History's Mysteries- Nikola Tesla Part I

This week on History's Mysteries, we're exploring one of the most astonishing and often hidden stories in science: Nikola Tesla. He gave us alternating current, wireless communication, and inventions far ahead of their time. 

http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/1917-05-08.htm.

https://vault.fbi.gov/nikola-tesla/Nikola%20Tesla%20Part%2001/view

https://www.history.com/articles/nikola-tesla-files-declassified-fbi

https://teslauniverse.com/nikola-tesla/articles/nikola-teslas-electric-car-folklore-or-historical-fact#google_vignette

https://www.history.com/articles/nikola-tesla

https://teslasciencecenter.org

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/nikola-teslas-amazing-predictions-for-the-21st-century-26353702/

https://ethw.org/Charles_F._Scott

https://gatescientific.com/technique-geeks-blog/f/tesla-vs-edison-the-feud-that-never-happened#:~:text=In%20the%20usual%20telling%2C%20the%20feud%20begins,in%20his%20face%E2%80%94a%20claim%20Tesla%20never%20made.

https://www.history.com/articles/what-was-the-war-of-the-currents

https://bigthink.com/high-culture/the-secret-to-mark-twains-friendship-with-nikola-tesla/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla#:~:text=After%20graduating%20Tesla%20returned%20to,while%20recovering%20from%20his%20illness.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Welcome to Cashley Presents History's Mysteries, the podcast where we dig into the past's most puzzling stories, unsolved mysteries, and tales that won't stay hidden. We're your hosts, Kevin and Ashley.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Hello.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

In each episode, we'll look at the facts, question the official stories, and explore the darker corners where history gets interesting.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

I didn't know we were doing a history's mysteries episode.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Surprise.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Yeah, I just sat down.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Alright. See how you like this. Whether you're a skeptic, a believer, or just love a good mystery, you're in the right place. Settle in, keep an open mind, and get ready to rethink what you know about the past.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

My mind is open. And I know nothing of the past.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

You know some of this one.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Or doing Nikola.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Nicolai Tesla.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Yep. I'm gonna try it again. This is gonna be two parts, because it's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

And it's not even close to everything, so just the important bits that you wanted to talk about?

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Yeah, if you want to learn more, there's links below, especially there's a bunch of declassified documents from the FBI that you can look at. I didn't get very far into that because there was so much other information.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Seems like they're declassified, then it's stuff that they don't care that you know, which means it's probably not that good or important. Like it isn't the whatever the Warrencliffe Tower or whatever that like produces free energy because it's on a water something and vibrations in the earth. Like they're not releasing that document.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Probably not, no. But I didn't get far in there, so I don't know what's and even if they do have information about that, that's not a part of their classified.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Well, sure. They're not letting free energy out.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

No. Alright, we're gonna start with his early life.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Like when he was a boy or like in college?

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Starting when he was young, so he was born July 10th, 1856, in a small village in what is now Croatia.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Croatia seems nice. Like I wanna go there. I've seen pictures of it and their coasts and stuff like that. And like it seems like a really cool place.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

I worked with someone who went there for a couple years. Nicola was lucky to survive long enough to change the world. As a child, he jumped off the roof of a family's barn, believing an umbrella would let him float safely to the ground.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

This is the same man that had all these inventions? Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

It didn't work. And he was knocked out when he landed. I don't know how old he was, it just says he was young, child says he was a child, so probably young.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Another time, he was accidentally locked inside a remote mountain chapel, so isolated that locals called it a tomb. And he waited alone for hours before someone found him. He was swept away by a river and nearly drowned, but managed to pull himself to safety just in time.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

I wonder how many other Nikola Teslas were in the world, but didn't get out of the river and didn't land into something what did you say landed in hay or something?

SPEAKER_02 3:14

The n the first one?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah, like jumped off the roof.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

No. It just says he fell to the ground and was knocked out.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

I wonder so all the ones that didn't make it, and like their umbrellas caught the wind and it took them up into the sky, never to be seen again. Like how many other ones like how many other smart like people like this just didn't ever get the opportunity because they didn't make it?

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Yeah. I'll tell you about one in just a second.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Once as a young boy, he even fell into a large kettle of boiling milk and had to be rescued.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Are they making cheese? Why are you boiling milk like that?

SPEAKER_02 3:49

I guess is that how you in the eighteen fifties, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

What pasteurized, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Probably heating it to a certain time.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Tesla faced life-threatening situations and survived. Maybe these close calls gave him a strong belief in his own destiny. Uh by the end of his life, the man who once dreamed of powering the world survived on little more than warm milk, bread, and honey.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Same milk from the kettle? It was a large kettle.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Still loved milk, even though he almost drowned in it.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Lasted 80 years.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Before Nikola Tesla became known as the most brilliant mind of his generation, his brother Dane came first. Tesla's older brother, did you know about his brother Dane?

