In June, Tesla moved his lab out of Manhattan and into a new brick building in Wardencliffe. Staying here has less to do than deal with emergencies that happen to the project itself, and there are fewer other things that take up his time. Only those who are involved in the work are allowed to enter the area. The remoteness and tranquility of this place is exactly what he could not ask for.

In the fall, a murder case in New York was tried and he was summoned to work on a jury, but he put the notice aside and completely forgot about it. Soon after, he was so embarrassed that the newspaper headline made him aware of his obligations as an American citizen: "Nikolai? Tesla fined $100 -- for failing to appear on the jury in court -- and he now regrets it. He did regret it, and immediately reported to the court and paid compensation. However, he was later excused from jury service because he opposed the imposition of the death penalty. He was quoted by the New York Times, saying that the imposition of the death penalty was "barbaric, inhumane and unnecessary." ”

Marconi remains a contemporary hero in the United States and around the world. In contrast, Tesla's actions seem to be nothing more than a trick. In February 1903, the Electric Age published a critical article: "Nikolai? Tesla - his great cause and uncontested ambitions. "Ten years ago, Tesla was the most ambitious electrician," the author writes. And today, it is a pity to hear his name, and all this ambition has been disappointed. "He had won a sure victory, but it had been too long, and now he was beginning to understand how pitiful the names of mortals were.

By the spring of 1903, Tesla's financial problems had reached such a point that he was again forced to return to New York to try to raise some money. Even at this point, he did not completely let go of his scientific research work. He wrote hundreds of letters to his agent, Sherver, including one asking him to send "a photograph of the skeleton of one hand" (X-ray) to Professor Buckle of the University of Pennsylvania...... Photographed in Colorado ...... The lights are wirelessly operated with my system......"

When he returned to Long Island, he was just in time to mount the 55-ton, 68-foot-diameter dome to the top of the tower. (According to the plan, a copper plate was to be laid on the surface of the dome to make an insulating sphere, but this was never realized.) Sherf seized the opportunity to remind him that the money was dangerously low, that the lenders were in a hurry, and that even if Morgan sent him the balance of $150,000 he promised, it would not be enough to pay off the bills he owed. Tesla, on the other hand, feels that Morgan has enormous power enough to influence the entire U.S. national economy, and that he is largely responsible for the rising fees.

On April 8 he wrote a letter to the financier: "You have caused an uproar in the industrial world, and some of the waves have hit my little ship. As a result, prices have doubled, perhaps tripled, compared to the past......"

Morgan's capital is still largely invested in the centralization of railways and other lucrative ventures, and he does not agree to further funding. Two weeks later, Tesla wrote to him again: "Edison, Marconi, Pupin, Fleming, and many others openly ridiculed my cause, claiming that I could not succeed. At this moment, you have given me noble help......"

But Morgan remained indifferent, and Tesla began to experience the pain of despair, so he decided to play his last trump card. Eventually, he wrote to Morgan and laid out his real goal - not just to transmit radio signals, but to transmit electricity wirelessly.

On July 3 he wrote; "If I had told you about this earlier, you would have kicked me out of the office...... Please help me, or our huge project, which is nearing completion, will fall short......"

Eleven days later, "the correspondence was acquainted," Morgan wrote, "...... Sincerely, I do not intend to consider it further at this time. ”

In a fit of rage, Tesla followed Zeus's example that night and ran to the tower to launch magnificent fireworks that no one had ever seen. He experimented with an all-nighter and then several more nights. The surrounding residents watched in horror as the dazzling light erupted from the spherical dome, intermittently illuminating the night sky within a radius of hundreds of miles. The lights seem to say, "Take a good look, Pierpont?" Morgan!

Journalists rushed to the scene, but they were all pushed away. The New York Sun Times reported that "Tesla's electric glow was thrilling, but he was reluctant to say what he was experimenting with in Wordencliffor." Surrounding residents...... Marvel at the electric light that emanates from the tower at night, Nikolai? Tesla is conducting trials of wireless telegraphy and wireless telephony. Last night (July 15th), all kinds of lightning burst out from the tower and the skyline. For a while, the sky was filled with dazzling electric light, as if in accordance with a mysterious will, shooting straight into the night sky. Tesla said in a meeting with reporters: "Residents who live nearby, as long as they don't sleep, will see even more strange things at another time." Someday, but not now, I'm going to publicly announce something I couldn't even dream of! ”

Tesla's "more bizarre things" are not just sensational legends.

When he was in Colorado, he had reached 10 million to 12 million volts on the spherical antenna of his amplified transmitter, and he thought 100 million volts could be reached. When he returned to New York, he applied for another set of patents, the most important of which was the "power delivery device" related to the Wordencliffe project. This patent was registered in 1902 under the number 119732, but was not granted until 1914 (the first of this group of patents, numbered 685012, on the method of using liquidized air to increase the intensity of electrical oscillations, was issued in 1901; The second is: No. 655838, electrical conductor insulation method; No. 787412, a method of transporting electricity through natural boundaries; 723188 number, signaling method; No. 725605, signaling system; No. 685957, Radiant Energy Utilization Device; and the 1119732 number. )。 In fact, the patent was registered only a few weeks after the success of Marconi's transatlantic radio test.

