Tesla's Tower of Tomorrow
“It will soon be possible to transmit wireless messages all over the world so simply that any individual can own and operate his own apparatus,” the inventor Nikola Tesla told the New York Times in 1904. Whether it was an accurate prediction of the smartphone depends on what you think the meaning of “soon” is. For Tesla, soon meant, “I’m building it right now; I just need more funding.” Read more about his Wardenclyffe Tower and the reasons it failed, then discuss with your team: what if it had succeeded?
Key concepts
- Right Too Early
- Holding a correct vision before the money, the components or the customers exist. In a market it is indistinguishable from being wrong: the project fails, the founder is remembered as a crank, and somebody else gets the credit a generation later for the same idea.
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Every work — at a glance
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Wardenclyffe Tower — Nikola Tesla (structure)
The 187-foot Long Island tower (1901-05) meant to broadcast messages and power worldwide; never finished, scrapped in 1917.
What to know
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01
Why the Wardenclyffe Tower failed: it was funded as a telegraph competitor and revealed as a giveaway. J.P. Morgan put money into a system for sending transatlantic messages, which could be billed; when Tesla explained that he also intended to supply free power to the world, the funding stopped. The physics was doubtful and the finance was fatal, and Tesla never separated the two in his own accounts.
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Across subjects
Theme connection
"Are We There Yet?"
Practice — a sample
SPCWhich finding MOST undermines Tesla's free broadcast-power plan as a business?
- A No copper left
- B No meter or bill
- C No tall tower
- D No power demand
- E No press coverage
Sign in to answer and see why each option is right or wrong.
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