0:00

This is the BBC. Are

0:30

you yet living? Let

1:00

us know in the comments below. The

2:00

Hungarian Empire. Then you take his and

2:02

tell us about his education. He

2:05

was born in a

2:07

small town in what

2:09

is now Croatia, but

2:11

then in eighteen Fifty

2:13

Six was a military

2:15

province of the Austro

2:17

Hungarian Empire on the

2:19

border with Ottoman Turkey.

2:21

For most of his

2:23

life, Tesla, who was

2:25

ethics Serb, was proud

2:27

of his Serbian heritage

2:29

and indeed sore ah

2:31

on some occasions as

2:33

a way of. Celebrating

2:36

the defense of European

2:38

civilization on what he'd

2:40

rather distressingly cold, the

2:42

Asians threat. He

2:45

was thin, tall, ailing.

2:47

He caught Cholera when

2:50

very young. His father

2:52

was a Serbian priest.

2:55

His mother, whom he

2:57

described as an extremely

3:00

superior inventor significantly, was

3:02

obviously an inspiration. For

3:05

him, he'd been destined for

3:07

the priesthood, but managed to

3:10

convince his parents that he

3:12

should rather study engineering. It's

3:14

important to emphasize that although

3:17

we might now think of

3:19

the Austro Hungarian Empire, this

3:22

period of the land of

3:24

coffee cream, rich cakes and

3:27

waltzes, it was in fact

3:29

a rapidly and intensely modernizing

3:32

states. Investing.

3:34

Very significantly in engineering and

3:36

especially in technologies that the

3:39

rulers of the Empire reckoned

3:41

would bring the empire together

3:44

and that included electrical communication.

3:46

So he added a been

3:48

extraordinarily powerful an education in

3:51

precisely the area he was

3:53

gonna move into that's exactly

3:56

right at the high School,

3:58

and then subsequently. The Technical

4:00

University and Graphs in what

4:03

is now Southern Austria. He

4:05

was subjected to some of

4:07

the most advanced training. In

4:10

physics and Engineering that would

4:12

have been available in Central

4:14

Europe at that point is

4:16

reminiscent says which provide our

4:19

main source of information through

4:21

this period of his life

4:23

include great details that a

4:25

very striking and impressive of

4:28

his early capacity in engineering.

4:30

his fascination with electricity and

4:32

especially with systems of alternating

4:34

current hundred and develop. His

4:37

interest in an Ssd was

4:39

seven. Years He spent

4:41

quite a deal of

4:43

time in his teens

4:45

and twenties wondering between

4:47

some of the major

4:49

intellectual and scientific sense

4:51

of the time not

4:54

just brought Spittle so

4:56

Prague and eventually the

4:58

new telegraph him telephone

5:00

center in Budapest where

5:02

he worked with a

5:04

genial and rather magnificent

5:06

from Gary, an engineer

5:09

and. Entrepreneur Theodore push

5:11

costs to obviously play

5:13

the rather inspirational role

5:15

in his career. When

5:17

Tesla was in Budapest,

5:19

Tesla later reminisced about

5:21

this he came up

5:24

with so he claims

5:26

the idea for a

5:28

most her. That could

5:30

run on alternating current lists

5:33

at a moment when direct

5:35

current was dominating electric systems

5:37

of power and light. What

5:40

was also significant is that

5:42

in Budapest he claimed to

5:44

know a i think brilliant

5:47

young man called until She

5:49

Gets He who would eventually

5:51

accompany him to America and

5:54

who worked mainly as his

5:56

lab assistant and also as

5:59

his companion. So

6:01

he became familiar did

6:03

Nikola Tesla with the

6:05

most advanced thinking in

6:08

electricity, magnetism, and telecommunications

6:10

of the time. To

6:13

sit surprise you the so

6:15

much intense technical education in

6:17

that part of your but

6:19

that time from our no

6:21

doubt biased point of view,

6:23

it is surprising because I

6:25

think we've inherited what we

6:27

might call an Anglo American

6:29

bias in writing the history

6:31

of electrode technology. We need

6:33

to remember that Central European

6:36

states the nascent German Empire

6:38

which is unified in Nineteen

6:40

Seventy One, the Austro Hungarian

6:42

Empire. And other related

6:44

states and France, for example,

6:46

where Tesla worked for of

6:48

really significant period of his

6:50

life on in the early

6:53

eighteen eighties were electrifying intensely

6:55

and rapidly. This is the

6:57

moment when Paris A came.

7:00

To. All intents and purposes, the City

7:02

of Lights thank you very much And

7:04

Jill Jill Jones He went to America.

7:07

What? Was happening in New Say when Tesla

7:09

arrived in America. At this is being

7:11

called the was of the cut the

7:13

more of currents. Yes,

7:15

Nikola Tesla. Arrived in New York

7:18

in June and eighteen eighty four. He

7:20

this coming from Paris where he had

7:22

worked for the Edison Company. And

7:24

he had had this

7:26

vision of a complete

7:28

alternating current system. Most

7:31

importantly including. The great unsolved

7:33

mystery which was how to make

7:35

alternating current work and a motor.

7:38

So he had been working for

7:40

Edison and Addison's. Systems were

7:42

all running on direct current. And

7:44

no one was interested in Tesla.

