If we were to go back in time, you would find Nikola Tesla and his best friend Mark Twain nestled in a laboratory somewhere in-between his alternating current generators, motors and transformers. Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, Lika, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, region of Croatia. His childhood dream was to come to America and control the power of Niagara Falls. He studied electrical engineering but failed to graduate from any University. By 1884, Tesla made his way to the United States spending the next 59 years in New York City. He worked in the Edison laboratories ending up in what was called the “war of currents”, and on July 30, 1891 at the age of 35, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Dream A Little Dream
What Tesla didn’t know is that America offers countless opportunities masked with a promise of grandeur, only to quickly dissipate when truly dissected. Similar to what Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner describe in their book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today referring to the process of an object “gilded” with a superficial layer of gold; meant pretentiously and as a play on the term "golden age."
Sacred Silence
In his life span, Tesla contributed endless inventions that made the transition into a new Era something to look forward to; from radio wave communications, x-rays, fluorescent light, laser beam, wireless communications, and wireless transmission of electrical energy among many others, Tesla began a Revolution in the 20th Century, one that went greatly unnoticed. In his book, The American Myth Of Success, Richard Weiss makes a great point when he states, “Nonetheless, no one epitomizes the spectacular transformation that happened between the Civil War and 1900, instead, the popular conception of this period is formed by the image of a millionaire” (par1).
Tesla verbalized that he was offered $50,000 if he redesigned Edison's futile motor and generators. In 1885 when Tesla questioned payment for his contributions, Edison replied, "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor," hence breaking his word. He in turn only earned $18 per week. Tesla immediately resigned when he was refused a raise to $25 per week. Desperate for work, Tesla began to dig ditches for the same company he had helped propel.
Tesla, although a huge contributor to our modern day advances ended up losing his radio patent to Guglielmo Marconi in 1904 and was forced to share the Pulitzer Prize with Edison. He refused to share it and never once hindered his integrity. He was quoted as saying that, “the scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of a planter -- for the future. His duty is to lay foundation of those who are to come and point the way”. (p. 8)
Lightning Strikes
One would think that an inventor of his caliber would have endless support in such an innovative period. Although financed by J. P Morgan to work on the the Wardenclyffe laboratory in Long Island, he was eventually let go when he proposed he would be able to give free wireless energy to the entire world. Unable to accept such an atrocity and foremost a loss of finances, J.P Morgan stopped funding the project and said, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter”?
Flash forward to the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement which has made its way worldwide displaying the same sense of integrity as Tesla; we can see that not much has changed since Tesla’s unfortunate downfall. Regardless of today’s immigrants’ and non-immigrants unrelenting work ethic, their successes are quiescent. They are protesting social and economic inequality, similar to the injustices that plagued Tesla. They are protesting corporate greed and corruption, predominantly from financial services sectors and lobbyists, coincidentally leading back to Morgan who supported the movement to create the Federal Reserve System back in the Panic of 1907 and who now cradles our economy.
The slogan "We are the 99%", refers to the difference in income and wealth in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. In poignant attempts at leading the Occupy Wall Street protest astray from any serious propaganda, many corrupt politicians such as Hermann Cain, who have led us to the economic state that we find ourselves in, has said that, “Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!”
In an attempt to explain the success myth in America, Richard Weiss states that, “virtually every development of the Gilded Age was criticized by popularizers of the success myth. They deplored the movement from farm to city; they felt the growth of extremes of rich and poor to be destructive of social well being; they condemned the corruption in business and politics and feared the cynicism it promoted”. (par 3)
Mirror Image
In 2011 the corrupt continue to be in charge while the hard-working are nowhere near to their idea of the American Dream. The streets aren’t paved with gold and honesty but with blood and sweat. Tesla was a victim of the corruption forcing him to move overseas to sell his ideas, since the U.S. had showed him that his efforts had been not only ignored but destroyed. At this point his inventions which were initially meant to alleviate the lives of humanity morphed into a scheme of evil ideas.
Thomas Edison began using Tesla’s alternating currents to produce the electric chair and horrific experiments such as the public display of electrocuting Topsy the elephant at Luna Park, near Coney Island, after she killed several men and her owners. Another sad example was his laboratory that had hundreds of inventions yet to be patented, was burned down mysteriously while his Telefunken Wireless facility was seen as threat and was torn down by the U.S. Marines in 1917. Regardless of his contributions to our modern day lives, Tesla became known as the “silent scientist”, since he received no credit in history books and was sadly replaced by Thomas Edison as the inventor of electricity. His dream of harnessing the power of Niagara Falls was made a reality in 1893, but like most of his projects this one left him with recurring financial difficulties.
For The Love Of It
His dream came at a price, one that never credited him with changing our everyday lives. But in his true essence, Tesla did it for love of humanity which is more admirable than the false hope of becoming a millionaire; reminiscing about his achievements he once said, “I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labour, for I have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours. But if work is interpreted to be a definite performance in a specified time according to a rigid rule, then I may be the worst of idlers. Every effort under compulsion demands a sacrifice of life-energy. I never paid such a price. On the contrary, I have thrived on my thoughts.” (p.6)
Sources
- Prince,Cameron. Nikola Tesla Quotes;Tesla Universe. 2009. p.6
- Weiss, Richard. The American Myth of Success. Basic Books Publisher. New York. 1969. Print
Ingrid Calderon - Guilty of contributing Jazz and Rock 'n' Roll articles for Muzikreviews.com , Examiner.com.
