undeniable that he described In general terms half a century ago what may prove to be one of the main weapons of the Space Age. And to the end of his days, Tesla the pacifist hoped that such knowledge would be used, not for war among Earthlings, but for interplanetary communication with our neighbors in space, of whose existence he felt certain. Bibliographical Essay Some of Tesla's own writing-lectures, articles, patents, papers, and letters is now available in the United States. His most important lectures and his brief autobiography, In bound volumes, ave listed in the prologue to the reference notes. Citation of biographies of Tesla by O'Neill, Hunt, and Draper, and others may be found in the reference notes. The O'Neill manuscript and the Swezey Collection are to be found at the Smithsonian Institution, Dibner Library Serious Tesla scholars will wish to consult the annotated Dr. Nikola Tesla Bibliography by J. T. Ratzlaff, and L. 1. Anderson (San Carlos, California, Ragusan Press, 1979), for it contains some 3,000 sources of writings by and about Tesla. "Priority in the Invention of Radio, Tesla v Marconi," by Leland Anderson may be obtained through the Antique Wireless Association, Monograph New Series No: 4. A new means of analyzing Tesla's inventions is provided in Dr. Nikola Tesla: Selected Patent Wrappers from The National Archives, by J. T. Ratzlaff (Millbrae, Ca., Tesla Book Co., 1980). These "file wrappers provide explanations and correspondence between the patentee and the Patent Office, to overcome objections raised by the examiner. Tesla's Colorado Springs Notes, 1899-1900, published in 1978 by the Tesla Museum, is available through Nolit, Terazije, 27, Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The Library of Congress Manuscripts Division contains microfilm correspondence between Tesla and George Scherff, Robert Underwood Johnson, Mark Twain, members of the Morgan family, George Westinghouse, and the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company In addition original correspondence and photographs may be found at the Butler Library, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Columbia University, including letters between Teslą and Johnson, Scherff, and 291 157