TESLA STORY
It is the night of January 7, 1943. We are with Dr. Nikola Tesla in room 3327 of the Hotel New Yorker, located at 34th Street and 8th Avenue in New York City, where he has lived for the past ten years. Nearing the end of his life, alone, almost forgotten, he has no one to talk to but the pigeons at his window sill, whom he has fed and befriended.
And this night he gazes from that window over the vast city of New York, illuminated by his own brilliant creation, the alternating current system of electricity. 
What is extraordinary about Tesla? It is his superhuman ability to visualize, to make "…excursions beyond the limits of the small world of which I had knowledge...1" and thus envision complex technological innovations in his own mind.
And this night his powerful imagination carries us with him as he relives the extraordinary events of his life…
As the child of a Serbian family living in Croatia, he learns to construct simple inventions. Even as a boy, he is driven by "...the first instinctive impulse which later dominated me – to harness the energies of nature to the service of man.2"
The lightning bolt of inspiration strikes him during his university education in Prague – in the midst of a nervous collapse brought on by overwork, he visualizes the Rotating Magnetic Field, his greatest discovery, which makes possible his later invention of the alternating current system and all of its devices.
He travels to America, first to work in the famous laboratory of Thomas Edison, then to strike out on his own.
And thence his struggle to produce the patented alternating current generators and motors based on his startling innovation of the Rotating Magnetic Field. And it is a struggle, because Edison, committed to direct current, tries to stop him by waging the War of the Currents. And then George Westinghouse buys Tesla's patents for a great deal of money, and builds the titanic power station at Niagara Falls, where the vast force of the falls are harnessed to transmit electricity unheard-of distances – hundreds of miles – and power Tesla's revolutionary motors, the first to run on alternating current.
But this is child's play for Tesla, whose goal is nothing less than the wireless transmission of unlimited power to the farthest corners of the Earth, free for the benefit of all mankind. He applies his newly acquired fortune to building a laboratory and pursuing his altruistic aim. Along the way, he invents the wireless telegraph, only to see Marconi take the credit for his discovery – Tesla reveals to us that in late 1943, months after his death, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the patent dispute against Marconi, in his favor. 
We travel to the 1890's, immediately following the triumphant success of the awesome power station at Niagara Falls, when Tesla reaches the height of his glory, dining at Delmonico's among the wealthy and the famous, entertaining his friends – Mark Twain, Paderewski, Rudyard Kipling – with amazing technological demonstrations in his laboratory. Tesla strains to resist the temptations of the women who pursue him – he remains celibate, following the teachings of the Swami Vivekenanda, and thus focuses his life-force solely on his work.
Tesla meets with the great financier J.P. Morgan, who agrees to finance construction of a mammoth Tower at Wardenclyffe on the shore of Long Island, for the wireless broadcast of information, especially stock quotes. But when Morgan discovers Tesla's secret intent to broadcast wireless power, free for all mankind, he refuses to offer further financial support – free wireless power would afford no opportunity for profit.
The half-completed tower is ultimately dynamited during World War I, perhaps by government agents. And so, with the failure of the Tower project, Tesla's decline into poverty and obscurity begins. His altruism and benevolence are no match for the greed of the cold-blooded corporate men.
And when, in the late 1930's, President Roosevelt asks Tesla for his fabled and mysterious Death Ray, to be added to the arsenal of democracy, Tesla claims that it does not exist. He does not believes the world is ready for it, nor for an unknown number of other secret inventions which he keeps hidden away.
Alone in his hotel room, Tesla dies, reaching for the light which only he can see.
What is extraordinary about Tesla? It is his superhuman ability to visualize, to make "…excursions beyond the limits of the small world of which I had knowledge...1" and thus envision complex technological innovations in his own mind.
And this night his powerful imagination carries us with him as he relives the extraordinary events of his life…
As the child of a Serbian family living in Croatia, he learns to construct simple inventions. Even as a boy, he is driven by "...the first instinctive impulse which later dominated me – to harness the energies of nature to the service of man.2"
The lightning bolt of inspiration strikes him during his university education in Prague – in the midst of a nervous collapse brought on by overwork, he visualizes the Rotating Magnetic Field, his greatest discovery, which makes possible his later invention of the alternating current system and all of its devices.
He travels to America, first to work in the famous laboratory of Thomas Edison, then to strike out on his own.
And thence his struggle to produce the patented alternating current generators and motors based on his startling innovation of the Rotating Magnetic Field. And it is a struggle, because Edison, committed to direct current, tries to stop him by waging the War of the Currents. And then George Westinghouse buys Tesla's patents for a great deal of money, and builds the titanic power station at Niagara Falls, where the vast force of the falls are harnessed to transmit electricity unheard-of distances – hundreds of miles – and power Tesla's revolutionary motors, the first to run on alternating current.
But this is child's play for Tesla, whose goal is nothing less than the wireless transmission of unlimited power to the farthest corners of the Earth, free for the benefit of all mankind. He applies his newly acquired fortune to building a laboratory and pursuing his altruistic aim. Along the way, he invents the wireless telegraph, only to see Marconi take the credit for his discovery – Tesla reveals to us that in late 1943, months after his death, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the patent dispute against Marconi, in his favor.
We travel to the 1890's, immediately following the triumphant success of the awesome power station at Niagara Falls, when Tesla reaches the height of his glory, dining at Delmonico's among the wealthy and the famous, entertaining his friends – Mark Twain, Paderewski, Rudyard Kipling – with amazing technological demonstrations in his laboratory. Tesla strains to resist the temptations of the women who pursue him – he remains celibate, following the teachings of the Swami Vivekenanda, and thus focuses his life-force solely on his work.
Tesla meets with the great financier J.P. Morgan, who agrees to finance construction of a mammoth Tower at Wardenclyffe on the shore of Long Island, for the wireless broadcast of information, especially stock quotes. But when Morgan discovers Tesla's secret intent to broadcast wireless power, free for all mankind, he refuses to offer further financial support – free wireless power would afford no opportunity for profit.
The half-completed tower is ultimately dynamited during World War I, perhaps by government agents. And so, with the failure of the Tower project, Tesla's decline into poverty and obscurity begins. His altruism and benevolence are no match for the greed of the cold-blooded corporate men.
And when, in the late 1930's, President Roosevelt asks Tesla for his fabled and mysterious Death Ray, to be added to the arsenal of democracy, Tesla claims that it does not exist. He does not believes the world is ready for it, nor for an unknown number of other secret inventions which he keeps hidden away.
Alone in his hotel room, Tesla dies, reaching for the light which only he can see. 1. From Tesla's autobiography, My Inventions, Section I, My Early Life.
2. From Tesla's autobiography, My Inventions, Section II, My First Efforts At Invention.