Tesla Electrifies the World

Summary

HISTORY This Week: "Tesla Electrifies the World"

Episode Release Date: February 24, 2025
Host/Author: The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
Guest: Mark Seifer, author of The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla

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1. Introduction to Nikola Tesla’s Pioneering Work

The episode opens with a vivid depiction of Nikola Tesla’s influential lecture at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on February 24, 1893. Hosted by Sally Helm, the narrator sets the scene of Tesla, described as a "tall, thin man" with a distinctive mustache, captivating an audience with his innovative ideas on electricity and wireless power. Tesla’s dramatic demonstration involves generating and manipulating electrical sparks, leaving the audience in awe as he makes streams of light appear from his fingertips ([03:35], [06:31]).

Notable Quote:

"When we look at the world around us, each thing we perceive, though it may be vanishingly small, is in itself a world." – Nikola Tesla ([03:35])

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2. The War of the Currents: AC vs. DC

Mark Seifer explains the historical context of the late 19th century, highlighting the burgeoning electric grid in New York City and the rivalry between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. Edison advocated for direct current (DC) systems, which were limited in range and efficiency. In contrast, Tesla championed alternating current (AC), which promised to power entire cities and industries over long distances ([09:56]).

Key Points:

• Edison's DC System: Limited to about a mile, suitable only for small-scale lighting ([10:00]).
• Tesla's AC System: Capable of powering factories and homes from miles away, representing a "rocket ship" compared to Edison’s "horse and buggy" ([10:13], [10:39]).

Notable Quote:

"Edison was promoting direct current and Tesla was promoting alternating current." – Mark Seifer ([09:56])

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3. Public Demonstrations and Edison’s Tactics

The rivalry intensified as Edison sought to discredit AC by branding it the "killer current." He orchestrated public demonstrations of AC’s dangers by electrocating animals, aiming to sway public opinion against Tesla’s technology ([10:53]). Despite these efforts, Tesla’s AC system proved superior during the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, where his technology illuminated the exposition without the associated dangers, marking a significant victory over Edison ([11:14]).

Notable Quote:

"It's like comparing a horse and buggy to a rocket ship." – Mark Seifer ([10:39])

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4. Tesla’s Innovations and Vision for Wireless Power

Following his success at the World’s Fair, Tesla continued to push the boundaries of electrical engineering. In 1898, he unveiled the Tel Automaton, a remote-controlled boat, at the Madison Square Garden Electrical Exposition. This invention demonstrated Tesla’s forward-thinking ideas about wireless communication and power transmission, predating public radio broadcasts by several years ([18:23]).

Notable Quote:

"Nikola Tesla's pursuit of wireless power... how did it lead to his downfall?" – Narrator Sally Helm ([07:09])

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5. The Wardenclyffe Tower Project

Tesla’s ambitious dream of global wireless power transmission led him to embark on the Wardenclyffe Tower project in Long Island. With initial funding from financier J.P. Morgan, Tesla envisioned a scientific compound capable of interplanetary communication and universal energy distribution. However, as Tesla sought to expand the project beyond the agreed scope, Morgan withdrew his support, citing contractual breaches ([30:06], [32:53]).

Key Events:

• Initial Funding: $150,000 from J.P. Morgan for a 90-foot tower ([30:06]).
• Expansion Plans: Tesla’s desire to build a 600-foot tower to surpass Marconi’s advancements led to conflicts with Morgan ([31:21]).

Notable Quote:

"I'm going to advance the world a century. Unify all peoples of the earth through a wireless system." – Nikola Tesla ([33:42])

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6. Competition with Marconi and Technological Setbacks

The episode delves into Tesla’s competitive dynamics with Italian inventor Guillermo Marconi, who successfully transmitted the first radio signal across the Atlantic in 1901 using technology that paralleled Tesla’s own innovations. Despite Tesla’s contributions to radio technology, Marconi received widespread acclaim and financial backing, further marginalizing Tesla’s standing in the scientific community ([34:18], [35:16]).

