Although Tesla was a brilliant scientist and a great visionary, he was considered to be an awful businessman.
1) Wireless transmission of energy
Perhaps one of the most popular subject when it comes to Nikola Tesla is “wireless power”. Although wireless technology is successfully applied on large scale worldwide, mostly as a efficient way of communication, Tesla envisioned something way greater for humanity.
In 1901 Tesla built the Wardenclyffe Tower, on the north shore of Long Island which was officially intended to transmit messages, images and telephony to ships at sea and across the Atlantic Ocean by using the Earth and upper atmosphere to transmit electromagnetic signals. Unofficially Nikola Tesla intended to use the tower to conduct the greatest experiment of his.
Relying on his previous experiments on radio and microwaves, Tesla believed he could tap into the resonance frequency of the Earth in order to inject powerful electromagnetic waves which would have traveled through the earth crust, bouncing back and forth.
Eventually he lost financing when JP Morgan found out of his plan, so that the Wardenclyffe Tower has never become operational. Many speculate that JP Morgan could not accept Tesla idea, as it was no practical way of installing a power meter into a wireless energy.
The Wardenclyffe Tower was dismnatled in 1917.
2. Earthquake Machine
In 1893 Tesla patented a steam-powered mechanical oscillator that would drive a linear stroke electric generator up and down at high speeds in order to generate electricity. Years after patented his invention he told reporters that one day while attempting to tune his mechanical oscillator to the vibration of the building housing his New York City laboratory, he caused the ground to shake.
The vibrations continued to increase in intensity as he continuously cranked the power up until he heard cracking sounds. Suddenly he recalled: “all the heavy machinery in the place was flying around. I grabbed a hammer and broke the machine. The building would have been down about our ears in another few minutes.” As police and ambulances started to arrive at the scene, Tesla told his assistants to remain quiet and tell the police that it must have been an earthquake.
3. Death Beam
This is perhaps the most vibrant idea which inspired many science fiction movies and cartoons. On his 78th birthday, he told The New York Times that he had come up with this most important invention, one that would “cause armies of millions to drop dead in their tracks.”
The invention was a military weapon that could create a laser like beam by accelerating ionizing particles of matter at very high speeds. The weapon could release such tremendous energy that it will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy planes at a distance of 250 miles.
Although the press dubbed it a “death beam,” Tesla believed it to be a “peace beam” that would end all wars, because it will become to easy for countries to destroy each other. Many governments tried to reproduce the death beam, however without success, as Tesla used to keep his sketches in his mind, and rarely made any drawings on paper.