Hello all,
Back again for another story so soon, I had an inspired moment and found a new coffee shop that I really like so some writing happened. Nikola Tesla has always been one of my favorite history figures so when my lovely wife suggested I make him part of my next writing prompt, ideas started to spin right away. Please read on and enjoy, hopefully this sparks a fascination for Nikola Tesla in you, he is worth looking up. Thanks for your readership.
Enjoy,
Drew
Angel Investor?
To say that Nikola Tesla was a strange man doesn’t quite cover it. He had a very specific mental ability that set him apart from virtually every other person, living or dead. He had the ability to prototype things in his mind, this meant that he could build complex engineering projects with thousands of moving parts by simply imagining it. He could even troubleshoot problems and disassemble the machines to replace poorly designed parts so it would run more smoothly. This meant that when he actually decided to build something, in the physical world, it had a tendency to work on the first try.
Imagine being able to build seemingly impossible inventions across a wide range of disciplines and having an astonishingly high percentage of them work on the first try. Imagine if there were other people working to invent things in your time period that would struggle and build five or ten prototypes in order to come up with a design that is 60% as efficient as your own that came out on the first try. Now imagine if that happened again and again, year after year, your whole life. You would inevitably end up developing some personality quirks and lose some of your social graces.
Although Tesla was a prolific inventor, his lack of people skills meant that he had a hard time talking to investors in order to secure funding for his work without condescending to the point of insult and making a new enemy rather than a business partner. Despite his abilities, investors would intentionally opt to fund his rivals in hopes of taking him down a notch or two because he insulted their intelligence. In conversation, he would quickly assess if someone was open minded and forward thinking enough to be worthy of his work and if he found them lacking, he wasn’t shy about letting them know it.
The list of his inventions and contributions to society are too great to list without doing them an injustice by inadvertently leaving out a crucial component but you can quickly attribute Alternating Current (the power system the entire world runs on), Wireless Communication (the way the whole world stays connected) and efficient power generation (allowing the world’s population access to electricity) directly to his work. Suffice it to say that he has directly shaped the lives of every human being on the planet.
One of his most ambitious projects ever undertaken was called Wardenclyffe Tower, initially funded by J.P. Morgan himself with the goal of wireless communication to every corner of the planet… in 1909. Unfortunately Nikola’s winning personality got the better of him again and he hid some plans from J.P. Morgan while grossly under-estimated the cost of building what he wanted to build. Unable to accept the compromise of building what the budget allowed for rather than building his vision, Tesla was forced to ask for more money. When he was met with opposition about the funding he did what he had always done and in doing so he alienated yet another financier. This could have spelled the end for Tesla’s high profile projects and put a coffin nail in his dream of Wardenclyffe Tower, but that is not what happened.
Following the loss of his strongest backer, Nikola Tesla experienced a dark period, the Wardenclyffe Tower fell into disrepair and was nearly forgotten about. Tesla scrambled to invent smaller projects in order to fund the tower himself but the sheer costs involved made that impossible. It was on a particularly depressing evening in 1909 that the knock came to the door of Nikola Tesla’s New York hotel room door. No one ever knocked on his door unannounced, hotel staff saw to it, they had all been briefed extensively that Mr. Tesla was not to be disturbed under any circumstance, after all he could appear to the untrained eye to be sitting silently but in his mind, those magnificent wheels are turning and creating unimaginable wonders. At the moment however, nothing was going through his mind so he grudgingly got up and opened the door.
As you can imagine Nikola Tesla had quite an imagination, his mind could take him places and show him incredible things but he could never have imagined the man he saw when he opened the door. He was at once formal and disheveled; He wore worn out running shoes, finely pressed white dress pants with a partially untucked and stained cotton t-shirt worn under a black pinstripe tuxedo jacket. His face betrayed that it had not seen a razor in several days yet his hair was elaborate and immaculately styled. He had a youthful vigour about him and his eyes conveyed an intelligence that piqued Tesla’s interests immediately. Nikola himself was a very prim, proper and hygienic man, some say to a fault, so it was a big leap for him to look past some of this strangers shortcomings but there was an unexplained element at play and Nikola had a hard time leaving something unexplained.