SPEAKER_01 4:32

I I didn't ever know that he had any siblings. I didn't ever really think to ask or find out. Yeah. I mean, that makes sense that he's not an only child, but I looked him up on family search.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

He has several siblings.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

So I saw a thing someone wrote that he that Tesla pushed his brother down the stairs and he died. Oh. But so that's why I looked him up. And so anyways, we're gonna talk about him. He was Dane was Did he do that? Not from what I found, no. Oh, okay. His brother did die, but Dane was five years older and was said to be extremely gifted, the kind of person who stands out and becomes the focus of a family's hopes. Everyone believed Dane was meant for great things, but he never got a chance to prove it. On Dane's twelfth birthday, he was killed by a family horse, which was known to be nervous and easily frightened. Some say he was grooming the horse, others say he was riding it. The details are unclear. But whatever agrees on is that young Nicola was there and saw his brother die, which seems pretty traumatic.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah. So I wonder if Dane I wonder if what Dane would have accomplished. Yeah. Had he not.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Or if Nicola wouldn't have done the things he had done. Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

His brother lived through that. Everyone needs their origin story.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Yeah. That was Nicola's. The trauma stayed with Tesla for the rest of his life. Tesla kept striving for greatness, and it's hard to wonder how much of that was because of Dane. At eighteen, the cholera outbreak in 1873 nearly killed him several times and left him bedridden for nine months. While he was recovering, his father promised to send him to a top engineering school instead of the priesthood, a decision that may have changed history. Tessa also showed signs of what we now call OCD, such as a strong dislike of germs, a need to do things in threes, and a fear of hair and pearls. His close call with cholera probably made these habits stronger. Tessa's hardships continued throughout his life. He suffered from chronic malaria. He had nervous breakdowns, and at age 81, he was in a serious taxicab accident in 1937. The crash broke his ribs and injured his back, but he refused medical help. He later developed pneumonia and his health declined quickly. In his final years, he was mostly immobile, a sharp contrast to the earlier energetic life.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Poor guy.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

He had a lot happened to him.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Next, we're going to talk about some friendships he had. Tesla was popular in high society New York. He had many famous friends, including composers, opera singers, renowned architects, poets, and authors. Among the many unlikely friendships in history, the bond between Nicola and Mark Twain stands out as especially remarkable.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

When did Mark Twain pass away? Like were they about the same age?

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Let me look. He was born in 1835. So he was like 30 years older than Nicola. Yeah. And he died in 1910. Their connection began through literature. While bed and ridden with his cholera, as a young man, Tesla found solace in Twain's writing, describing the stories as so captivating that make they made him utterly forget his hopeless state. Twain's words provided significant comfort to Tesla's period of despair and impact Tesla remembered throughout his life. Years later, Mark Twain and Tesla met in person. After becoming neighbors in New York, Twain, known for his curiosity and restlessness, developed a fascination with electricity and frequently visited Tesla's laboratory, where he observed experiments that were inaccessible to most contemporaries. In response, Tesla sought to reciprocate the support he'd received in 1880 when Twain considered investing in James W. Page's mechanical typesetter, a device intended to revolutionize newspaper printing. Tesla advised against the investment, recognizing the machine's financial risks. Twain disregarded the council and ultimately lost approximately three hundred thousand dollars over fourteen years. The typesetter's commercial failure led to Twain's bankruptcy in 1894.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Learn about Mark Twain in this episode about Tesla.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

And also Butch Cassidy's family knew Mark Twain. I don't know if it was his dad or his grandpa. They also knew Mark Twain. So I also kind of wonder if they maybe knew Tesla too.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Yeah, all around the same time.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Yeah. Interesting. Alright, going on to work. Tesla stood out for the clarity of his mind. He didn't draw blueprints or build prototypes. Instead he invented everything in his head. When I turned my thoughts to invention, I found that I could visualize my conception with the greatest facility. I need no models, drawings, or experiments. I could do it all in my mind, he explained. His mental experiments were so accurate that he said every time my device works as I conceive it should, and my experiment comes out exactly as I planned it, in twenty years there has not been a single solitary experiment which did not turn out precisely as I thought it would.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Sounds like a very humble man.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Seems crazy to just visualize and draw it all up in your head and do it all that way.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yeah. Got a big old brain on that one.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Tesla held more than 100 patents and his work created the AC, the alternating current system for the electricity grid we still use today. Some of the most remarkable inventions included the alternating current system. Tesla the Tesla coil. This device produces high voltage, high frequency alternating current, originally developed to transmit electrical energy wirelessly through the air. It was important for early radio technology and is still seen as a symbol of Tesla's genius. Next is an induction motor. This motor, powered by an alternating current, is part of a modern industry and daily life. It is used in pumps, compressors, fans, mixers, vacuums, electric shavers, and drilling machines today.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Electric shavers? Mm-hmm. All the other ones sound in line with one another, but electric shaver, I was not expecting.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Does it have an induction motor? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Every electric, I mean I guess if you plug it into the wall, but like the battery powered ones, I imagine, are DC. So I don't yeah. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