Notable Quote:

"They all come to pay homage to this incredible accomplishment of Marconi." – Mark Seifer ([35:03])

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7. Tesla’s Decline and Legacy

Financial struggles and failed ventures led to the eventual demolition of Wardenclyffe Tower in 1917, marking the end of Tesla’s dreams of wireless power. Despite his groundbreaking work, Tesla died in relative obscurity in 1943, burdened by debts and unfulfilled ambitions. The episode contrasts Tesla’s early promise with his later years of hardship, highlighting the tragic arc of his life ([37:52], [38:02]).

Notable Quote:

"Tesla was always trying to resurrect his real dream. Worldwide wireless power." – Mark Seifer ([37:42])

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8. Posthumous Recognition and Modern Tribute

The episode concludes by addressing Tesla’s resurgence in popular culture, particularly through the founding of Tesla, Inc., an electric car company named in his honor. Despite initial resistance from Elon Musk, the company retained Tesla’s name, ensuring his legacy is associated with innovation and sustainability. This modern tribute stands in stark contrast to Tesla’s own financial and personal struggles, cementing his status as a visionary whose ideas continue to influence contemporary technology ([39:53], [40:19]).

Notable Quote:

"Nikola Tesla is back in New York with a grand plan... but he's flat broke." – Sally Helm ([27:31])

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Conclusion

"Tesla Electrifies the World" offers a comprehensive exploration of Nikola Tesla’s profound impact on modern technology and his enduring legacy. Through engaging narration and expert insights from Mark Seifer, the episode illuminates Tesla’s visionary ideas, the formidable challenges he faced, and the lasting influence of his innovations on today’s wireless and electrical systems.

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Notable Mention: Special thanks to Mark Seifer for his expertise, providing depth to Tesla’s story, and to producer Ben Dickstein and Katherine Isaac for their contributions to the episode's production.

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Transcript

[Ben]

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[Sally Helm]

This episode of History this week is sponsored by Quince and producer Ben is here to tell you all about them. Ben, take it away.

[Ben]

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[Sally Helm]

History this Week, February 24th, 1893. I'm Sally Helm. The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, a small stately building tucked away on 7th street in Old City. This is one of the scientific hubs of 19th century America. A large audience is gathered inside to see a lecture. On stage is a tall, thin man, dark hair, sharp features, a distinctive mustache. His name is Nikola Tesla, and he's considered one of the world's most visionary inventors. The press has called him an electric wizard. He begins his lecture with, quote, some thoughts about the eye. They're quite poetic. He says. When we look at the world around us, each thing we perceive, though it may be vanishingly small, is in itself a world. Tesla goes on to speak about physics, philosophy, nature, electricity, consciousness. And then, at long last, he tells the room, I will now proceed with the experiments. Tesla wants to explain electrostatic static force. And he's come up with a very flashy way to do it. Holding in his hand a piece of metal, he walks over to a table that's been set up on the stage. Protruding from that table are two thick columns coated in rubber. One is topped with a brass sphere. Tesla points the metal at the other column, the one without the sphere, and walks closer and closer until sparks begin to fly. The room pulses with electricity. The air crackles. Tesla touches the metal to this contraption on the table and the sparks stop. Now he explains, his body is charged with 200,000 volts of electricity. So great is this agitation of the particles that when the lights are turned out, you may see streams of feeble light appear on some parts of my body. Then he says he can make these streams of light visible to all in a simple way by moving his free hand towards that brass sphere. He does this and streams of light begin to shoot from his fingertips.

[Mark Seifer]

And he'd lit up like a, like a, like a light bulb.

[Sally Helm]

That is Mark Seifer. He's the author of a book on Tesla and this lighting up of Tesla's very hand. It is just the beginning of his performance of the dazzling Delights of electricity. He illuminates phosphorescent globes, waves, colorful glowing tubes. Tubes in the air creates strobe effects. Whirling tubes that glow like moonbeams.

[Mark Seifer]

Now, this is in the 1890s, so you can imagine what a magician he must have appeared like.

