“Every effort under compulsion demands a sacrifice of life-energy. I never paid such a price. On the contrary, I have thrived on my thoughts.”

–Nikola Tesla

“My Inventions I – My Earlier Life.” Electrical Experimenter, February, 1919.

“It is providential that the youth or man of inventive mind is not blessed with a million dollars. He would find it difficult to think. The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. No big laboratory is needed in which to think. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born. That is why many of the earthly miracles have had their genesis in humble surroundings.”

–Nikola Tesla

“Tesla Sees Evidence Radio and Light Are Sound.” New York Times, April 8th, 1934.

“Herbert Spencer has interpreted life as a continuous adjustment to the environment, a definition of this inconceivably complex manifestation quite in accord with advanced scientific thought, but, perhaps, not broad enough to express our present views. With each step forward in the investigation of its laws and mysteries our conceptions of nature and its phases have been gaining in depth and breadth.

“In the early stages of intellectual development man was conscious of but a small part of the macrocosm. He knew nothing of the wonders of the microscopic world, of the molecules composing if of the atoms making up the molecules and of the dwindlingly small world of electrons within the atoms. To him life was synonymous with voluntary motion and action. A plant did not suggest to him what it does to us – that it lives and feels, fights for its existence, that it suffers and enjoys. Not only have we found this to be true, but we have ascertained that even matter called inorganic, believed to be dead, responds to irritants and gives unmistakable evidence of the presence of a living principle within.

"Thus, everything that exists, organic or inorganic, animated or inert, is susceptible to stimulus from the outside. There is no gap between, no break of continuity, no special and distinguishing vital agent. The same law governs all matter, all the universe is alive. The momentous question of Spencer, "What is it that causes inorganic matter to run into organic forms!” has been answered. It is the sun’s heat and light. Wherever they are there is life. Only in the boundless wastes of interstellar space, in the eternal darkness and cold, is animation suspended, and, possibly, at the temperature of absolute zero all matter may die.

"This realistic aspect of the perceptible universe, as a clockwork wound up and running down, dispensing with the necessity of a hypermechanical vital principle, need not be in discord with our religious and artistic aspirations – those undefinable and beautiful efforts through which the human mind endeavors to free itself from material bonds. On the contrary, the better understanding of nature, the consciousness that our knowledge is true, can only be all the more elevating and inspiring.”

–Nikola Tesla

“How Cosmic Forces Shape Our Destines”. New York American, February 7, 1915.

Although the system of world wireless power transmission consumed most of his attention throughout his life, Nikola Tesla still brought the world many wonderful inventions and discoveries. Stated in chronological order, some of the more notable ones are:

The rotating magnetic field, 1882;

System of arc lighting, 1886;

Tesla motor and system of alternating current power transmission that utilized the rotating magnetic field discovery creating polyphase systems of AC, 1888;

System of electrical conversion and distribution by oscillatory discharges, 1889;

Generators of high-frequency currents and effects of these, 1890;

Transmission of energy through a single wire without return, 1891;

The “Tesla coil,” or oscillation transformer, which was the basis to his wireless transmission of energy making Tesla the true father of radio, 1891;

Investigations of high-frequency effects and phenomena, 1891-93;

System of transmission of intelligence and power without wires, 1891-1905;

Neon light signs, 1893;

Researches and discoveries in radiations, material streams and emanations, today known as X-rays, and X-ray imaging, 1893-1898;

Mechanical oscillators and generators of electrical oscillations, 1894-95;

Radioactivity and cosmic ray discovery published in a series of papers in the "Electrical Review,” New York, 1896-1898;

High-potential vacuum tubes, 1896-1898;

Explained the harms of X-rays and safer ways to use them, 1897;

High-potential magnifying transmitter, 1897;

Economic transmission of energy by refrigeration, 1898;

Remote control, or what Tesla called his “Art of Telautomatics,” 1897-99;

Discovery of stationary electrical waves in the earth, 1899;

Art of transmitting energy by stationary waves through earth, 1899-1900;

Burning of atmospheric nitrogen, and production of other electrical effects of transcending intensities, 1899-1900;

Apparatus for the utilization of cosmic radiation, 1901;

Art of Individualization. Tesla described this as a method of absolute privacy in wireless communication, 1902-1903;

Magnifying transmitter on a large scale, 1902;

Speedometers on new principles, means for lightning protection, types of steam and gas turbines, pressure and vacuum pumps and other apparatus, 1916-1926.