7:47

This and the So he had

7:49

come to the United States to

7:51

meet Addison and persuade him that

7:54

he should be interested in and

7:56

adopting. this other system

7:58

of electricity When

8:00

he arrived in New York, Edison

8:02

had opened about a year and

8:04

a half earlier his very historic

8:07

Pearl Street Station. So

8:09

this was the first central

8:12

station that operated on DC,

8:14

and as TESLA arrived, more

8:17

central stations were being built, but

8:19

far more prolific were what were

8:21

called isolated plants, and there were

8:23

400 of these

8:25

installed, hotels, offices,

8:27

factories, and mansions. And why

8:30

was this? Because

8:32

there was a huge constraint on

8:35

direct current as generated by

8:37

these coal-fired central stations. It

8:40

couldn't travel more than about half a

8:42

mile radius around the

8:44

central station, but the advantage it

8:46

had over-alternating current at this

8:48

point was that it had a

8:50

motor. Well, I mean

8:52

the reality was that TESLA was a

8:55

not very important employee,

8:58

and Edison was not

9:00

interested. He took enormous pride

9:03

in having established this

9:05

entire system, commercial system, of

9:08

DC current. And

9:10

George Westinghouse, who was

9:12

another famous American inventor

9:15

and industrialist from Pittsburgh,

9:18

now began to eye this

9:20

field. And Westinghouse,

9:22

unlike Edison, was not wedded

9:24

in any way to direct

9:26

current. And he was really

9:29

paying attention to what was happening to Europe,

9:32

acquired some AC patents, imported

9:35

some engineering talent, and

9:37

very secretly, up

9:39

in the Berkshires, developed a

9:41

working alternating current system. What were

9:43

the main strengths and weaknesses of

9:45

the two systems we're talking about,

9:47

DC and AC? So

9:50

direct current, which was the

9:52

basis of Edison's inventions and

9:55

his company, its strength is

9:57

that it's very safe. Its

10:00

weakness was that these

10:02

central stations that Edison was

10:05

installing did not send

10:07

electricity more than a half mile

10:09

radius. Its other strength was

10:11

it not only provided light into these

10:14

new Edison light bulbs, it also operated

10:16

many different kinds of motors,

10:19

very important in factories. Alternating

10:22

current, on the other hand, is high

10:25

voltage and it can go a long

10:27

distance, but at the time

10:29

that Nikola Tesla arrived in New

10:31

York to persuade Edison that this

10:33

was the route to go, there

10:35

was no working motor. Thank

10:38

you very much, Ewan, Ewan Morris, to get an

10:40

idea of how distinctive this

10:42

was at the time, how did you compare

10:44

with what was going on in Europe? I

10:47

mean, there's really no equivalent of the battle

10:50

of the systems, the war of the currents in Europe at

10:52

this time. In countries

10:54

too rapidly electrifying.

10:57

In the UK, Joseph Swann had

10:59

invented and patented his version of

11:01

the incandescent light bulb at around

11:03

about the same time as Edison.

11:06

Edison himself is quite

11:09

aggressively trying to push into

11:11

the European market from very

11:13

early on in the 1880s. He

11:16

establishes a power station in London, the

11:19

Holden Viaduct power station, for example, in 1882.

11:23

But there are also AC systems being

11:25

developed, in particular in London, brilliant

11:27

Italian engineer Sebastian di Ferranti starts

11:30

in 1887 to design and build

11:32

a power station at Deptford,

11:37

which is being set up

11:39

to do something completely different from the

11:41

Edisonian model. Ferranti's plan

11:44

is essentially to electrify London,

11:46

or at least a large

11:48

part of London. Using an

11:50

AC system, sending power

11:52

high voltage, long distances and

11:55

creating a central power

11:57

station for the first time, rather

11:59

than disaggregating. system. Why there's

12:01

a hesitation that you can go straight

12:03

to IC? I mean there's a variety

12:06

of reasons. Electricity in

12:08

its beginnings is expensive. I mean

12:10

this is very much a middle

12:12

class or an upper class toy

12:14

so to speak. I mean

12:16

the first electrification in the UK is in

12:20

stately homes. So it's not actually

12:22

entirely clear at the beginning but

12:25

there's a huge market for

12:27

electricity. So they said

12:29

well maybe DC is

12:31

enough so to speak but during the

12:33

course of the 1880s it becomes

12:36

apparent but yes electricity

12:39

symbolizes the future, symbolizes

12:41

the modern for

12:43

middle-class Victorians and

12:45

rapidly becomes clear that yes they are

12:47

going to take up this new technology

12:50

that shows that they're at the kind

12:52

of forefront of a of

12:54

a late Victorian dash into the

12:56

future. Simon Shava let's turn

12:58

to this great invention

13:00

the electric motor. What was it and

13:03

why did it matter? As

13:05

we've said one of the crucial

13:08

obstacles to the

13:10

large-scale adoption of anything like

13:12

alternating current was that there

13:14

was no adequate alternating current

13:16

motor. One of the

13:18

key features it seems to me

13:21

of Nikola Tesla's innovations is

13:23

that he's very often

13:26

extremely keen to

13:28

identify what the

13:30

main technical obstacles to an

13:32

electric system are and as

13:35

far as possible remove them.

13:38

In electric motors run

13:40

on direct current these

13:42

devices relied on a

13:45

piece of apparatus called a commutator

13:49

which turns Alternating

13:51

current back into direct current and

13:53

direct current into alternating current. The

13:55

Trouble with commutators is that you

13:58

have huge energy losses. You

14:00

have sparks they break down.

14:03

And they're not efficient

14:05

and therefore not profitable. So

14:07

what the Nikola Tesla

14:10

system involves is a Mozart

14:12

which does not use

14:14

com be chases instead brilliantly

14:17

what Nikola Tesla soul is

14:19

that it would be

14:21

possible if you could engineer

14:24

an oscillating magnetic field.