[Sally Helm]

Tesla's experiments are remarkable by any measure. But perhaps the most dumbfounding aspect, the glowing lights in Tesla's hands, Most of them aren't plugged in to anything. They're lighting up without wires today. Nikola Tesla's pursuit of wireless power. How did his relentless quest shape our world? And how did it lead to his downfall? It's the early 1890s, and the world is just starting to crackle with electrical power. At the center of the action is New York City. The world's first electric grid has just been constructed in lower Manhattan. Broadway shines with the city's first electric streetlights, so bright that it'll soon be known as the Great White Way. The future is here. It was conjured by a group of madcap inventors who can create light and sound seemingly from nowhere. The scene's giant is Thomas Edison. Its rising star is Nikola Tesla. About a decade earlier, when Tesla was 28, he'd arrived in New York City from Europe with 4 cents in his pocket. Also, some plans for a flying machine and a recommendation letter addressed to Thomas Edison. Tesla had been fascinated by electricity since he was a small child growing up in a Serbian family in what is now Croatia. One snowy day, he stroked his pet cat and saw a shower of sparks created by static electricity. He later wrote, I cannot exaggerate the effect of this marvelous sight on my childish imagination. Day by day, I asked myself, what is electricity? And found no answer. That's why he showed up on Thomas Edison's doorstep. Edison saw his talent and took him on. Tesla worked for Edison's company, but their relations eventually soured. They fought over money, and now they are battling it out quite publicly over the future of electricity in something called the War of the Currents. Here's Mark Seifer.

[Mark Seifer]

Edison was promoting direct current and Tesla was promoting alternating current.

[Sally Helm]

These are essentially just two different ways of distributing electricity. But Edison's dog in the fight, direct current. It is not good for sending electric power over long distances.

[Mark Seifer]

Edison's system, you could only send electricity about a mile with power dropping off of a distance, and that would only be for lighting houses.

[Sally Helm]

But Tesla's choice, alternating current. It could power anything. Houses, sure, but also whole factories from miles away. It's pretty clear Tesla's choice was better. Alternating current would be the future.

[Mark Seifer]

It was like comparing a horse and buggy to a rocket ship. Edison had the horse and buggy, Tesla had the rocket ship. So there was no real comparison. But Edison had the name at stake.

[Sally Helm]

Reputations and millions of dollars. Unsurprisingly, it gets a little ugly at one point. Edison tries to brand Tesla's alternating current AC the killer current. He arranges for AC to be used in the first electric chair and for other public demonstrations of death.

[Mark Seifer]

He was electrocuting cats and dogs, horses with AC current.

[Sally Helm]

But none of this will matter if Tesla can prove that his AC technology is safe and powerful. And in 1893, he gets his chance. Chicago is hosting the World's Fair, and it'll be the first fair in history to run on electric power. Electric power that someone will need to provide. Edison throws his hat in the ring. He's backed by the financier J.P. morgan. And a man named George Westinghouse places a bid, too. He's an inventor and industrialist, and he's purchased Tesla's AC patents.

[Mark Seifer]

Westinghouse wanted to prove that the ASIC system was the best system, so he underbid the contract by a million dollars.

[Sally Helm]

Westinghouse wins the contract. Tesla's technologies will be on display before an audience of millions on May 1, 1893. President Grover Cleveland presides over the opening ceremony on the steps of the administration building. In front of a hushed crowd, he pushes a button. All at once, flags unfurl, electric motors start whirring, and the exposition comes to life. At night, the fair transforms into a city of light. Tesla's technology works, and it's not scary. It doesn't electrocute anyone. He has bested Edison, and now the whole world sees what alternating current can do. Nikola Tesla arrives back in New York City, on top of the world, and with money in his pocket.

[Mark Seifer]

Westinghouse gave him essentially about a half a million dollars. He had to pay his backers a little less than half of that, but still, $250,000 in 1893 is probably like, you know, 10, $15 million today.

[Sally Helm]

And Tesla lives it up.

[Mark Seifer]

He started to move into very high circles. He would meet with Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling, Teddy Roosevelt, and he was, you know, a master in a sense, a master of the universe at that time. And everybody wanted to go into his lab.

[Sally Helm]

Yet Tesla's New York lab becomes a destination. There are amazing photos from the time Mark Twain staring into a glowing orb between his hands. Tesla holding a brilliant oversized light bulb lit with, without wires, I would want to go.

