A Battle to Preserve a Visionary's Bold Failure

[anon]

In 1901, Nikola Tesla began work on a global system of giant towers meant to relay through the air not only news, stock reports and even pictures but also, unbeknown to investors such as J. Pierpont Morgan, free electricity for one and all.

It was the inventor's biggest project, and his most audacious.

The first tower rose on rural Long Island and, by 1903, stood more than 18 stories tall. One midsummer night, it emitted a dull rumble and proceeded to hurl bolts of electricity into the sky. The blinding flashes, The New York Sun reported, "seemed to shoot off into the darkness on some mysterious errand."

But the system failed for want of money, and at least partly for scientific viability. Tesla never finished his prototype tower and was forced to abandon its adjoining laboratory.

Today, a fight is looming over the ghostly remains of that site, called Wardenclyffe - what Tesla authorities call the only surviving workplace of the eccentric genius who dreamed countless big dreams while pioneering wireless communication and alternating current. The disagreement began recently after the property went up for sale in Shoreham, N.Y.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/science/05tesla.html

[slikrapid]

Tesla began work on a global system of giant towers meant to relay through the air not only news, stock reports and even pictures but also, unbeknown to investors such as J. Pierpont Morgan, free electricity

actually the main idea was to transmit energy, everything else were just possible applications

imo they should have made smaller prototypes to test the transfer - jumping on such large scale was probably (financially viewed) too soon

interesting reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower

http://io9.com/5127125/the-greatest-inventions-nikola-tesla-never-created