14:26

In water cooled the

14:28

states as in other

14:30

words, the components that

14:32

don't move the electromagnets

14:34

in the motor. They

14:36

could in principle then

14:38

be used to drive

14:41

what was called the

14:43

roads. A metal cylinder

14:45

positioned. Inside. A

14:47

range of electromagnets. If you

14:49

change the magnetic field in

14:52

those and static electromagnets they

14:54

would induce water cooled eddy

14:57

currents in other words small

14:59

electric currents inside the metal

15:02

cylinder. He then have magnetic

15:04

forces between the states are

15:06

in the road So if

15:09

you could make those oscillate

15:11

in say is the most

15:14

hub would start to rotate.

15:16

In the very first trials

15:19

that he ran raw the

15:21

wonderfully he uses a empty

15:24

metal tin of shoe polish

15:26

as the rotor. And

15:28

then builds up the machine

15:31

until it's clearly a viable

15:33

electric motor with no sparks

15:35

and know com you tighter

15:37

and which if you can

15:40

organize the phase of oscillation

15:42

of the field you can

15:44

build what rapidly comes to

15:46

be called a police phase.

15:49

Mozart. Which generates.

15:52

Uniform. Controllable

15:54

motion in. and

15:58

you then have really the holy

16:00

grail of the electric system. Were

16:02

you out on his own doing

16:04

this? He was certainly not alone.

16:07

There are many rival

16:11

claimants, some with

16:13

good claims, some with less good claims, to

16:16

the development of the

16:18

AC polyphase motor. There

16:21

is, for example, the absolutely

16:24

brilliant Italian engineer working in

16:26

Turin with the

16:29

magnificent name of Galileo

16:31

Ferraris, who

16:33

worked at the

16:35

Turin Engineering University,

16:38

who at almost the same

16:40

time developed a very similar,

16:43

but in fact, less efficient

16:45

motor. What Tesla

16:47

had on his side was

16:50

an extraordinarily simple

16:53

system that was clearly

16:55

efficient and profitable, and

16:58

could in principle attract

17:01

wealthy investors. This,

17:05

I think, is the decisive aspect

17:07

of Nikola Tesla's vision. It could

17:10

be integrated into a

17:13

large-scale system. So

17:16

within a year less of

17:19

putting forward these designs, George

17:22

Westinghouse simply bought all

17:25

the patents and all the

17:27

rights to Nikola Tesla's new

17:29

system. Thank you, Jill. Jill

17:31

Jones, what was the link between

17:33

invention and showmanship at that time? It

17:35

seems to me, reading about it, that

17:38

being a showman was part of the

17:40

business. You had to show what you could

17:42

do to people who came to decide

17:45

whether or not they would invest

17:47

in it. Well, Tesla has worked

17:49

for Thomas Edison, and Thomas Edison

17:51

was really the showman

17:53

par excellence, and he

17:56

also pioneered these relationships

17:58

Between inventors, Hunters and

18:01

investors in Wall Street.

18:03

Tesla had seen how

18:05

Addison put himself. Forward. Very

18:07

friendly with the press. And

18:09

he did the same

18:11

when he announced. To. The

18:13

world's the. Full development and

18:16

fully patented Ac system

18:18

that he had developed.

18:20

He did it with

18:22

a lot of promotion

18:24

in front of a

18:26

huge audience of what

18:28

were then. Called Electricians but

18:31

we know is electrical Engineers in

18:33

May of eighteen eighty Eight at

18:35

Columbia University things even how did

18:37

Tesla same starts to spread more

18:39

widely one can even say more

18:42

deeply and was is wounded of

18:44

and emerges from the Austro Hungarian

18:46

empire as muslim and pose ah

18:48

i see could move don't person

18:51

is a that ended worker nevertheless

18:53

is it is a lone ranger.

18:55

Americans pops up and next thing

18:57

we know this is the leading.

18:59

Lights off, meaningless er,

19:05

I mean out as as deals, extent

19:07

and seven sixes. absolutely. T. Addison Tesla

19:09

by no means a says to realize

19:11

this ring of my favorite Christ's from

19:13

the early history of It's like the

19:16

same as one of those attempts at

19:18

telegraph events. As a guy called ever

19:20

David Price of his father you did

19:22

not think to have your son term

19:24

so man because he understood rights are

19:26

beginning to use have to promise. So

19:29

and having Tesla. Having learnt

19:31

his lesson in retrospect absolutely

19:33

from the for Madison understood

19:35

that says have to get

19:38

himself and brilliantly. And.

19:40

A series of lectures and

19:42

the early eighteen nineties says

19:44

while the New York and

19:46

also goes to London before

19:49

and since the Institution of

19:51

Electrical Engineers at the wrong

19:53

institution and van to Paris

19:55

he puts on this amazing

19:57

spectacular so. I. Imagine.

20:00

Exotic looking gentleman on a

20:02

very very carefully prepared stage.

20:04

She's walking around, sees golf

20:06

discharge tubes, long rods of

20:09

glass up again, his hands,

20:11

the glow in the snow,

20:13

buyers there's nothing else and

20:15

maltese wandering around. he's waving

20:17

his people. He's waving things

20:20

in the act and it's

20:22

what it's The truth is

20:24

the wireless transmission of electricity

20:26

and that's the future that

20:28

Tesla was is promising. Says

20:30

in his investors and his audiences.

20:33

and when he comes back to

20:35

America from that European trip and

20:37

he's a he's gone of relatively

20:40

well known electrical engineer. He

20:42

comes back a celebrity. And.

20:44

See worked very hard indeed.

20:47

To. Cultivate relationships with the

20:49

press in particular and to cultivate

20:51

a very very particular kind of

20:54

image. On is a number of

20:56

times where I've been researching Hasn't

20:58

and Nicola Tesla for the biography.

