Biography Index - Previous
Page - List of Patents
In Tesla's later years, he released numerous
inventions that
failed commercially and eventually brought him to another nervous
breakdown.
"My enemies
have been so successful in portraying me
as a poet and a visionary," said Tesla, "that I must put out
something commercial without delay." [01]
Tesla planned to build a large tower in
Colorado
Springs, consisting of a large copper ball containing a large tesla
coil. The
tower would not only absorb electricity from the earth and atmosphere,
but
could also transmit information to anywhere in the world. J.P Morgan
was the
key investor and shared Tesla's dream of the tower's capabilities.
During the
construction, the market began to fall and the prices for the materials
almost
doubled. When Tesla pleaded to Morgan that he needed significantly more
money,
Morgan dropped the project all together. It has since been dubbed
"Tesla's
million dollar folly".
Tesla would release more patents and inventions,
including
the nation's first radar system, all without commercial success. He
began
spending more time walking in the park and tending to injured pigeons.
He would
even ask the hotel chef to make special seed mix that he hoped to sell
commercially, a sign of his dwindling mental health. He kept a meager
living by
working as a consulting engineer.
Tesla would often speak out against Albert Einstein,
". . .insisting
that energy is not contained in matter, but in the space between the
particles
of an atom." [01]
The last patent that Tesla received was in 1928, at
age 72.
The patent was of a flying transportation machine that could take off
from
almost any location, resembling both a helicopter and a plane (known
today as a
VSTOL, vertical short takeoff and landing). Tesla never had the money
to build
a prototype.
Tesla died alone and penniless on January 7th, 1943,
in room
3327 of the New Yorker Hotel. The United State's Alien Property
Custodian
office impounded all of the documents, papers, and transcripts found in
Tesla's
home after his death, even though Tesla was a naturalized US citizen.
The
documents consisted of unfinished plans Tesla had been working on,
including
plans for a "Death Ray". Tesla's family and the Yugoslav Embassy
fought with American authorities to get the materials back. Tesla's
nephew Sava
Kosanovic finally succeeded in retrieving the materials which now
remain in the
Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, along with Nikola Tesla's ashes.
Tesla's favorite white pidgeon
Tesla's
aircraft patent