[Mark Seifer]

I couldn't even today, you know, to see that kind of stuff. But in 1893, 1994, my God, it just, it really set your head spinning.

[Sally Helm]

A couple years later, Tesla pulls off another amazing feat. When he was a boy, he'd seen a picture of Niagara Falls and imagined it powering a giant wheel. And in 1896, he makes it happen. He harnesses the power of Niagara Falls and uses it to power an entire city. Buffalo, New York.

[Mark Seifer]

It runs on clean energy and it's renewable. As long as Niagara Falls keeps falling, you have power.

[Sally Helm]

In a world where most homes won't have electric light for another quarter century. This is like stepping into the future. And for Tesla, it's also the seed of a new idea. He's taken the power of a waterfall and used it to turn on the lights in a whole city. That gets him thinking big. What if he can somehow harness a huge amount of power and transmit it to the hole? Whole world with no wires, worldwide wireless power, energy traveling somehow through nature. The idea grabs hold of him. Now he just has to figure out what to do next. Hello, history this week, listeners, it is Sally here. We cover stories from all around the world on this show. And today's episode is sponsored by the language learning program Rosetta Stone. Our producer Ben is here to tell you all about them.

[Ben]

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[Sally Helm]

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[Sally Helm]

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[Sally Helm]

In 1898, Tesla reveals a major step forward in wireless technology. Though it sounds small, it is a.

[Mark Seifer]

Remote controlled boat, which he called the Tel Automaton. The word robot hadn't come in yet.

[Sally Helm]

He unveils his boat at the Madison Square Garden electrical Exposition. Gilded Age investors are there to watch. The boat is made of steel. It's 4ft long, 3ft high. It's placed in a tank the size of a swimming pool. Investors gather around the edge and live in front of them all. Tesla begins steering the boat remotely using radio waves.

[Mark Seifer]

He had a counter spring on the rudder, so when the spring was on it was in one direction. And when you turned off the electricity, the rudder went in a different direction so you could steer the boat by turning on and off electricity. So we had a series of these binary systems to put the lights on and off, to steer the boat, to pretend to shoot the torpedo, and a few other things.

[Sally Helm]

This is years before the first public radio broadcast and Tesla is demonstrating that you can not only use radio to transmit communications, but also to transmit electrical information that can move objects. The idea is so sci fi that the US Patent Office hasn't approved Tesla's patents yet. They seemed too far fetched. But Tesla isn't the only one experimenting with radio technology. In fact, at this same exposition, Italian inventor Guillermo Marconi's technology will be on display. Used to detonate a remote controlled bomb. Marconi's bomb is set up on another toy sized ship. That seems to have been the trend and it works. But there are a bunch of other bombs nearby too.

[Mark Seifer]

He didn't know how to create separate frequencies, so all the bombs that were in the back room went off when he bombed the ship. Fortunately, nobody got hurt or killed.

[Sally Helm]

Despite the kerfuffle, the demonstration of Marconi's technology seems to capture the public Imagination. Much more so than Tesla's boat had. You know, explosions, they're cool. But Tesla's product is more technologically sophisticated. From that standpoint, he has the edge. But it's clear that a new battle has arrived. If Edison was Tesla's rival in the war of the Currents, his new rival in the wireless technology wars will be Marconi. The following year, Tesla decides to leave New York City. He heads west to Colorado Springs.

[Mark Seifer]

He was using a lot of electricity and it became too dangerous in New York. So I think it enabled him to do giant wireless operations and not worry about blowing up a building in downtown New York City, starting fires or whatever.

[Sally Helm]

This isn't a theoretical problem. Tesla's New York lab had caught fire in 1895, so he wanted to be.

[Mark Seifer]

Out by himself, and he was offered essentially free electricity.

[Sally Helm]

Out in Colorado Springs, Tesla sets up an experimental station about five miles outside of town. The Rockies on one side, miles of planes on the other. There's a photo of him there, peeking out from behind a door marked by the sign Great Danger, Keep Out. Tesla is still trying to figure out how can he wirelessly transmit power to the entire world.

[Mark Seifer]

He didn't know for sure the best way to send electricity. One idea he had was to have balloons and send it up through the ionosphere.

