Tesla: The Life and Times of an Electric Messiah (17 page)

Asked when this would happen, he said: ‘I have been leading a secluded life, one of continuous, concentrated thought and deep meditation. Naturally enough I have accumulated a great number of ideas. The question is whether my physical powers will be adequate to working them out and giving them to the world.'

He also claimed that with 15 million volts – ‘the highest ever used' – he split atoms over and over again, but no energy was released. The
Time
article carried several other amusing stories about Tesla. It said that he left the ‘swank' Hotel St Regis after the maids complained that he kept four pet pigeons in his roll-top desk and that, while walking down an icy Fifth Avenue, ‘he slipped, threw himself into a flying somersault, landed on his feet, unperturbed kept on walking'.
Time
reported more eccentricities:

At the Hotel Governor Clinton where he now lives, if someone rings him up on the telephone or knocks at his door and he does not want to answer, he locks himself in the bathroom, turns the water loudly on. He is very sensitive to sensory stimuli. When he gets excited, blinding lights flash through his mind. He retreats to bed. A lifelong bachelor, habitually he goes to bed at 5.30 am, rises at 10.30 am. But he does not sleep the whole period. Proudly, yet almost plaintively, he explains: ‘I roll around and work on my problems.'

 

The Plaudits of Peers

Birthday accolades flooded in. Over a hundred letters of congratulation were received from other scientists or inventors including Sir Oliver Lodge, Lee De Forest and Albert Einstein. Notably absent were birthday greetings from Marconi and Pupin. And none could match the tribute bestowed on Edison when he died 3 months later and the lights of New York were dimmed in reverence.

Naturally, Tesla was full of new predictions. ‘I feel that we are nearing a period when the human mind will perform greater wonders than ever before,' he said. ‘This is due to the continuous refinement of means and methods of observation and ever-increasing delicacy of our perception.'

We were about to conquer nature, contact beings on other planets and transmit huge amounts of power vast distances. A reporter from
The New York Times
again asked when he was going to make his discovery public. ‘There was a trace of regret in his voice as he answered,' said the paper, ‘and the look of a man who has work enough for centuries and only a few years to do it in.' Tesla then quoted Goethe. ‘He had not read Goethe for 40 years, he said, and he quoted it from memory.'

He was also at odds with the new ideas of quantum mechanics. ‘There is no chance in nature,' he said, ‘although the modern theory of indeterminacy attempts to show scientifically that events are governed by chance. I positively deny that. The causes and effects, however complex, are intimately linked, and the result of all inferences must be inevitably fixed as by a mathematical formula.'

 

Waves in Time and Space

He re-asserted that human beings were automatons completely under the control of external forces and he denied the existence of individuality, saying:

It took me not less than 20 years to develop a faculty to trace every thought or act of mine to an external influence. We are just waves in time and space, changing continuously, and the illusion of individuality is produced through the concatenation of the rapidly succeeding phases of existence. What we define as likeness is merely the result of the symmetrical arrangement of molecules which compose our body.

He also denied the existence of the soul or spirit, saying they were merely expressions of the functions of the body. ‘These functions cease with death and so do soul and spirit,' he said. ‘What humanity needs is ideals. Idealism is the force that will free us from material fetters.'

 

Photographing Thought

At 77, Tesla told a journalist from the
Kansas City Journal-Post
that he expected soon to be able to photograph thoughts, explaining:

In 1893, while engaged in certain investigations, I became convinced that a definite image formed in thought must, by reflex action, produce a corresponding image on the retina, which might possibly be read by suitable apparatus. This brought me to my system of television, which I announced at that time. My idea was to employ an artificial retina receiving the image of the object seen, an ‘optic nerve' and another such retina at the place of reproduction. These two retinas were to be constructed after the fashion of a checkerboard with many separate little sections, and the so-called optic nerve was nothing more than a part of the earth.

An invention of mine enables me to transmit simultaneously, and without any interference whatsoever, hundreds of thousands of distinct impulses through the ground just as though I had so many separate wires. I did not contemplate using any moving part – a scanning apparatus or a cathodic ray, which is a sort of moving device, the use of which I suggested in one of my lectures.

Now if it be true that a thought reflects an image on the retina, it is a mere question of illuminating the same property and taking photographs, and then using the ordinary methods which are available to project the image on a screen. If this can be done successfully, then the objects imagined by a person would be clearly reflected on the screen as they are formed, and in this way every thought of the individual could be read. Our minds would then, indeed, be like open books.

As always, he claimed to have discovered a new source of power. He was not ready to go into details. He had to check his findings before they could be formally announced. But he had been working the underlying principles for many years. From the practical point of view, his generator would require a huge initial investment, but once a machine was installed it would work indefinitely and the cost of operation would be next to nothing.

But this time he gave more details. The design was relatively simple – ‘just a big mass of steel, copper and aluminium, comprising a stationary and rotating part, peculiarly assembled'. The electricity would then be distributed long distances by his AC system which, he said, already distributed 30 million horsepower of waterpower, and there were projects then going on all over the world which would double that amount.

‘Unfortunately, there is not enough water power to satisfy the present needs,' he said, ‘and everywhere inventors and engineers are endeavouring to unlock some additional store of energy.'

 

The Formula for a Long Life

In his eighth decade, Tesla still expected to live a long time and reflected on life and longevity.

Quite early in life I set about disciplining myself, planning out a programme of living for what I considered the most sane and worthwhile life. Since I love my work above all things, it is only natural that I should wish to continue it until I die. I want no vacation – no surcease from my labours. If people would select a life work compatible with their temperaments, the sum total of happiness would be immeasurably increased in the world.

