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Conspiracy file · 1856–1943

Nikola Tesla

Serbian-American inventor (1856–1943) whose alternating-current system still runs the power grid. He died alone in a New York hotel room, and the government seized his papers within days, which is where the legends begin.

Also known as Никола Тесла · Master of Lightning

On the recordTimelineFrom the comicsIn Paranoid American comicsSources & further reading

Nikola Tesla, a panel from a Paranoid American comic
From Time Samplers #4

The story

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Smiljan, in today's Croatia, to a Serbian family, and arrived in New York in 1884. After about six months at Thomas Edison's machine works he struck out on his own. His alternating-current motor and polyphase system, licensed to George Westinghouse in 1888, lit the 1893 Chicago world's fair and became the backbone of modern power grids.

He built the Tesla coil, chased wireless power at Colorado Springs and at Wardenclyffe on Long Island, and collected around 300 patents. The later years were harder: Wardenclyffe failed and its tower came down in 1917, and the press reported his promises of a "death ray". He died alone at the Hotel New Yorker on January 7, 1943. At the FBI's request his belongings were seized; MIT engineer John G. Trump went through them and found nothing dangerous.

That seizure feeds the theory: that Tesla had free energy, weather control or a superweapon, and that J. P. Morgan, the government or both buried it. His name now turns up behind HAARP, the Philadelphia Experiment and the Montauk Chair.

Memorandum for the recordSubject: Nikola Tesla

On the record

  1. Born July 10, 1856, in Smiljan, then in the Austrian Empire, now in Croatia.
  2. Arrived in New York in June 1884 and worked about six months at the Edison Machine Works.
  3. Licensed his AC patents to Westinghouse in July 1888 for $60,000 in cash and stock, plus $2.50 per horsepower in royalties.
  4. Became a U.S. citizen on July 30, 1891.
  5. J. P. Morgan put $150,000 into Wardenclyffe in 1901; the tower was demolished in 1917.
  6. In 1943 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down key claims of Marconi's radio patent, citing earlier work by Tesla, Oliver Lodge and John Stone Stone.
  7. The SI unit of magnetic flux density, the tesla, was named after him in 1960.

The theory

  • The story goes that J. P. Morgan pulled out of Wardenclyffe because free wireless power couldn't be metered.
  • The papers seized after his death held a working death ray, and the government kept it.
  • His oscillator could cause earthquakes. Tesla himself claimed in 1935 that one shook his Manhattan lab in 1898.
  • His ideas live on in secret projects: HAARP, the Philadelphia Experiment and Montauk.

Timeline

  1. 1856Born in Smiljan (July 10)
  2. 1884Arrives in New York; joins the Edison Machine Works
  3. 1888Demonstrates his AC motor (May 16); Westinghouse licenses the patents
  4. 1891Patents the Tesla coil; becomes a U.S. citizen
  5. 1893Westinghouse lights the Chicago world's fair with Tesla's polyphase system
  6. 1899Opens his experimental station in Colorado Springs
  7. 1901J. P. Morgan funds Wardenclyffe on Long Island
  8. 1917The Wardenclyffe tower is demolished
  9. 1934Tells reporters about a weapon to end war, soon called the "death ray"
  10. 1943Dies at the Hotel New Yorker (January 7); his effects are seized; the Supreme Court rules on the Marconi patent (June 21)
  11. 1960The SI unit tesla is named after him

From the comics

Panels straight from the page. Click one to read it full size.

From Time Samplers #4: Blowing Out the Candle · Pages 8 and 11

His Name Was Nikola Tesla

In the Akashic Library, an owl shows Luna the statue of a man whose fire was put out by "those who controlled him": Nikola Tesla. Back in the real world, Dr. Vodnar turns out to be a fan. Most of what he says checks out.

His Name Was Nikola Tesla, 1 of 5
His Name Was Nikola Tesla, 2 of 5 His Name Was Nikola Tesla, 3 of 5
His Name Was Nikola Tesla, 4 of 5 His Name Was Nikola Tesla, 5 of 5
  1. Patriarch of patents: fair. Tesla took out about 300 patents worldwide; at least 278 are known, from 26 countries. Tsar of transistors: not so much. The transistor was invented at Bell Labs in 1947, four years after he died.
  2. Anything that plugs into a wall: alternating current. Tesla's AC motor and polyphase system, licensed to Westinghouse in 1888, is the basis of the grid. Radios: in 1943 the Supreme Court struck down key claims of Marconi's radio patent, citing earlier work by Tesla, Oliver Lodge and John Stone Stone.

Get the evidence

In Paranoid American comics

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