Teleforce, or his “New Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-Dispersive Energy Through Natural Media.” This is his particle beam weapon, circa 1930s.

Roentgen Rays: Mr. Tesla Before N.Y. Academy of Sciences.

By B.P. Remy

Electrical Review, NY. April 14, 1897.

“On April 6, Mr. Nikola Tesla delivered before the New York Academy of Sciences an address "On the Streams of Leonard and Röentgen, with Novel Apparatus for Their Production.” The lecturer began by stating that in 1894, in experimenting to determine the actinic action of phosphorescent light emanating from vacuum tubes, he had found that the atinic power of Crookes tubes varied greatly, and in the most anomalous manner. Thus some tubes emitting a strong light had very little action on photographic plates, while some showing a feeble light acted very strongly on such plates. A large number of these plates, made by Tonnele for the Century Magazine, were stored in Mr. Tesla’s laboratory when it was destroyed by fire, and thus he was unable now to examine them for the Röentgen effects. He believed that he had just missed the discovery which made Röentgen famous, and though he was thoroughly familiar with Leonard’s work, he did not see far enough.

“Mr. Tesla then reviewed his work in the direction of obtaining a reliable apparatus for generating high-frequency currents, which he recognized as the keynote to the production of vacuum tube lighting. He told how he had met with difficulties at every point; how a small bubble of air would destroy the value of the coil, or how one-quarter of an inch of wire too much or too little would throw a coil out of balance; how one day a coil would run cold and on another day hot, etc. By finally calling to his aid the condenser, Mr. Tesla stated, he had succeeded in obtaining the desired action and now nothing stood in the way of securing millions of vibrations from ordinary circuit. The lecturer then briefly explained the principle of the condenser discharge as applied to high frequency currents, and pointed to various types of apparatus on the lecture table designed to utilize the principle.

"In order to demonstrate the action of high frequency currents, Mr. Tesla attached a circular loop of heavy copper wire to the terminals of a high frequency generator and brought to brilliant incandescence a small lamp connected diametrically across the heavy loop; the illumination of the lamp could be varied by connecting it to various points on the diameter of the loop. Mr. Tesla also lit the lamp by the current induced in a second loop brought in proximity to the first. He explained that the coil accomplishing this work had a resistance of 600 ohms and an inductance of 6 henry’s; the coil was connected to the circuit one-half the time and took from the primary circuit only 5 watts.

"Mr. Tesla next showed a vacuum tube lit from the terminals of another high frequency machine. He also showed a coil consisting of a single turn of heavy wire which formed the core, as it were, of a small coil of a few turns wound on a paper cylinder surrounding the heavy wire. When connected to a high frequency generator, this apparatus gave a 4-inch spark with an expenditure of energy equal to that taken by one lamp. Mr. Tesla stated that his high frequency generators were constructed that they could be connected to any existing circuits, direct or alternating.

"Returning to the Röentgen rays, the lecturer stated that he had succeeded in discovering a new source of these rays, far more powerful than any heretofore available, though the difficulty of maintaining it was very great. This new source is the electric arc; not the ordinary arc, however. The arc required for purposes is that maintained between a platinum terminal and an aluminum plate, as illustrating in the accompanying diagram, where A represents the aluminium plate and B the platinum, enclosed in a glass jar.