[Sally Helm]

He brings in oversized helium balloons more than 10ft high, attaches wires to them and hopes to run them miles into the air.

[Mark Seifer]

But you know, you have to get the balloons way up there. You've got wires attached to the balloons and it's very cumbersome.

[Sally Helm]

He produces artificial lightning and sends bolts into the night sky. He sets up light bulbs in fields and makes them glow wirelessly. He also sets his lab on fire once he wipes out power for the whole town. They give him his own power supply after that, and the town itself transforms. It's surreal. Sparks fly from the ground when people walk. Butterflies begin to glow violet because of all the static in the air. And the horses grow restless. They keep getting shocked through their metal shoes. But for Nikola Tesla himself, none of these wonders is the strangest thing that happens in Colorado Springs.

[Mark Seifer]

So one night, he receives three pulses on his equipment, and they sound something like this, beep, beep, beep. And he wonders about it. And then he hears it again. He thought, that could very well have been the Martians welcoming us as our technology was growing and we were becoming more advanced.

[Sally Helm]

Yes. Tesla believed that he had been contacted by Martians. He starts telling everyone.

[Mark Seifer]

Some people thought he was a total nut because he thought he had received pulse frequencies from the Martians.

[Sally Helm]

Mark Cipher theorizes that Tesla might have been picking up signals from closer to home. In fact, from someone he knew Marconi was working with.

[Mark Seifer]

Transmitting the letter S, which is dot, dot, dot, or beep, beep, beep. And I hypothesize that perhaps Tesla picked up Marconi's signal.

[Sally Helm]

Like Tesla, Marconi has been envisioning a wireless world. He's trying to communicate information like that letter S, and he's favoring the air. He's using radio waves. But in Colorado Springs, Tesla starts looking away from the air, down towards the Earth. It happens when he's tracking local lightning storms out on the plains.

[Mark Seifer]

He began to realize that when lightning strikes the Earth, it creates a resonant frequency. And he started to measure the resonant frequency of the Earth. And so he realized that the Earth itself was alive with electricity and perhaps could be used as a carrier wave.

[Sally Helm]

This was Tesla's big idea, the breakthrough he's been looking for since Niagara Falls. To send electricity and all that comes with it, power, communication through the Earth that could let him bring wireless power to the whole world. Tesla's time in Colorado Springs is shrouded in mystery. No one knows for sure whether his experiments transmitting power through the Earth were successful. What is clear is that in 1900, Tesla heads back to New York City, fully convinced that he can do it. He just needs to build a giant transmission tower the likes of which the world has never seen.

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[Sally Helm]

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[Sally Helm]

@Mintmobile.Com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees, extra fee. MintMobile.com Nikola Tesla is back in New York with a grand plan. Create a giant tower that can wirelessly transmit both information and energy all over the globe using the power of the Earth itself. There's just one problem. He's flat broke.

[Mark Seifer]

He needs literally millions of dollars to do the kind of work that he wanted to do.

[Sally Helm]

But Tesla's reputation isn't as shiny as it once was. It's been almost a decade since he's invented something that's made anyone money. Investors don't look favorably on that. Plus there's the whole Martian communications thing. And there's competition. Marconi is right at Tesla's heels, sending his letter S further and further. He's in New York at the same time, Tesla is also trying to raise funds for his next big project. But Tesla is undaunted. He has a secret weapon. Back in Colorado Springs, he'd invited a photographer to visit his lab. Now he has the results.

[Mark Seifer]

They are high tech double exposure photographs he was into. Neat kind of special effects photographs.

[Sally Helm]

Spectacular photographs. In the most famous one, Tesla sits in his lab nonchalantly reading a book while a giant ball of lightning dozens of feet long crackles overhead. The photos make him look like a mad scientist in an old monster movie. In other words, extremely cool. Tesla begins to use these photographs as his calling cards for fundraising. He still has connections to New York's richest people and he just needs one of them to buy in on his grand vision. This giant tower for wireless communication so powerful that you'd be able to transmit signals across the ocean. And finally, he does get someone to listen. And not just anyone. The same man who had backed his rival Thomas Edison in the war of the currents, JP Morgan. Morgan is interested, but skeptical. So he offers Tesla this deal.