21:01

I'd see the press reports along

21:03

the lines of as very privileged

21:05

to be allowed into the laboratory

21:08

of the reclusive Mr. Tesla. Clearly

21:10

not so recluse if we previously

21:13

promised is working very very hard

21:15

indeed at at a business. All

21:18

promotion of self promotion am kind

21:20

of conveying this very specific. Nice.

21:23

Some kind of said said the American

21:25

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21:27

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22:35

Some this taunted tease out

22:37

his particular contribution. here. does

22:39

he seem to be was

22:41

it does it continued to

22:43

be ahead of the game.

22:45

There is some absolutely remarkable

22:47

and extremely effective. Innovations.

22:49

that Tesla helped introduce

22:51

after the development and

22:54

implementation of the police

22:56

size moser of the

22:58

automation current motor to

23:00

i think really Matter

23:02

to. The. Image that

23:05

Nikola Tesla was keen

23:07

on cultivation one is

23:09

that in alliance very

23:11

close alliance at this

23:14

point with George Westinghouse

23:16

they won the contract

23:18

to electrify the Chicago

23:21

World's Fair This massive

23:23

Not only because as

23:25

Jill and a one

23:27

of pointed out Tesla

23:30

was a master performer.

23:32

And. He uses The Chicago World's

23:35

Fair is a kind of

23:37

see it so. For. the

23:39

new motor and associated

23:41

devices including his notions

23:43

of telecommunication that accompanied

23:46

it but it also

23:48

led quite directly to

23:50

the establishment of ah

23:52

very important power station

23:55

using the full of

23:57

water at niagara falls

23:59

a site

24:01

which Nikola Tesla himself

24:04

proclaimed as the

24:06

symbol of the future. Jill.

24:09

Again, it's hard for us to

24:11

understand how novel and

24:14

how uncertain alternating current

24:16

was. There's a very

24:18

famous quote from Lord Kelvin that

24:20

he sends to Edward Dean Adams,

24:22

who's in charge of the Niagara

24:24

Falls project, saying,

24:27

trust you avoid gigantic

24:29

mistake of adoption of

24:31

A.C. Simon. The

24:34

second, and in many

24:37

ways even more dramatic innovation of

24:39

that period, developed after

24:41

his European trip because of

24:43

one thing he saw in

24:46

Paris in 1889. He

24:49

witnessed the demonstration

24:52

of what were effectively the

24:54

first experiments on radio waves,

24:57

which had been due to the great

24:59

German physicist Heinrich Hertz. What

25:02

Tesla understood from that

25:05

demonstration is that it

25:07

would in principle be possible to

25:09

build what was called an induction

25:11

coil, in other words, an electrical

25:13

machine that could generate

25:16

long and very, very

25:18

high voltage sparks. If

25:21

you could increase the

25:23

frequency of the

25:25

oscillations of the alternating current,

25:28

Tesla rather movingly calls this

25:30

a Wagnerian

25:32

experiment. The

25:35

frequency that he was aiming for

25:37

was something like 20,000 cycles

25:41

a second, what we would now

25:43

call 20 kilohertz. At

25:45

those frequencies, Tesla guessed

25:48

correctly, you could produce

25:50

an extraordinary range of

25:52

new phenomena. Jill,

25:55

can I ask you what kind of obstacles he

25:57

was up against making his ideas

25:59

via the Well. Well. When

26:01

he. First started off of course he was

26:03

very low level and near. And his

26:06

was quite eccentric and I think

26:08

people. Were his fellow

26:11

workers. Of sound him in

26:13

A somewhat kind of amusing he was

26:15

a man with. Various phobias

26:17

and very specific ways. He like

26:19

to do things but also see

26:21

it as soon as resembles a.

26:24

Everything he did and life he liked. For

26:26

to be divisible by three. If

26:29

he swim laps it would be twenty seven.

26:31

If he said in a hotel it would

26:33

be a note. Room divisible

26:36

by three. Stayed on

26:38

floor nine but I think his

26:40

his bigger problem was that he

26:43

simply didn't have access to money

26:45

or powerful people And I think

26:47

one of the things it's really

26:50

important to understand about Nikola Tesla

26:52

is that is alternating current system

26:54

became a reality. Because it's

26:56

because of George Westinghouse, the

26:59

Pittsburgh inventor and industrialists. So

27:02

after he had bought the

27:04

patents and he, well, he

27:06

send it off being acquired

27:09

by Jp Morgan, but he

27:11

went in to make his

27:13

bids for the said cargo.

27:16

eighteen Ninety Three, World's Fair

27:18

Having to scale up what

27:20

they had done and what

27:23

they knew about alternating current

27:25

to an extraordinary extent, they

27:27

had. One year from the time

27:29

though, it's bid was accepted in

27:31

Chicago by the fair managers. To

27:34

the opening of the say or

27:36

at the time they made their

27:38

bid. The most lights that any

27:40

Ac plant in. America had lit

27:42

up worth. Ten thousand they

27:44

had bird light up a hundred

27:47

and sixty thousand. They also had

27:49

to have make all these motors

27:51

work. When the fair opened they.

27:53

Were operating the ferris wheel

27:55

and electric railway. All kinds of

27:58

boats that was even an electric kids. Ewan

28:01

Morris, he gained a lot

28:03

of money from his patents. He spent an

28:05

extraordinary sums at Wardenclyffe and Colorado Springs. What

28:08

was he doing there? As

28:10

Simon explained, after his visit

28:12

to Europe, he'd encountered Hertzian waves, radio waves,

28:15

let's say for the first time. He

28:17

was inspired by the notion

28:19

that you could use these

28:21

kinds of technologies to send

28:24

huge quantities of electromagnetic energy

28:26

over long distances. He

28:28

developed what he called the oscillating

28:30

transformer, what we now call a

28:32

Tesla coil, which is essentially

28:35

a machine for building up

28:37

very, very, very, very high

28:39

voltages, very, very, very high

28:41

frequency electricity. He

28:43

thought, he imagined that

28:46

this could be developed into a practical

28:49

system for sending vast

28:51

quantities of electrical power through

28:53

the air without wires.