"Mr. Tesla stated that he had also succeeded in deflecting the Röentgen rays by a magnet. He had proved this by deflecting the rays into a condenser place a long distance from the source of the rays, and which in 5 seconds was charged sufficiently to throw a galvameter needle off the scale.”

In 1913, in a desperate attempt to get funding for his Wardenclyffe Tower, which he considered his most important project, but was struggling with a lack of funds, Nikola Tesla patented a new type of water fountain in hopes of collecting revenue to help pay for his new wireless system. Obviously, he wouldn’t capitalize on this endeavor, but the innovation still remains.

https://teslauniverse.com/nikola-tesla/articles/nikola-teslas-fountain

“Nikola Tesla, in the opinion of authorities, today is conceded to be the greatest inventor of all times. Tesla has more original inventions to his credit than any other man in history. He is considered greater than Archimedes, Faraday, or Edison. His basic, as well as revolutionary discoveries for sheer audacity have no equal in the annals of the world. His master mind is easily one of the seven wonders of the intellectual world.“

–Hugo Gernsback

(“Nikola Tesla and His Inventions — An Announcement.” Electrical Experimenter, January, 1919.)

In a pre-hearing interview with his legal counsel in 1916 to protect his radio patents from Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla explains the similarities and the differences between his wireless system and the systems of today.

Counsel: “Mr. Tesla, at that point, what did you mean by electro-magnetic momentum?”

Tesla: “I mean that you have to have in the circuit, inertia. You have to have a large self-inductance in order that you may accomplish two things: First, a comparatively low frequency, which will reduce the radiation of the electromagnetic waves to a comparatively small value, and second, a great resonant effect. That is not possible in an antenna, for instance, of large capacity and small self-inductance. A large capacity and small self-inductance is the poorest kind of circuit which can be constructed; it gives a very small resonant effect. That was the reason why in my experiments in Colorado, the energies were 1,000 times greater than in the present antennae.”

Counsel: “You say the energy was 1,000 times greater. Do you mean that the voltage was increased, or the current, or both?”

Tesla: “Yes [both]. To be more explicit, I take a very large self-inductance and a comparatively small capacity, which I have constructed in a certain way so that the electricity cannot leak out. I thus obtain a low frequency, but, as you know, the electromagnetic radiation is proportionate to the square root of the capacity divided by the self-induction. I do not permit the energy to go out; I accumulate in that circuit a tremendous energy. When the high potential is attained, if I want to give off electromagnetic waves, I do so, but I prefer to reduce those waves in quantity and pass a current into the earth, because electromagnetic wave energy is not recoverable while that [earth] current is entirely recoverable, being the energy stored in an elastic system.”

Counsel: “What elastic system do you refer to?”

Tesla: “I mean this: If you pass a current into a circuit with large self-induction, and no radiation takes place, and you have a low resistance, there is no possibility of this energy getting out into space; therefore, the impressed impulses accumulate.”

Counsel: “Let’s see if I understand this correctly. If you have radiation or electromagnetic waves going from your system, the energy is wasted?”

Tesla: “Absolutely wasted. From my circuit, you can get either electromagnetic waves, 90 percent of electromagnetic waves if you like, and 10 percent in the current energy that passes through the earth. Or, you can reverse the process and get 10 percent of the energy in electromagnetic waves and 90 percent in energy of the current that passes through the earth.”

“It is just like this: I have invented a knife. The knife can cut with the sharp edge. I tell the man who applies my invention; you must cut with the sharp edge. I know perfectly well you can cut butter with the blunt edge, but my knife is not intended for this. You must not make the antenna give off 90 percent in electromagnetic and 10 percent in current waves, because the electromagnetic waves are lost by the time you are a few arcs around the planet, while the current travels to the uttermost distance of the globe and can be recovered.