“My goodness it is you isn’t it? Good day Mr. Tesla” the stranger said in a gregarious baritone voice that was at once soothing and authoritative.
Taken aback for a moment Nikola finally responded with. “Good day to you too Sir, what brings you to my door?”
“Right to the point, a man after my own heart. Well Mr. Tesla, I have watched your career with great interest and I believe we have arrived at a time where I must cease to play the role of passive observer in your life.”
“You flatter me but I am afraid that you have still left me in the dark as to your direct intentions.”
“My apologies my good man, shall we do business in the hallway or will you invite me to join you, so that I may properly explain my intensions?”
“I don’t entertain guests in my hotel room, it is my personal solace, a place intentionally isolated from others.”
“I understand all too well but I am not “Others”. Make an exception, you will not regret it.”
“Can I offer you a whiskey in that case?”
“That would be most kind of you Mr. Tesla, I would be in your debt.”
The two men walked into the room and Tesla directed the stranger to a table and chairs by the window. He stared blankly out the window in a daze while Tesla prepared two tumblers of whiskey and sat them on the table. The stranger seemed to know which chair Tesla preferred to sit in and had opted to walk to the far side of the table in order to accommodate his hosts habits. Sitting he joined Tesla at the table, with a smile he picked up the whiskey and held it up to the light. Appraisingly, he tipped the glass towards his nose and inhaled the bouquet of aroma emitted from the strong drink, the smell alone seemed to sooth him. After a pause he took the faintest sip and let it seep into every corner of his mouth. Giving his mouth time to acclimate to the alcohol he swallowed and let the air roll in and soft sigh escaped his mouth. Tesla sat silently watching all of this transpire and approved of this strangers appreciation for a drink that he considered to be the elixir of life. They sat in silence for several moments, it struck Tesla that he felt oddly comfortable around this man, more-so than with anyone he had ever met. His curiosity however got the better of him and he had to ask.
“Would you be so kind as to enlighten me about the nature of your visit?”
“Of course my dear man, my most profound apologies for leaving you in the dark. As I said, I have watched your career with great interest and I was most disappointed when you lost your financial backing for Wardenclyffe Tower. By the current lack of progress there I take it you have yet to secure a new financier?”
Tesla merely hummed a quite confirmation.
“Well, that is something we will have to remedy now won’t we? I represent a conglomerate of people that are…” He fell suddenly silent. “Correction, I am a man of considerable personal means if I may be allowed to boast and I am most interested in seeing what a man with your amazing abilities would be capable of, if given access to a nearly inexhaustible source of funding.”
“Define “nearly inexhaustible” I have had many offers only to find that people often underestimate the cost of ambitious projects, myself included as I have come to learn.
“No” The stranger said, his voice still full of polite hopefulness.
“No?”
“I will not go into the specifics about the source or quantity of my financial assets, suffice it to say that they are significant and if you agree to partner with me you will never need to kowtow and placate another nearsighted ignorant investor for as long as you live.”
“I must admit that what you are offering sounds too good to be true, most people assume that by association that means that it isn’t true… I am not most people. That being said you offer up a business partnership but you have yet to offer up your name.”
“My most profound apologies my dear man, I always forget the simple protocols of human interaction. My name is Phillip…” There was a noticeable pause while he broke eye contact and scanned the room. “House. Phillip House.”
The thought crossed Tesla’s mind that the name was made up on the spot but then again nothing about this man was orthodox. It could just as well be that he was momentarily distracted by something and lost his focus at an inopportune moment.
“Phillip House?”
“Yes”
“I am afraid I have never heard of you, typically a man of your means would be featured in the press from time to time.”
“I would hate to fall under the category of typical, a man of my means can afford to keep his name out of the press as well, if he so choses.”