28:57

He spent much of the 1890s essentially trying

28:59

to get money for this. That's

29:02

why he goes to Colorado Springs to

29:04

build a laboratory there to try and

29:06

persuade people. This really was a viable

29:08

technology. He manages to persuade

29:10

JP Morgan to give him $150,000,

29:12

not as much as

29:15

Nikola Tesla wanted, but it is all he was

29:17

going to get. And

29:19

with that, he built this

29:22

amazing edifice at Wardenclyffe,

29:25

a laboratory and essentially a huge tower.

29:27

And what he wants to do, I

29:29

mean, it's like what's in the tower

29:31

is a huge oscillating transformer

29:34

generating huge quantities of high

29:37

voltage, high frequency alternating

29:39

current. And he wants

29:41

to send that literally through the earth.

29:43

He thinks that actually it's through the

29:46

earth that you should send electricity, not

29:48

through the atmosphere, not through the ether.

29:50

And that if his system works, if

29:53

you had a network of Wardenclyffe,

29:55

so to speak, scattered around the

29:57

place, then you could

30:00

transmit huge quantities of

30:03

electrical power between these places. You

30:06

could transmit it then to individual

30:08

factories. You could run the world

30:10

with wireless electricity. That was a

30:13

Tesla fantasy during the

30:15

1890s. And Wardenclyffe was his

30:17

attempt to realise that

30:19

dream. It's kind of a

30:22

glorious, glorious fantasy. And of course it

30:24

didn't work. Starmachaffa, in more

30:26

ways, was Tesla making good use of the funds

30:28

coming his way. Because quite a lot came his

30:30

way. $150,000 was a lot then. $150,000

30:34

when he got it from Morgan is something

30:37

like $5 million in current money. And he

30:39

also received

30:46

something around $100,000 from one of his

30:48

other major patrons, John

30:51

Jacob Astor. Who

30:56

was exceptionally keen, briefly,

30:59

on the projects that Nikola

31:01

Tesla was launching, only

31:03

to be disappointed when

31:05

it emerged that Nikola Tesla

31:07

was after a scheme of

31:10

power transmission that Astor

31:12

had been up till then completely

31:14

ignorant of. They broke

31:16

off almost all relations, and

31:19

these relations terminated completely when

31:21

Astor was drowned on the

31:23

Titanic. The relation

31:27

between Nikola Tesla and his

31:30

wealthy New York banker patrons

31:33

are, I think, extremely

31:35

instructive. On the one

31:37

hand, Tesla was

31:39

obviously an extraordinarily

31:42

charismatic, histrionic, seductive

31:45

figure. He was capable

31:47

of persuading folk like

31:50

Westinghouse, Astor, and Morgan

31:53

To fund his projects. On The

31:55

other hand, from the later 1890s

31:57

onwards, These

32:00

projects became bluntly less

32:02

and less successful. Less

32:04

and less viable. Tesla

32:06

plowed his own sorrow.

32:09

He broke decisively with

32:11

most of the orthodox

32:13

physics of the time.

32:15

For example, he simply

32:17

deny it that radio

32:19

waves wireless transmission is

32:21

electromagnetic radiation, which was

32:23

the physical orthodoxy of

32:25

the time, and it

32:28

still a. For

32:30

tesla, know what's going

32:32

on in radio is

32:34

the conduction of electricity.

32:37

Through. Highly rarefied gas. And

32:39

as Tesla his life went

32:41

on into the twentieth century

32:44

these we might think of

32:46

them, his eccentricities and modes

32:48

of independent and dissidents thought

32:51

became more and more evidence

32:53

and more and more dramatic.

32:56

This. Did not mean that

32:58

Tesla lost his mastery of

33:01

publicity. During. The First

33:03

World War, and well

33:05

into the Jazz age.

33:07

Tesla was a news

33:09

celebrity from the Nineteen

33:11

twenties and thirties onwards.

33:13

A he would organize

33:15

rather dramatic and effective

33:18

birthday parties to which

33:20

he would invite the

33:22

press at which he

33:24

would deliver what became

33:26

celebrated speeches about the

33:28

next great technology coming

33:30

down the pipe. Cause.

33:33

Driven by cosmic rays, Death.