I don't know either. I don't know much about electricity. You know more about it with me.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

I don't know very much.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Next is radio. For many years, history books credited Someone who isn't Tesla. Gujilimo.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Jujolimo.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Marconi with inventing the radio. But in 1943, the US Supreme Court recognized Tesla's patent as the original. Tesla had shown wireless communication as early as 1893, two years before Marconi's well-known experiments. Next is radio control or teleautomation.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Teleautomation? Is that what they like previously? That's what they called radio control back in the early days.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Yeah. Picture yourself in Madison Square Garden in 1898.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Yeah, I'm there.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

What do you think it looked like?

SPEAKER_01 12:03

All I know is Madison Square Garden from the 90s.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

So Is this the place where the Knicks play or something? Uh-huh. Yeah. That is the place. Uh-huh. I don't know if it was like an actual like park or something.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

That part I don't know, actually.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

I'm already there. Anyways. Watching a small still boat move across a pool of water. There was no steering it, no wires, no visible controls, nothing. The crowd was confused. Some thought it was magic. Others whispered about telepathy. A few even believed there must be trained monkeys hidden inside the boat. Trained monkeys. There were no monkeys. No magic. It was Nikola Tesla, standing by the pool with a radio transmitter, calmly showing off a technology that wouldn't become common for decades. The boat was four feet long and made of steel. But the real breakthrough was the idea. Machines could be controlled wirelessly from far away, using visible signals. Today we call this remote control. In 1898, Tesla called it the future. As always, he was right.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Just ahead of his time.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Next is neon and fluorescent lighting. Tesla experimented with gas discharge lamps well before they became common in city streets and offices. But he did not receive full credit for this invention. Two more. The Tesla turbine. This bladeless turbine uses the boundary layer effect to drive fluid motion. It was simple, innovative, and ahead of its time. Last one? X-ray.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

What is the what was the Tesla turbine used for? Because I've heard of like the what do they call it, Tesla valve or something like that? That it like just uses kind of you're talking about fluid dynamics or something like that. And it's like it'll only let fluid go like through one way or something, but isn't like valve like you and I think of. So what is it what is a Tesla turbine used for? Or was it used for?

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Says it was bioengineering researchers have have referred to the Tesla turbine as a multi-disc centrifuel pump. One of Tesla's intended implementations for this turbine was for the generation of geothermal power, which is described in his work, Our Future Motive Power.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Okay.

unknown 14:20

I don't know what any of that means.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Before X-rays were named, Tesla was already making shadow graphs of the human body, creating some of the earliest images. His work in this area, like many other achievements, was groundbreaking, but not widely recognized. What inspired one of the history's greatest scientific minds? For Tesla, the Bible was part of the answer. In his writing, Tesla often credited scripture as a source of his most important ideas, including alternating current, which he linked to the book of Matthew. People say that Tesla's writing suggests Tesla saw the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as a metaphor for the three phases of the AC system. Next we are moving into the rivalry.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

This is where it's gonna get good.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Starts getting good.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Thomas Edison.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

That's why. Few rivalries in history have been as dramatic or as important as the conflict between Tesla and Thomas Edison. Tesla started working for Edison in 1884, bringing ambition and new ideas, but their partnership quickly fell apart. After Tesla improved Edison's machines, Edison refused to pay him as promised, so Tesla left.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Edison, you dirtbag.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Tesla never forgot this betrayal. When Tesla developed the AC system, Edison did everything he could to fight back. He started a harsh smear campaign, publicly electrocuting animals to prove the AC system was dangerous and even pushed for AC to be used in the first electric chair, hoping people would call it the executioner's current. This was propaganda at its most cynical. But science was clear. Edison's DC system lost power over distance, while AC could travel hundreds of miles without losing strength. When Tesla's AC system lit up the 1893 World Fair, the battle was decided. Tesla had won.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