"This view, by the way, is now confirmed. Note, for instance, the mathematical treatise of Sommerfeld, who shows that my theory is correct, that I was right in my explanations of the phenomena, and that the profession was completely misled. This is the reason why these followers of mine in high-frequency currents have made a mistake. They wanted to make high-frequency alternators of 200,000 cycles with the idea that they would produce electromagnetic waves, 90 percent in electromagnetic waves, and the rest in current energy. I only used low alternations, and I produced 90 percent in current energy and only 10 percent in electromagnetic waves, which are wasted, and that is why I got my results. You see, the apparatus which I have devised was an apparatus enabling one to produce tremendous differences of potential and currents in an antenna circuit. These requirements must be fulfilled, whether you transmit by currents of conduction or whether you transmit by electromagnetic waves. You want high potential currents; you want a great amount of vibratory energy, but you can graduate this vibratory energy. By proper design and choice of wave lengths, you can arrange it so that you get, for instance, 5 percent in these electromagnetic waves and 95 percent in the current that goes through the earth. That is what I am doing. Or you can get, as these radio men, 95 percent in the energy of electromagnetic waves and only 5 percent in the energy of the current. The apparatus is suitable for one or the other method. I am not producing radiation with my system; I am suppressing electromagnetic waves. In my system, you should free yourself of the idea that there is radiation, that the energy is radiated. It is not radiated; it is conserved…”

(“Nikola Tesla On His Works With Alternating Currents and Their Application to Wireless Telegraphy, and Transmission of Power.” Twenty First Century Books, Breckenridge, Colorado, 2002.)

Could you imagine what today would look like if Nikola Tesla had completed his “World Wireless System”? Over a hundred years ago, Nikola Tesla announced his system of wireless, which would transmit static-free communication, including pictures and video. Our grandparents would have been meme and TikTok professionals before we were even conceived! Tesla explains his system in the following newspaper article.

“WIRELESS VISION SEEN BY TESLA.” La Plata Home Press, La Plata, Missouri, Thursday, October 14, 1915, Page 6.

Thinks “World System” Will Allow Many to Talk at Once.

ENDS STATIC DISTURBANCE

Inventor Also Hopes to Transmit Pictures by Same Medium Which Carries the Voice–Declares It Will Be Possible to Hold Secret Conversation Too.

Nikola Tesla announced that he had received a patent on an invention which would not only eliminate static interference, the present bugaboo of wireless telephony, but would enable thousands of persons to talk at once between wireless stations and make it possible for those talking to see one another by wireless, regardless of the distance separating them. He said also that with his wireless station now in the process of construction on Long Island, he hoped to make New York one of the central exchanges in a world system of wireless telephony.

The inventor, who has won fame by his electrical inventions, dictated this statement:

“The experts carrying out this brilliant experiment are naturally deserving of great credit for the skill they have shown in perfecting the devices. These are of two kinds–first, those serving to control transmission, and second, those magnifying the received impulse. That the control of transmission is perfect is plain to experts from the fact that the Arlington, Mare island and Pearl Harbor plants are all ineffective and that the distance of telephonic communication is equal to that of telegraphic transmission. It is also perfectly apparent that the chief merit of the application lies in the magnification of the microphonic impulse. It must not be imagined that we deal here with new discoveries. The improvement simply concerns the control of the transmitted and the magnification of the received impulse, but the wireless system is the same. This can never be changed.

"It is claimed that static disturbance will fatally interfere with the transmission, while as a matter of fact, there is not static disturbance possible in properly designed transmission and receiving circuits. Quite recently I have described in a patent circuits which are absolutely immune to static and other interferences, so much so that when a telephone is attached there is absolute silence, even lightning in the immediate vicinity not producing a click of the diaphragm, while in the ordinary telephonic conversation there are all kinds of noises.

"Another contention is that there can be no secrecy in wireless telephone conversation. I say it is absurd to raise this contention when it is positively demonstrated by experiments that the earth is more suitable for transmission than any wire could ever be. A wireless telephone conversation can be made as secret as a thought.