33:36

Rays that would bring war to an

33:38

end. Machines. that

33:40

would produce earthquakes electrical devices

33:43

that would allow each other

33:45

to read one's thoughts at

33:47

a distance didn't believe him

33:49

i think what tesla was

33:52

brilliant at amongst all the

33:54

other things he was brilliant

33:56

that was producing the suspension

33:59

of disbelief The

34:01

charisma and the brilliance

34:03

of the performance, especially

34:05

with the press, meant

34:07

that even if one

34:10

might remain skeptical, one

34:12

wanted to believe. Because

34:15

what was on offer in the 20s

34:17

and 30s from this

34:19

aging genius was a

34:22

prophecy of what the

34:24

future would bring. Tesla

34:26

again and again denounced

34:29

his critics as

34:31

locked tragically into the

34:33

present when it was he

34:36

and his allies who would control

34:38

the future. He made really, really

34:40

good copy and it's

34:42

a hugely seductive vision. When

34:45

I was doing some research

34:47

on Tesla's reception, I

34:50

came across this brilliant frontispiece to

34:52

a book by Hugo Gernsback, a

34:55

kind of science fiction entrepreneur. This

34:59

is around 1930, I think,

35:02

and it's this image of a man sitting

35:04

in his office overlooking

35:06

a kind of cityscape. Everything

35:09

in the office is electrical

35:12

through the window. He

35:14

can see flying machines, all sorts

35:16

of things running around all powered

35:18

by electricity. And there

35:20

in the distance is a

35:22

warden cliff type tower. You know,

35:25

this is the Tesla vision. This

35:29

is the vision that Tesla was pushing

35:31

and pushing and pushing every time he

35:33

got a chance. And

35:35

it was just so seductive. I think

35:37

it was such an alluring image. But

35:40

in a sense, it didn't matter, I

35:42

think, whether or not people believed

35:45

Tesla, that he really could do this. It

35:47

was just such a great story. But I

35:50

think it's important to understand that

35:52

from the Niagara

35:54

Falls triumphs, I mean, that might have

35:56

been the height of his realistic

35:59

fame. time, meaning that he had

36:01

accomplished something gigantic.

36:04

Tesla really was hard up for money. He

36:07

had given up foolishly

36:10

and naively his royalties

36:13

to the AC system when

36:15

Westinghouse was on the brink of

36:17

bankruptcy and he failed

36:20

to get any kind of an agreement

36:22

to have them reinstated when the Westinghouse

36:25

company was in better shape. He

36:27

really did not have the

36:29

money that he needed and

36:32

he got it by offering to

36:34

do very practical things. So

36:37

Simon mentioned his unfortunate

36:40

relationship with Colonel Astor.

36:43

Colonel Astor thought that Tesla was

36:45

going to Colorado Springs to

36:47

develop what he referred to as a cold

36:50

light. So these were wireless

36:52

sort of proto fluorescent light bulbs

36:54

that were going to displace all

36:57

the other light bulbs in the entire

36:59

world. So Astor found this extremely appealing.

37:03

He gave Tesla $30,000, which

37:05

even then I think was

37:07

not anywhere enough money. Tesla

37:10

went off to Colorado Springs, spent

37:12

all of his six months there

37:14

on what Ewan has well described

37:17

as completely other scientific

37:19

research and came back

37:21

and just had done nothing about

37:24

the light bulb. And that was a

37:27

big point of unhappiness. So

37:29

he was pitifully asking

37:31

people like JP Morgan who

37:34

then did give him money, but

37:36

he also kept Tesla's patents. And

37:39

so much of his later

37:42

life until he died in 43, he

37:44

was close to a pauper. So

37:48

the quality of the fantasies

37:50

that he was living and promoting through

37:53

the enthusiastic American

37:55

press has to really be

37:57

seen in that light that he wasn't really.

38:00

really a meaningful

38:02

inventor anymore because he really didn't

38:04

have the money that he needed

38:06

aside from whatever kind of mindset

38:08

and outlook he had. How

38:10

good was his science? How good was his physics? Well

38:13

I think that in the early days his

38:15

physics was very good but what we're hearing

38:18

from both Simon and Ewen is that as

38:20

time went on he was

38:22

off in his own space and

38:25

I think it's interesting that there

38:27

is a certain cohort

38:29

of people who believed

38:31

then and I suppose to this

38:34

day that Tussle was not

38:36

even a human being. He was some sort

38:38

of an alien that had come from elsewhere

38:40

that had such a deep vision that

38:43

he was bestowing on mere

38:46

earthlings. I think you also

38:48

have a sense of his disconnection

38:50

from kind of the real

38:52

world by virtue of the

38:54

fact that in his later

38:56

years his great love was a

38:59

white pigeon and there's

39:01

actually a photograph of this that

39:03

he kept. He

39:05

was a man who

39:07

had an enormous and gigantic

39:11

scientific achievement earlier

39:14

in his life but one

39:16

does get the very distinct impression

39:18

that he had gone

39:20

off into the world of

39:22

scientific fantasy and lacking

39:25

any kind of meaningful income

39:29

or company or institution

39:31

of people that he worked with. I

39:33

mean that was one of his flaws. What

39:35

did you just say was Tussle's

39:37

legacy starting with you Ewen? I

39:39

think that his legacy is

39:42

in all sorts of ways the

39:44

image of invention and the

39:47

image of who invents

39:49

the future so to speak

39:51

but he in so many ways personified. This

39:54

notion of the inventor as

39:57

the iconoclast, the disruptor, the

40:00

breaker for somebody,

40:02

well that's it, the man who

40:05

forges his own furrow but

40:07

pays no attention to anybody else who

40:10

is somehow outside the rules.

40:13

We've inherited that image

40:16

of invention and the invention of how we get to

40:18

the future, I think from Tesla and

40:21

people like him at the end of

40:23

Victorian age. And it's a very seductive and

40:25

I think a very dangerous image. Jill,

40:28

what do you think? I think

40:30

that the sense of

40:32

the inventor as exploited

40:34

by Wall Street and

40:37

the money people of his time, that's

40:40

very powerful. There's a

40:42

strong lingering story

40:45

that he was in some way

40:47

cheated out of what he was due

40:49

by Edison and there's no visible basis

40:51

for that. So one

40:54

of the things I found

40:56

when I was working on

40:58

Tesla is that he was

41:00

very celebrated for that, celebrated

41:02

as the genius who was

41:04

misunderstood. And it's not

41:06

at all clear that there's that much

41:09

validity to that because he

41:11

was, when he finally articulated

41:14

and demonstrated his alternating

41:16

current system, it

41:18

was enormously successful and

41:21

his mistake was giving up his

41:24

royalties. The other thing

41:26

that's important to understand about Tesla is

41:28

the only one of his many inventions,

41:30

he had more than a hundred patents

41:33

that was ever commercialized was

41:36

that that he did with George Westinghouse.