“How would this supposed new partnership work then?”
“Well, we would form a company, I have people that can attend to that. It shall be called… Tesla-House, yes that has a nice ring to it. I will set you up with a suitable workshop and experimental space and provide you with access to any funds you need to produce anything you want.”
“What sort of oversight or veto power do you want over what this company creates or where our research goes?”
“None, the company and its funds are yours to direct as you see fit. I will provide personnel and funds as you direct. The goal is to see what else is locked away in that wonderful mind of yours.”
“Ah, personnel so you want to have people keeping an eye on me?”
“Nothing of the sort, I understand you Mr. Tesla, perhaps more than any other person ever will, I know that you need a specific set of conditions in order to produce your best work. I offer personnel to assist in meeting those conditions. Security staff to make sure you aren’t interrupted, lawyers to plead patent cases on your behalf so that you wont be bothered, lobbyists to keep city officials and government from impacting your work, skilled tradesmen to help you with the construction of any project you need and of course a small team of assistants to take care of your personally needs, dietary and otherwise.”
“Otherwise?”
“People have needs Mr. Tesla, I want to fulfill your own so that you can focus solely on the task of creation. I am certain that you alone have the ability to shape what it means to be human on this planet, you hold the key to unlocking a way of life that every person on this planet will benefit from. How can I have that knowledge and means and do nothing?”
“Tesla-House you say?”
“Tesla-House, I do say.”
“Agreed”
Glasses were raised, gently they made contact swirling the fine whiskey contained within. The seemingly chaotic pattern of the jostling fluid was indicative of the opening years of the Tesla-House company. At first the suddenness of the movement was almost jarring, but quickly patterns of movement formed and settled into a smooth flow of progress.
Work on Wardenclyffe Tower commenced again but with open ended funding, Tesla’s ambitions were no longer held back by the need to explain things to a financier. The goal of global wireless communication was now merely the story sold to the public, the truth behind the tower was much more ambitious. The goal was not merely to send a message from one person to another, but to send the actual person.
Naturally curiosity abounded, questions were always asked. Who is this mysterious Phillip House? It seemed that no one but Tesla had seen his face, his name was now prominently known but even among his own staff no one will admit to having met the man face-to-face.
With the vast intellect of Nikola Tesla and the scale and variety or projects being built, naturally the public was curious about what was being made. PR teams worked tirelessly to assuage there concerns without revealing more than Tesla allowed them to. Tesla himself had little interest in educating the public, he wanted to focus on his work and he was finally able to. By 1915 Wardenclyffe Tower was perfected, without an investor rushing him, Tesla was able to take the time to complete a project and make sure it was ready before it was revealed to the public. Teleportation would not be something that the public or an investor would accept as being in the realm of possibility unless they saw a finished, working product before their eyes. The Tesla-House partnership allowed him to focus on creation and ignore the work of convincing people and opening minds.
The press release and demonstration of Wardenclyffe Tower’s teleportation ability shocked the world, that doesn’t quite cover it. The full effect of this discovery on human life wouldn’t be understood for many years, assuming it is even fully understood to this day. The technology was quickly miniaturized and deployed to key locations throughout the world. The transportation industry was not just revolutionized, it was replaced overnight. Not just for people, goods could be teleported across the globe instantly, with no adverse emissions or exhaust, no risk of accident or injury and minimal power usage.
Eventually the miniaturization of technology allowed Tesla-House Teleportation Pads to be installed in most family homes. The budding automotive industry crumbled as people could travel to any destination cheaply and without any adverse environmental impact. This meant that city planning was no longer based on roads which allowed for much higher population density in urban areas while maintaining fabulous air purity.