I mean, we we use both AC and DC today. So I don't know about one.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Well, he won the.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

It's like a soccer game. They both won. Yeah. Score was one-one. Everyone walked away a winner.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

But I think the AC is probably most used, most famous, because it goes further. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Like we use that's how we all get power to our homes. Yeah. But a lot of things in the house don't use AC power.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Like what uses DC? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Anything with a battery, basically. So like your laptop there, the other laptop there, phone, TV. I would I don't know, actually. I don't know about the TV.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

It doesn't have a battery.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Right. But it might still just be DC.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

I don't know. It's a good question. I don't know. I don't know all the things. I would think lots of high powered type things probably are AC, like the vacuum, a blender, microwave.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Maybe he won because he didn't get discredited like Edison wanted him to be.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Okay, I'll buy that.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Next is the Wardencliffe Tower. Tesla's boldest dream was the Wardencliffe Tower, a project that could have changed the world if he had if it had succeeded. His vision was huge. A global system that would send electricity and information wirelessly, with no power lines, no infrastructure, and no gatekeepers. He imagined free energy for everyone on Earth.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

You can't have that.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Well, how would people make money? Built on Long Island, New York, the tower was the physical form of what Tesla called the world wireless system. He believed the Earth itself could act as a giant electrical circuit, letting power and communication signals from telegraphs to radio flow freely around the world. The idea was a century ahead of its time, but the tower was never finished. The person who may have ended Tesla's greatest dream was not a rival scientist or a government agent. He was a banker. JP Morgan was the most powerful financier in America. He invested over 150,000, about 4 million today, in Tesla's Wardencliffe Tower, starting in 1901. JP Morgan thought he was supporting a transatlantic radio station, but Tesla had bigger plans. He wanted to create a system that could send free wireless energy to anyone with no wires, no meters, no bills. When Morgan realized what Tesla was really trying to do, he stopped funding the project. By 1903, the money had run out. The tower was unfinished, and Tesla's dream of providing free power to the world was over. Morgan also supported Thomas Edison's companies, which later became part of General Electric. This made him a key figure in building the power system that Tesla had hoped to replace. If you follow the money, you understand almost everything. We're gonna talk about some of Tesla's associates. While almost everyone told Nikola Tesla that alternating current was a dead end, one person disagreed. George Westinghouse believed in Tesla and that belief helped electrify the world.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Isn't Westinghouse, don't they make a bunch of electronics or like light bulbs and stuff? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Westinghouse was the first to fund the AC system and the first to take Tesla seriously when others would not. Tesla always remembered this, so in 1891, when Westinghouse brought him devastating news that lenders would cut off funding from Westinghouse Electric Company unless Tesla gave up his royalties. Tesla did not hesitate. Tesla gave up what could have been one of the greatest fortunes in American history. He believed the AC system was more important than money. He thought bringing it to the world was worth any personal cost. He was right. As AC became the global standard for electricity and the foundation for every power grid on Earth. In 1896, Westinghouse bought Tesla's AC patents for $216,000, which would have been about $8.4 million today. This was only a small part of their true value. Tesla accepted the offer, simply grateful that his work had survived. That's a lot of money that he lost by the end of his life.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Yeah, I was gonna say he m he made that and JP Morgan gave him a bunch for the tower. Like it seemed like he had tens of millions of dollars.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Yeah, and he must have put it all into all of his work, just invested everything he had into everything he believed in and lost it all. Nothing really turned well for him.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

One of the talented people who worked for Tesla was Charles F. Scott, who later made his own impact on electrical engineering. Scott was Tesla's assistant from 1888 to 1889, a time that shaped his ideas. He later created a new method for phase transformation called Scott Connection. Charles became president of the AIEE, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, from 1902 to 1903. He eventually led the electrical engineering program at Yale University. Tesla often inspired greatness in those around him. We're probably gonna end here because then that starts talking about someone else, and there's a lot of information about that one. Okay. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

So the guy the guy was only his assistant for one year. One year. And then he was in charge of like the IAE for one year. Like these don't seem like very long stints.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

Yeah, but I feel like the presidents of universities don't last very long either. They're just like stressed out and done after a year.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Alright. Okay. So That's it then, huh? That's it for the time. Halfway there? Halftime?

SPEAKER_02 21:23

That's a little less than half, but the next guy, there's a lot of information, so I can't. I either need to start him or not do it.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

We'll stop here. All right. Until next time, keep asking questions, keep exploring. And remember, the greatest mysteries in history are the ones we haven't solved yet.