41:38

I often like to point out that

41:40

he demonstrated remote

41:42

control in 1898 before

41:46

a group of potential investors at

41:48

Madison Square Garden. He had

41:50

a big pool, he was moving

41:53

boats all around in the water,

41:55

turning lights on and off and

41:57

the investors just had no idea.

42:00

What was this? It

42:02

looked like magic. And once

42:04

Tesla had demonstrated something, had made

42:08

a big publicity about it, he

42:10

rarely was interested thereafter in how

42:12

it worked in the practical world.

42:14

I think that's another part of

42:16

his legacy, that you

42:19

invent something spectacular, you

42:21

demonstrate something spectacular, and

42:24

then that's sufficient. Then

42:27

you move on, as we must do here.

42:29

Simon, what do you think his legacy is?

42:31

I think the landscape of

42:34

Nikola Tesla's career is

42:36

being constructed between

42:38

two very, very powerful

42:41

principles of modern life,

42:44

manufacturing industry and finance

42:46

capital. Between those

42:49

two forms, roughly

42:51

between figures like Westinghouse,

42:53

the manufacturer, and

42:56

Morgan, the capitalist, you

42:59

have a figure like Tesla,

43:01

someone who at the time

43:03

and since has been almost

43:05

universally treated like a martyred

43:07

wizard. It's no

43:09

coincidence that when

43:12

Christopher Nolan decided to make

43:15

a film about magic in

43:17

the late 19th century, he

43:19

casts David Bowie as

43:22

Nikola Tesla. It

43:24

seems to me that that

43:27

captures perfectly the alien

43:30

and disturbing power

43:33

that is still attributed to the figure of

43:36

Nikola Tesla. Well,

43:38

thank you very much. Thanks to Jill

43:40

Jones, Simon Shaffer, and Ewan

43:43

Morris, and to our studio engineer Emma

43:45

Harth next week, Aristophanes' comedy

43:47

Lizzis Rata, in which the wives

43:49

of Athens and Sparta unite to

43:51

end a war by staging a

43:53

sex strike. Thanks for listening. with

44:00

a few minutes of bonus material from Melvin

44:02

and his guests. Let's start with

44:04

you, Simon Schaffo. What didn't you say you would

44:06

like to have said? What

44:09

we did not get into,

44:12

that I wish we'd had

44:15

time to explore more, is

44:18

treating Tesla like a European.

44:20

This is a period when

44:23

there is mass migration

44:26

from Europe to North America,

44:30

and many of the protagonists of

44:33

the electrical world in

44:35

the late 19th century

44:37

in the United States

44:39

are migrants from Europe,

44:41

including figures like

44:44

Eli who Thompson or Charles

44:46

Batchelor or

44:48

Nikola Tesla himself, who

44:51

would then exercise huge

44:53

roles in

44:55

the development of American

44:58

industry and modernization.

45:01

It seems to me always

45:03

therefore that the

45:06

relation between old

45:08

world and new between

45:11

what counted as traditional

45:13

societies and the very

45:15

notion that America

45:18

itself represented a certain version

45:20

of the future is absolutely

45:23

in play in

45:25

the career of Nikola Tesla

45:27

and many of his contemporaries. I'd

45:30

mentioned for example his

45:32

extremely close friendship with

45:34

Mark Twain. Mark Twain

45:36

was a very, very

45:39

close ally and admirer

45:41

of Nikola Tesla, a

45:43

potential investor, someone

45:45

who gave Nikola Tesla a great

45:48

deal of publicity. For

45:51

Twain, what Nikola

45:53

Tesla represented was

45:56

the principle of the

45:58

unreconstructed genius. That

46:00

by a rising in

46:02

North America would resist

46:04

fi society, drag it

46:06

into the modern age

46:08

and take really have

46:10

very different path. From.

46:14

The misfortunes of the Old Continent.

46:16

I think there's something very

46:18

interesting, for example, to say

46:21

about the relation between Nikola

46:23

Tesla, his career and Twain's

46:25

masterpiece, a Connecticut Yankee in

46:27

King Arthur's Court, which is

46:29

a novel. About the

46:32

effects of North American engineering

46:34

skill on the Middle Ages

46:36

that is quite close it

46:39

seems to me. To.

46:41

One way in which we can frame

46:43

what Nikola Tesla achieved. Even Nord

46:45

was you. I would like

46:48

to have saved more about

46:50

what I've read. All of

46:52

it. The fascinating, An entirely

46:54

consecutive rivalry between the Tesla,

46:56

Nikola Tesla and and Thomas

46:58

Edison. At. The time

47:01

there was no rivalry. Addison

47:03

one suspects barely noticed. Several

47:06

as existence fab. Most haven't met

47:09

most of their respective careers Tesla

47:11

may or may not and for

47:13

my was a rivalry, but Addison

47:15

certainly does didn't. But

47:18

it's not such a central

47:20

plank in the way that

47:23

Nikola Tesla as portrayed. The

47:25

way in which the story

47:27

all but forgotten genius Have

47:29

forgotten genius of action. Countless

47:32

biographies, at least a couple

47:34

of movies, a Doctor Who

47:36

episode. I'm probably missing

47:38

a few things had have been

47:40

mates and drop really that forgotten.

47:43

But the way that rivalries

47:46

play that in contemporary culture?

47:48

Snap Edison's the unscrupulous businessman

47:51

beholden to capitalism. Have a

47:53

laugh. Nikola Tesla. A free

47:55

thinking genius. Fascinated.

47:58

By and I should have a

48:00

kind of say in itself and

48:02

have very different images of invent

48:05

some deserts of elite invention, their

48:07

sciences mired in the mouth of

48:09

capitalism on the ones and said

48:11

estates, and this three fantastic invention.