"I have myself erected a plant for the purpose of connecting by wireless telephone the chief centers of the world, and from this plant as many as a hundred will be able to talk absolutely without interference and with absolute secrecy. The plant would simply be connected with the telephone central exchange in New York city, and any subscriber will be able to talk to any other telephone subscriber in the world, and all this without any change in his apparatus. This plan has been called my ‘world system.’ By the same means I propose also to transmit pictures and project images so that the subscriber will not only hear the voice but see the person to whom he is talking. Pictures transmitted over wires is a perfectly simple art practiced today. Many inventors have labored on it, but the chief credit is due to Professor Korn of Munich.”

“That we can send a message to a planet is certain. That we can get an answer is probable. Man on earth is not the only being in God’s great system of worlds that is in possession of a mind.”

–Nikola Tesla

“Tesla Has Message From The Stars.” Western Electrician, January 12, 1901.

In a 1933 interview, Nikola Tesla was asked how it felt to be so far ahead of his time that he was subject to attacks upon his sanity. Tesla replied that he had long since ceased to regard it as important.

“I live a life of seclusion. The opinion of the world does not affect me. I have placed as the real values in my life what follows after I am dead, although it has been given to me to live to see those things which were once scouted accepted as scientific dogmas.

“The thing that recompenses me is that my name shall be known to generations yet unborn for the Tesla Coil, Tesla Motor, and perhaps my name will be connected to the absolutely new source of power I am about to present to the world. It is this thought in which I find happiness and health. A pioneer does not apply his energies in the way the world is going. Rather, he goes against the current. He lets them call him a lunatic. He lets them trample him—if I should ever tell you the inside story of how I had been trampled—but never mind, it was all good for me. I have come through it. I am able to work harder than I worked a year ago. I work now with greater energy and get results more easily than ever before in my life.

"…After all, they have called me a lunatic before. What is one last time?“

–Nikola Tesla

“Tesla Predicts New Source of Power In Year.” New York Herald Tribune. July 9, 1933.

Nikola Tesla Explaining How Guglielmo Marconi Copied His Wireless System

“Now, it is important to give you a clear idea of the differences between the apparatus I produced and the contemporary apparatus. I have selected just these diagrams to give you, in a few words, the exact differences between the system I have developed and the system illustrated below in this diagram, which is typical of the systems that had been used prior to my invention.

"This upper diagram is taken from my patents, and this lower drawing from a patent of Marconi which appeared in 1901. Certainly, it is proper to compare his arrangements with mine because they are used at the time when I brought out these principles.

"As you see, here in this figure on the right is my conductor connected to the ground and to the antenna, with absolutely no break in it. This other [in Marconi patent drawing] is a conductor connected to the antenna and the ground with a break in it. It cannot compare with mine because that break means resistance and diminution of the resonant rise. Furthermore, note the difference that I have here—the primary energy passing into a transformer—and that these two circuits are tuned. There is no primary or a transformer in this Marconi arrangement. It is a wasteful system to begin with.

"At the receiving end, as you see, I have again an antenna and a self-inductance in series with the ground and no break. He has a wire connected to the ground and to an antenna, a break or device of high, very high resistance with which it is absolutely impossible to obtain any practical results.

"My system is a system which can be perfectly attuned, and it will transmit to this antenna, here at the left, hundreds of thousands of times, millions of times, the energy which his device can transmit to his receiver.

"Furthermore, my system is a system which is exclusive, which can be tuned and rendered private; that of Marconi can not be tuned. Moreover, his transmitter generates electromagnetic waves a very high frequency, which are absorbed in the air and penetrate only a few miles, while mine produces current waves which pass to the opposite point of the glow with the greatest facility, and can affect instruments at any distance.

"If you take these two contemporaneous diagrams, and examine the subsequent developments, you will find that absolutely not a vestige of the apparatus of Marconi remains, and that in all the present systems there is nothing but my four-tuned circuits. Everybody is using them.

