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. A science group on Long Island wants to turn the 16-acre
site into a Tesla museum and education center, and hopes to get the
land donated to that end. But the owner, the Agfa Corporation, says it
must sell the property to raise money in hard economic times. The
company’s real estate broker says the land, listed at $1.6 million, can
“be delivered fully cleared and level,” a statement that has thrown the
preservationists into action. The ruins of Wardenclyffe include the
tower’s foundation and the large brick laboratory, designed by Tesla’s
friend Stanford White, the celebrated architect. …A Battle to Preserve a Visionary’s Bold Failure-5/7