[Mark Seifer]

He was very clear to Tesla, he said, I'm going to give you $150,000 under two conditions. One, that I'll be a silent partner, and two, you will not ask me for another dime.

[Sally Helm]

Tesla agrees. With Morgan's money, he purchases a 200 acre plan plot of land on the Long Island Sound, about 60 miles outside of New York City. He christens it Wardenclyffe. He has a grand vision. A scientific compound, maybe a thousand people working to supply the world with wireless power and, and producing Rain in the deserts and lightning in the skies. Interplanetary communication. He hasn't told all of this to JP Morgan. Tesla was a true visionary. But this vision might have been getting a little out of hand. The money that he has now will cover just the first. A giant tower designed for powerful wireless transmission. The first of its kind. It's going swimmingly. Until one day, as Tesla is taking the train from New York City out.

[Mark Seifer]

To Wardenclyffe, he's reading through the electrical journals and he finds an article written by Marconi. And Marconi said, in order to send wireless communication, you need to take a Tesla coil and do X, Y, Z and Q.

[Sally Helm]

And Tesla freaks out Marconi again. And this time he's making advances using Tesla's own technology. A patent violation, probably. But what Tesla's really concerned about is winning. He needs to blow Marconi out of the water.

[Mark Seifer]

So Tesla freaks out and decides to build a larger tower than he contracted with Morgan. He had contracted a 90 foot tower. And he tells Stanford White, the architect, who is his builder, I want to make a 600 foot tower in Stanford. White says, there's no way. You have no need of the money to for a 600 foot tower.

[Sally Helm]

Okay, fine. Tesla says, then just double it. 180ft.

[Mark Seifer]

And when Morgan returns from Europe, Tesla said, I double the size of the tower because of Marconi. He's stealing my ideas. And with the larger tower, we'll not only be able to send electrical impulses to Europe, but we'll also be able to send it to Asia, South America, Africa, over the entire world. So I know the costs might double, but the revenues will be five, six, seven times as much because we'll be able to control the whole planet.

[Sally Helm]

JP Morgan is not happy.

[Mark Seifer]

All Morgan can see is a breach of contract, which is true.

[Sally Helm]

The contract is for a 90 foot tower with the stipulation that Tesla not ask him for any more money.

[Mark Seifer]

And Tesla tells Morgan, look, you're the most powerful man on the planet. You're worried about another hundred thousand dollars? It's pocket change to you. Give me the money I need to finish this thing or let me get other investors in.

[Sally Helm]

Morgan doesn't give Tesla more money and he doesn't let other investors on board. But Tesla doesn't budge either.

[Mark Seifer]

Tesla just wouldn't compromise. He was, you can do the whole gigantic thing which would been a worldwide wireless system of voice, pictures and power. We're not doing it all.

[Sally Helm]

Tesla writes letter after letter pleading with Morgan.

[Mark Seifer]

You have to understand, I'm going to advance the world a century. Unify all peoples of the earth through a wireless system.

[Sally Helm]

He even reveals his vision for a system that won't just transmit information wirelessly, but also energy, electricity to unite and power the entire world.

[Mark Seifer]

He's trying to tell Morgan, you're going to make your money back in so many different ways. And Morgan just didn't believe him.

[Sally Helm]

Tesla's pleas fall on deaf ears. Morgan never gives him the money.

[Mark Seifer]

So it's a very tragic story as to his ultimate failure.

[Sally Helm]

While Tesla struggles to finance Wardenclyffe, Marconi finally succeeds. On December 12, 1901, he transmits the first radio signal across the Atlantic Ocean. That tenacious letter s sent using some of Tesla's underlying technology. There is a giant party in Marconi's honor at the Waldorf Astoria, which is actually where Tesla lives. Everyone's there, Morgan Westinghouse. Edison can't make it, but he sends a letter which is read aloud.

[Mark Seifer]

They all come to pay homage to this incredible accomplishment of Marconi. It was a tremendous accomplishment, something Tesla was never able to establish or prove that he could do that.