"Every wireless message that has ever been transmitted to any distance has been transmitted by this apparatus; there is no other way. Mr. Marconi came here when he announced that he had made a transmission across the Atlantic. I congratulated him. I said to my secretary, "I can not understand how Marconi could obtain these results. His apparatus cannot do this; he must use my apparatus.” My secretary said, “How can Marconi use your apparatus when here is his statement that he had tried it and it did not work did not work?” But, when you examine the publications of a year later, you will note Marconi comes out with the statement that he had used these four circuits, and the only excuse that he has put up is that he did not know that these four circuits had to be attuned. That was his excuse. In the meantime, he had been using this apparatus. Every message that has ever been transmitted to any distance, by telegraph or telephone—wireless, has been by the use of these instrumentalities and no others.“

(Nikola Tesla in a pre-hearing interview with his legal counsel in 1916 to protect his radio patents from Guglielmo Marconi. “Nikola Tesla On His Works With Alternating Currents and Their Application to Wireless Telegraphy, and Transmission of Power.” Twenty First Century Books, Breckenridge, Colorado, 2002.)

Nikola Tesla in a pre-hearing interview with his legal counsel in 1916 to protect his radio patents from Guglielmo Marconi

Tesla: “This is the transmitter which was already so far developed that I obtained discharges of 16 feet and a tension of 4 million volts. The secondary flat spiral usually connects to the antenna, and this coil on the vertical stand is another tuning coil to adjust the oscillations to a low frequency. Now, it is a mere matter of proportioning this circuit to the antenna in order to transmit, with the same apparatus I built in 1895, 1896, in 1897, messages across the Atlantic with the greatest facility. I will agree at any time to construct an apparatus exactly as I have described at that time and, without the slightest change, I will affect transmission across the Atlantic as easily as rolling off a log.”

Counsel: “Is that a spark apparatus?”

Tesla: “Yes, in this instance it was a spark apparatus; but I operated it also without a spark, with alternating current. I operated it with damped waves or with undamped waves. But remember that I had a system with small capacity, large self induction—no outflow of energy. Energy could not radiate; that is the reason why I got this tremendous pressure which you cannot get in an antenna which radiates too much energy in electromagnetic waves.”

Counsel: “ Mr. Tesla, speaking about that apparatus you said that the energy could not get out. How was the transmission then made, as for instance, across the Atlantic, or elsewhere? Is it through these earth currents that you spoke of?”

Tesla: Yes of course, through the earth currents. If I simply generated electromagnetic waves, I would be in the same box that Marconi is in, or anybody else; I would have to use an awful lot of power and I would not be able to get across. I would have to use a bigger apparatus. But, if I adapt this apparatus to the antenna in the way I want to adapt it, there is no difficult of transmitting across the Atlantic with this very same apparatus.“

Counsel: ” I do not yet get quite clear just what the effect is of keeping the energy from leaking out from the antenna.“

Tesla: "Well, sir, I have given you the simplest mathematical formula which, of course, experts are perfectly familiar with. You are not. Now, let me explain.

"If we put it in an equation, we will have on one side the decrement of the antenna, and on the other the resistance of the antenna multiplied by the square root of the capacity divided by the self-induction…”

(“Nikola Tesla On His Works With Alternating Currents and Their Application to Wireless Telegraphy, and Transmission of Power.” Twenty First Century Books, Breckenridge, Colorado, 2002.)