48:13

for it's own sake, it's heavily

48:16

an image. On the other hand,

48:18

I must have a the stories that play that. And

48:21

I think it's how this a great deal

48:23

by the way We now since and understand.

48:26

Science. And technology that.

48:28

The. Story is play that in that

48:30

way to what's your take on this.

48:33

Well. The thing that eyes think

48:36

it's important to understand from the

48:38

vantage point of today is it

48:40

there wasn't any kind of. Really?

48:43

Obvious place for a Nikola

48:45

Tesla. There wasn't a place

48:47

for him in a university.

48:49

The way there is for someone that he

48:51

was a man who is interested in pure

48:53

science. And yet he

48:56

didn't really have colleagues who

48:58

could. Work. Things

49:00

through with him: He did

49:03

not have a company the

49:05

way Edison did, and Westinghouse

49:07

there were not pure research.

49:09

Labs the way Bell

49:11

Labs of later years

49:14

existed. So he

49:16

was a a loner and I

49:18

think actually but you and is

49:21

saying about this. False.

49:24

Story of the

49:26

Edison Tesla. Rivalry.

49:29

Really speaks to that that suit

49:31

that. Tesla was a loner and

49:34

part of the reason he had

49:36

to be alone or he says

49:38

terrible. Businessman so eats was

49:40

not. gonna have a company

49:43

but there was no other

49:45

place in society for him

49:47

to operate as a scientist

49:49

and so he did the

49:51

best he could to operate

49:53

a you know and make

49:55

himself known but he didn't

49:57

really have i'm a meaningful

50:00

institution that he could be

50:02

part of that would have

50:05

really helped him to

50:07

play out and fully

50:10

think through his scientific

50:12

ideas. And you have to

50:14

wonder if one of the reasons

50:16

he went so off the rails was

50:19

the lack of such an institution

50:22

in the era in which he was

50:24

being a scientist. And

50:26

by the time those sorts of institutions came

50:28

along, it was really too late

50:30

for him. One thing that

50:33

was not mentioned, this is perhaps you might think

50:35

it's rather trivial, is that he

50:37

put himself up at the Waldorf Hotel, one of

50:39

the most expensive in New York at the time.

50:41

Went next door to one of the most expensive

50:43

restaurants in New York. And

50:46

this money that was pure scientific research

50:48

went into high living. No,

50:51

he never paid his rent at the Waldorf Astoria.

50:54

That was why the Wardenclyffe Tower

50:56

was blown up. He

50:58

owed the Waldorf Astoria

51:00

something like 20 years of rent.

51:04

No, it must be said, one of Tesla's

51:07

many striking and

51:09

useful inventions is

51:11

how to stay at

51:13

ridiculously expensive Manhattan hotels

51:16

without ever quite paying

51:18

the bill. My

51:21

favorite story associated

51:23

with this is that

51:26

at one of these hotels,

51:28

the Governor Clinton Hotel, he

51:30

instead of paying the bill offered

51:34

the management a sealed

51:36

box, which

51:38

he claimed contained

51:40

a device of extraordinary

51:42

power and value. And

51:46

secondly, that it should not be opened because

51:48

it would be lethal to open it. I

51:52

have never tried doing that

51:55

in any Manhattan hotel. One

52:00

of Tesla's biographers, Bernie

52:03

Carlson, reports that when

52:05

the box was

52:07

in the end, posthumously, obviously,

52:10

opened, it contained a

52:13

number of pieces of scrap metal

52:16

of no power or value

52:18

or significance. The man

52:21

who opened the box, the

52:23

man who was sent by

52:25

the United States government

52:28

to examine, again posthumously,

52:31

Tesla's manuscripts, was

52:34

an MIT electrical

52:36

engineer of great

52:39

distinction, an engineer so distinguished

52:41

that this engineer managed the

52:43

relation between American and British

52:46

radar projects during the Second

52:48

World War. His name

52:50

was John Trump, and he's the

52:53

former President Trump's uncle.

52:56

It's for reasons like that,

52:59

it seems to me, that Tesla

53:01

has attracted more than

53:03

his fair share of

53:06

conspiracy theoretic stories. Do you want

53:08

a final word? I

53:11

wanted to emphasize, precisely as you

53:13

said, this is

53:15

a reclusive man of science who's

53:18

living at the Waldorf Astoria

53:20

and dining at Delmonico's with

53:23

Mark Twain. And

53:26

I think that sums up perfectly

53:29

the kind of image of what an

53:31

inventor should be that Nikola

53:33

Tesla was trying to

53:35

live in the 1819. A very

53:37

well-fed hermit. We have a

53:41

very well-fed producer coming to say hello to

53:43

us. Does anyone want

53:45

your coffee? Tea please. Tea. Coffee

53:48

please. Coffee please. In our time

53:50

with Melvin Bragg is produced by Simon Tillotson. Hi,

53:55

this is Christa Young. I just wanted to let you know

53:57

that Young again, my podcast for BBC

53:59

Radio 4. or is back. I'm telescoping

54:01

two bits of the story together. That's okay. It's

54:03

only memory. It's only show bits. We can say

54:05

what we like. In Young

54:07

Again, we're joined by some of the

54:10

world's most intriguing people. Bill was the

54:12

CEO at Microsoft at the time. And I

54:14

ask a simple question. If you knew then, what

54:16

you know now, what would you

54:18

tell yourself? Be very, very careful about

54:21

the people you surround yourself with. I

54:23

gave too much power to people who

54:25

didn't deserve it. Subscribe to Young Again

54:27

on BBC Science and I'm looking forward

54:29

to your company. My

54:59

dear Lady Disdain, are you

55:02

yet living?