Teleportation of course was not the only invention to come out of Tesla-House, quite the opposite. Wireless transmission of electricity in conjunction with teleportation allowed people to inhabit even the most barren and remote locations of the globe. Nutrition and health were understood on a fundamental level, freeing humanity from the oppression of obesity and poor health. A weapon was created, a weapon so devastating, so unimaginable and precise that it acted as a deterrent against the creation and use of almost every other weapon. Combined with the ability to teleport, preconceptions about borders and countries soon faded and the world became a global community. Everyone was an immediate neighbour to everyone else and therefore there was no need for violence as there was very few unfulfilled needs.
Electricity was generated and distributed freely across the globe. Food production was re-invented an allowed even the most resource poor areas to provide safe healthy sustenance for its entire population. Remarkable water purification systems were freely distributed to trouble areas and many daily tasks, like washing dishes and clothes became less reliant on water, effectively ending the problem of water shortages. Better understanding of nutrition and health contributed as preventative medicine to combat pandemic viruses and diseases, extending human life expectancy dramatically. An unprecedented era of peace and wellbeing took form, thanks to the faith that the mysterious Phillip House had in the inventor Nikola Tesla.
Those two names were burnt into the minds and hearts of every living person, they knew who they owed their happiness to but they knew very little about the actual men. In Tesla’s case they had at least seen pictures and on rare occasions he had even allowed himself to be interviewed. They had heard his voice and knew his mannerisms well. Mr. Phillip House however was an entirely different animal, no images were available of him, and he gave no interviews. Anyone claiming to have met him was quickly proven fraudulent under scrutiny. Tesla himself only ever met Phillip House twice; Once in the hotel on their first meeting, and once more on July 10th, 1991.
It was Tesla’s birthday and it seems that in his 135th year of life, it was also the day that his body was finally ready to give out and his work on this earth was finished. The knock came to the door of his New York hotel room and he beckoned the visitor to enter without getting up.
“Mr. Tesla, truly a pleasure to see you once again.”
In came the miraculously skill youthful Phillip House. Dressed as before in a curious mix of formal wear and casual or sports gear. His wingtip shoes looked out of place with ankle sports socks and basketball shorts. A ruffled white dress shirt and bowtie finished out his disjointed outfit while his face had not changed or aged a single day. It had been 82 years since their last meeting, in that time the lives of every human being had been affected by their partnership. Despite surviving to 135 years old Tesla’s body showed the effects of that time, but Phillip House was completely unchanged. A small rage flashed up in Nikola Tesla.
“You cheated me, you had the ability to combat aging, to allow our partnership to go on forever and you kept it from me!”
“I do apologize Mr. Tesla, there are certain things that I am able to share with you and certain things that I am not. I have done everything in my means to make your life as capable and productive as it can be, but you were not destined to live forever.”
“And you were?”
“What I am is not of consequence here, that is not why I have come.”
“Then why have you come, to gloat and watch me die?”
“Mr.Tesla, I have come with the utmost respect and admiration, I have come to mark and bear witness to the passing of the greatest mind and indeed the greatest man that this planet will ever know. Your time is upon us and I wanted to be sure that you left this world knowing that what you have accomplished is truly remarkable and that you are appreciated.”
“I must know, who are you?”
“I have told you Mr. Tesla, I am Phillip Home”
“House, Phillip House”
“Right, House, how embarrassing. I do apologize once again. Who I am beyond that is of no consequence, what is of consequence is that you know that you have shaped the world and brought peace and happiness to every living creature on this planet and beyond.”
“…And beyond?”
“Don’t worry about that. Mr. Tesla I will leave you to the peace and tranquility of your final moments, I know that you would prefer to do that on your own. I just had to visit you one last time and pay my respects.”
He left as suddenly as he arrived and with as many questions left unanswered. Nikola Tesla thought back on what he was able to accomplish throughout his life thanks to the support and faith of the mysterious Mr Phillip House. Tesla’s final thoughts on this earth centred around pondering the true identity of Phillip House, was he an angel or a demon, an alien or a robot of some sort, a man or a myth? Or was he merely a hallucination of a deeply gifted man in a world that will never understand him?
Multiversal Yarns 