“My sight and hearing were always extraordinary. I could clearly discern objects in the distance when others saw no trace of them. Several times in my boyhood I saved the houses of our neighbors from fire by hearing the faint crackling sounds which did not disturb their sleep, and calling for help. In 1899, when I was past 40 and carrying on my experiments in Colorado, I could hear very distinctly thunderclaps at a distance of 550 miles. The limit of audition for my young assistants was scarcely more than 150 miles. My ear was thus over thirteen times more sensitive. Yet at that time I was, so to speak, stone deaf in comparison with the acuteness of my hearing while under the nervous strain. In Budapest I could hear the ticking of a watch with three rooms between me and the time-piece. A fly alighting on a table in the room would cause a dull thud in my ear. A carriage passing at a distance of a few miles fairly shook my whole body. The whistle of a locomotive 20 or 30 miles away made the bench or chair on which I sat vibrate so strongly that the pain was unbearable. The ground under my feet trembled continuously. I had to support my bed on rubber cushions to get any rest at all. The roaring noises from near and far often produced the effect of spoken words which would have frightened me had I not been able to resolve them into their accidental components. The sun’s rays, when periodically intercepted, would cause blows of such force on my brain that they would stun me. I had to summon all my will power to pass under a bridge or other structure as I experienced a crushing pressure on the skull. In the dark I had the sense of a bat and could detect the presence of an object at a distance of 12 feet by a peculiar creepy sensation on the forehead. My pulse varied from a few to 260 beats and all the tissues of the body quivered with twitches and tremors which was perhaps the hardest to bear.”

–Nikola Tesla

“My Inventions V – My Later Endeavors.” Electrical Experimenter, February, 1919.

Rest in paradise, Nikola Tesla (January 7, 1943).

“Even the gods of old, in the wildest imaginings of their worshipers, never undertook such gigantic tasks of world-wide dimensions as those which Tesla attempted and accomplished.”

–John J. O'Neill. “Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla.” 1944.

“The progressive development of man is vitality dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain. Its ultimate purpose is the complete mastery of mind over the material world, the harnessing of the forces of nature to human needs. This is the difficult task of an inventor who is often misunderstood and unrewarded. But he finds ample compensation in the pleasing exercise of his powers and in the knowledge of being one of that exceptionally privileged class without whom the race would have long ago perished in the bitter struggle against pitiless elements.”

–Nikola Tesla

“My Inventions I – My Earlier Life.” Electrical Experimenter, February, 1919.

American writer Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, is pictured here in Nikola Tesla’s laboratory experimenting with lamps lighted by electric currents passed through his own body. Mr. Clemens holds a loop of bare wire in his hands. Currents are induced in the loop by means of a resonating coil over which the loop is held. These currents traverse the body of the Mr. Clemens, and at the same time, as they pass between his bare hands, they bring two or three lamps held there to bright incandescence. Although the currents experimented with are of a voltage in the hundreds of thousands, they do not distress the experimenter in the slightest. The extremely high tension of the currents which Mr. Clemens is seen receiving prevents them from doing any harm to him.

“The human mind thinks but to complicate. As soon as one problem is solved, that solution introduces new complications, other problems that perhaps did not exist before. That was one of my great troubles when I was younger, I invented many things that were very fine, but always I was getting into complications. I have had to work very hard to overcome that.“

–Nikola Tesla

“Dr. Tesla Talks Gas Turbines.“ Motor World, September 18, 1911.

“Too much leisure, and civilization will go to pot. Man was born to work, suffer and struggle, and if he doesn’t he’ll go under.”

–Nikola Tesla

“Great Scientific Discovery Impends.” Sunday Star, Washington D.C., May 17, 1931.

“In how far we can understand the universe around us is the ultimate thought of every student of nature. The coarseness of our senses prevent us from recognizing the ulterior construction of matter, and astronomy, this grandness and most positive of Natural Sciences, can only teach us something that happens, as it were, in our immediate neighborhood; of the remoter portions of the boundless universe, with its numberless stars and suns, we know nothing. But far beyond the limit of perception of our senses the spirits still can guide us, and so we may hope that even these unknown worlds – infinitely small and great – may in a measure become known to us. Still, even if this knowledge should reach us, the searching mind will find a barrier, perhaps forever unsurpassable, to the true recognition of that which seems to be, the mere appearance of which is the only slender basis of all our philosophy.”

—Nikola Tesla

“Experiments With Alternating Currents of Very High Frequency and Their Application to Methods of Artificial Illumination.” A lecture delivered before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, at Columbus College, N.Y., May 20, 1891.