[Sally Helm]

Tesla doesn't go to the party. He chooses to be out of town that night. It's clear the age of mass communication has begun, and it's been stamped with Marconi's name. Tesla does keep toiling away. Out at Wardenclyffe, construction is finally underway.

[Mark Seifer]

This tower out on Wardenclyffe kind of looks like a mushroom with a big giant top.

[Sally Helm]

It's 300ft total, some of it reaching for the sky, the rest tunneling into the earth. According to the New York Times, townspeople whispered that the ground around it was honeycombed with subterranean passages. It might look like a radio tower, but Tesla intends to use it the way he first dreamed of back in Colorado Springs, to somehow use the earth to transmit power wirelessly across long distances. He feels like he's on his way, but the money is drying up. In July of 1903, as things are looking grim, Nikola Tesla fully fires up his Wardenclyffe tower. A last hurrah, or perhaps a primal scream. The result is visible for miles around. The air was filled with blinding streaks of electricity, the New York sun reported, which seemed to shoot off into the darkness on some mysterious errand. Over the next few years, Tesla continues to try to get funding, burning through his own cash to keep building. But eventually, his creditors come calling. Wardenclyffe falls silent, and Tesla breaks down.

[Mark Seifer]

He went through a tragic period in 1906. Totally fell apart. But by 1908, 1909. He's back onto his game and he's trying to figure out what else he can do. He comes up with a steam engine which he's hoping will replace the gasoline guzzler and sell it to Henry Ford. He has torpedoes and he had bladeless.

[Sally Helm]

Turbines and pumps, but he's always trying to resurrect his real dream. Worldwide wireless power.

[Mark Seifer]

He was always trying to get the money to go back and complete Woodcliffe. He just never was able to do it.

[Sally Helm]

Eventually, Tesla sells the site to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Repayment for his debts, he'd run up a $20,000 unpaid tab. And in 1917, it's demolished with dynamite. The parts are sold for scrap. With Wardenclyffe gone and no funding in sight, it became clear Tesla would never be able to prove his theory that you could wirelessly transmit power through the earth. And of course, no one has gone on to do this. Most scientists are skeptical it could ever have worked. Today we live in a wireless age, but it's information that seems to travel invisibly around the world. No one has been able to figure out a way to transmit large amounts of power wirelessly across long distances in an economical way. Maybe it can't be done. Then again, Tesla did spend his whole life accomplishing the seemingly impossible. For the rest of his life, Tesla is plagued with debts. He gets more and more eccentric. And in 1943 he dies in relative obscurity. Six months later, his decades long lawsuit against Marconi is finally settled. Too late. But Tesla is vindicated as key in the invention of radio. Yet for decades, he remains a historical footnote, even as the world starts to look more and more like the one he envisioned. Radio, cell phones, intelligent robots, flying machines. Until suddenly, Tesla comes revving back into the public consciousness.

[Mark Seifer]

In the early 2000s, Tampani and Eberhard invented the Tesla Roadster. And when Elon Musk bought the company, he didn't. He wasn't a big fan of Tesla. He almost changed it to Edison. And he decided to keep the name Tesla.

[Sally Helm]

Even in death, Tesla can barely escape his rival.

[Mark Seifer]

So I'm very happy that he kept the name Tesla. So Tesla is hugely famous all over the world. Many people are inspired by him.

[Sally Helm]

After all of Tesla's financial hardship, he finds himself the namesake of a company owned by the richest man in the world. Ironic and not unprecedented. He made other men rich his whole life. But the electric car, a symbol of environmentalism, ingenuity and hope. That's perhaps a fitting tribute to Tesla after all. Thanks for listening to History this Week, a Back Pocket Studios production in partnership with the History Channel. To stay updated on all things History this week, sign [e-mail] and if you have any thoughts or questions, send us an [e-mail] Special thanks to our guest, Mark Seifer, author of the Life and Times of Nikola Tesla. This episode was produced and sound designed by Ben Dickstein. It was also produced by Katherine Isaac and by me, Sally Helm for Back Pocket Studios. Our executive producers are Ben Dickstein and David Weisbord from the History Channel. Our executive producers are Eli Lehrer and Liv Fiddler. Don't forget to follow rate and review History this Week, wherever you get your podcasts, and we'll see you next week.