(ORDO NEWS) — Nikola Tesla is one of the greatest inventors in human history, whose work has captured the imagination of generations.
As the owner of over 270 patents in 27 countries, including 112 patents in the US alone, Tesla has rightfully earned the title of genius.
However, not all of his creations – for a variety of reasons – reached production. Here are three eccentric Tesla inventions that were never realized.
1- Wireless power transmission
In 1901, Tesla began building the Wardenclyffe Laboratory Tower, which was to be used to transmit electricity through the air.
In order to raise capital, Tesla deliberately withheld an important detail: Vordenclyffe was to generate electricity for the FREE transmission.
Without knowing the key details, influential industrialists and other venture capitalists invested in the project.
The construction of Wardencliff was even supported by the wealthy J.P. Morgan, who invested about $150,000 ($3.76 million today).
When the basic structure of Wardenclyffe was completed, Tesla’s plans were sniffed out by J.P. Morgan, who had previously invested huge amounts of money in the world‘s first hydroelectric power plant, Niagara, and several copper plants that supplied raw materials to electrical wire manufacturers.
Fearing for his capital, J.P. Morgan refused to further sponsor Tesla, urging other investors to do the same.
In 1906, Tesla did not have a cent in his pocket to bring to mind Wardenclyffe, and he was forced to abandon an incredibly bold idea.
In 1917, the US government, fearing that the tower would become a beacon for German ships, decided to dismantle it.
2- Supersonic airships with ground-based wireless electric towers
In 1919, when only memories remained of Vordencliff, Tesla did not lose hope of finding investors for the construction of several laboratory towers at once, which would be located in different cities of the world.
This time, the scientist came up with a wider application for them: the generation and transmission of FREE electricity, as well as wireless communication and charging.
The last two points were needed in order to launch supersonic airships that would be charged from wireless towers and use the communications provided by them.
According to Tesla’s idea, the airships would fly at an altitude of 12,192 meters and accelerate to 1609 km/h (the speed of sound is 1234.8 km/h), which would allow flying from New York to London in less than four hours.
Not only was Tesla trying to reshape the energy sector, but he also took up transportation… the rich did not want such a radical change, refusing to finance it.
In addition, the moneybags began to threaten the banks so that they would not even consider issuing loans to Tesla.
3- Thought Chamber
One of Tesla’s most outlandish ideas was that he allowed for the possibility of creating a device for photographing thoughts.
In a 1933 interview with the Kansas City Journal-Post, Nikola Tesla said:
“In 1893, while doing certain research, I came to the conclusion that the image formed in thoughts, due to reflex action, should reproduce the corresponding image on the retina, which could be read using a special device.
If so, thoughts could be photographed and then projected onto a screen using available technology.”
Clearly, thought processes don’t work the way Tesla imagined.
However, it is worth recognizing that modern science does not know much about the biological mechanism of human thinking, so it is likely that someday technology will still allow us to visualize our ideas.
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