Many are saddened and depressed by the brevity of life. ‘What is the use of attempting to accomplish anything?' they say. ‘Life is so short. We may never live to see the completion of the task.' Well, people could prolong their lives considerably if they would but make the effort. Human beings do so many things that pave the way to an early grave.

First of all, we eat too much, but this we have heard said often before. And we eat the wrong kinds of foods and drink the wrong kinds of liquids. Most of the harm is done by overeating and under-exercising, which bring about toxic conditions in the body and make it impossible to throw off the accumulated poisons.

My regime for the good life and my diet? Well, for one thing, I drink plenty of milk and water. Why overburden the bodies that serve us? I eat but two meals a day, and I avoid all acid-producing foods. Almost everyone eats too many peas and beans and other foods containing uric acid and other poisons. I partake liberally of fresh vegetables, fish and meat sparingly, and rarely. Fish is reputed as fine brain food, but has a very strong acid reaction, as it contains a great deal of phosphorus. Acidity is by far the worst enemy to fight off in old age.

Potatoes are splendid, and should be eaten at least once a day. They contain valuable mineral salts and are neutralizing. I believe in plenty of exercise. I walk 8 or 10 miles every day, and never take a cab or other conveyances when I have the time to use leg power. I also exercise in my bath daily, for I think that this is of great importance. I take a warm bath, followed by a prolonged cold shower.

Sleep? I scarcely ever sleep. I come of a long-lived family, but it is noted for its poor sleepers. I expect to match the records of my ancestors and live to be at least 100. My sleeplessness does not worry me. Sometimes I doze for an hour or so. Occasionally, however, once in a few months, I may sleep for 4 or 5 hours. Then I awaken virtually charged with energy, like a battery. Nothing can stop me after such a night. I feel great strength then. There is no doubt about it but that sleep is a restorer, a vitalizer, that it increases energy. But on the other hand, I do not think it is essential to one's well being, particularly if one is habitually a poor sleeper.

Today, at 77, as a result of a well-regulated life, sleeplessness notwithstanding, I have an excellent certificate of health. I never felt better in my life. I am energetic, strong, in full possession of all my mental facilities. In my prime I did not possess the energy I have today. And what is more, in solving my problems I use but a small part of the energy I possess, for I have learned how to conserve it. Because of my experience and knowledge gained through the years, my tasks are much lighter. Contrary to general belief, work comes easier for older people if they are in good health, because they have learned through years of practice how to arrive at a given place by the shortest path.

 

Developing the Death Ray

Tesla had inherited a deep hatred of war from his father. Throughout his life, he sought ways to end warfare. Short of that, he thought wars should be fought out between machines. His idea for a death ray began back in the 1890s when he produced a type of lamp which, with a beam of electrons, could vaporize zirconia or diamonds. And in 1915, he talked of beaming energy from Wardenclyffe, that would ‘paralyze or kill'.

In World War I, British inventor Harry Grindell-Matthews claimed to have invented a ‘diabolical ray' that could be used against zeppelins. In the early 1920s, both the British and the French governments showed an interest. In 1924, he went to New York where he met Hugo Gernsback and, probably, Tesla. However, Gernsback and Professor W. Severinghouse, a physicist from Columbia University, tried unsuccessfully to duplicate his findings. Not to be outdone, the Germans and the Soviets both claimed to have developed beams that could bring down planes.

But, Tesla was not convinced. In 1934, he said: ‘It is impossible to develop such a ray. I worked on that idea for many years before my ignorance was dispelled and I became convinced that it could not be realized.'

He was working on something that he said was entirely different. ‘This new beam of mine consists of minute bullets moving at a terrific speed, and any amount of power desired can be transmitted by them. The whole plant is just a gun, but one which is incomparably superior to the present.'

The war clouds were gathering over Europe again and, on 11 July 1934,
The New York Times
carried the headline on its front page, reading:
Tesla, at 78, Bares New ‘Death Beam'
. Tesla said his new invention ‘will send concentrated beams of particles through the free air, of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 250 miles (400 km) from a defending nation's borders and will cause armies of millions to drop dead in their tracks'.

The death beam would operate silently at distances as far as you could see with a telescope and limited only by the curvature of the Earth. It would be invisible and leave no marks beyond the evidence of its destruction. An army of a million men would be annihilated in a second and, even with the most powerful microscope, it would not be possible to see what had caused their deaths.

It would also be the perfect defence against bombing. ‘The flying machine has completely demoralized the world,' he wrote, ‘so much that in some cities, as London and Paris, people are in mortal fear of aerial bombing. The new means I have perfected afford absolute protection against this and other forms of attack.'

Tesla said that his death beam would make war impossible by offering every country an ‘invisible Chinese Wall, only a million times more impenetrable'. It would make every nation impregnable to attack by aeroplanes or large invading armies.

While making every nation safe from invasion, Tesla said they could not be used as offensive weapons as the death beam ‘could be generated only from large, stationary and immovable power plants, stationed in the manner of old-time forts at various strategic distances from each country's border … they could not be moved for purposes of attack'.

However, he admitted that smaller generating plants could be mounted on battleships with enough power to destroy incoming aircraft – re-establishing the superiority of the battleship over the aeroplane again. Submarines could also become obsolete, he said, as methods of detecting them had been perfected to the point where there was no point in submerging. Once a submarine had been located, the death beam could be employed as it would work underwater, though not as well as in air.

Elsewhere he proclaimed that the battleship was doomed. ‘What happened to the armoured knight will also happen to the armoured vessel,' he said. The money spent on battleships ‘should be directed in channels that will improve the welfare of the country'.