The question of securing investment for the unfinished Wordencliffe project was further complicated in the fall of 1903 when the so-called "Great Panic of the Rich" took place. Now if you want to ask Morgan to change his mind, the hope is even slimmer.

Tesla, with the help of his loyal friends, went the extra mile to raise money. Admiral Hobson opened up all aspects of the relationship and did everything possible to get the Admiralty to buy a robotic automatic ship. Hobson, who had seen Tesla's radio-controlled ships and torpedoes in 1898, encouraged him to exhibit at the Naval Exposition in Buffalo, and went out of his way to save the inventor from "ordinary formalities." But in vain.

The Navy hero said there was a dispute within the Navy over Tesla's radio exhibits. He said it was a long-standing feud that was not directly related to Tesla's invention and was largely caused by a feud between two senior officials, which ended up blocking Tesla's path. Tesla knew, and it could be that an old friend made up a set of words to cover up the actual situation, in case he was sad.

Tesla later went to Thomas? Foton? Ryan, finally got a small amount of supplementary funding. But all the money was used to pay off the existing creditors, and the debts that Testo owed them had piled up to the height of Wordencliffr's Tower. He knew in his heart what the difficulties were, and he didn't need a meticulous and patient George? Sherver spoke. "My enemies portrayed me as a poet and visionary, and they were very good," he said, "and in that way I had the absolute need to come up with something practical, without the slightest delay." ”

In the years that followed, he carried the burden of debt on his shoulders and took difficult steps, trying in every possible way to forge a practical path and put his invention into practice. Using Tesla's medical oscillator, a small Tesla coil, to practice medicine has attracted people's attention. Doctors and professors across the country have called him to say that they are constantly being approached for such high-cost devices. Mr. Sherver told Tesla that with about 30 people and $25,000 to invest, he could easily make a good deal in medical devices. He expects to make a profit of $125,000 soon, which is almost equal to the total investment Morgan made to Wordencliffor.

But Tesla was bent on continuing the Wordencliffe project, even though he himself was somewhat indifferent to it. He has published two beautiful pamphlets. One introduces the world's communication systems, and the other is printed at a high price on refined lamb paper, announcing his entry into consulting engineering.

The main manpower was still busy fabricating and assembling new equipment, blowing glass vacuum tubes, and carrying out routine work of steam engine commissioning. By mid-July 1903, the coal money could not be paid, and the staff had to stop and fight.

When the coal for the Wordencliffe generator could be solved again, the inventor called Sherver and asked to open the furnace for a test run over the weekend and take the train to Long Island himself. Despite the difficulties and dangers at its peak, Tesla still refused to give up.

Tesla still remembers that in the early days, when things were better, he could get the money just by opening his mouth to Morgan. At one point, the financier took out a bank check and signed it, telling Tesla how much money he wanted. At that time, Tesla only filled in $30,000. But Morgan is now hardened and has no hope in Wordencliffor. But Tesla was equally determined, and he decided to go ahead, sending out letter after letter - first persuasion and pleading, then anger, accusation and sarcasm. He sent a messenger who chased the banker wherever he went, and even when the banker boarded the ship and set out for a long trip to the continent, the messenger chased him to the docks.

Rumors swirled that Morgan had bought Tesla's radio patents in an attempt to stop the development of the technology. But there is little evidence. Later, bad news quietly spread on Wall Street, and the truth was revealed.

Morgan, though in fact a borrower, is so influential that if he speaks ill of the "world system" cause, it will make other people who might have supported it think that the so-called "world system" is nothing more than a soap bubble.

Tesla knew in his heart that these rumors were going to kill him, but he had no choice but to run around day by day, trying to avoid debt collectors, find other bankers and wealthy acquaintances to intercede, and at the same time delve into the scientific problems of the project, promote his other inventions, and solicit consulting work.

The wall fell down and everyone pushed it, and they came up from all directions. He was sued for not paying for electricity at the Colorado Springs test station. This is really ridiculous, because one of the owners of the city electricity company, Leonard? Curtis, who once told him that he could use electricity for free. The city of Springs in Colorado also sued him for water arrears. In the end, even the caretaker who took care of Tesla's old test station appealed to the court, accusing Tesla of owing him part of his wages.

Tesla pawned all the scrap items in the test station and used the proceeds to pay the arrears of the power company. Eventually, he returned to Colorado Springs and brought his lawyer to the courthouse to answer the guards' complaints. The court ultimately awarded the plaintiff about $1,000. The station's fixtures were auctioned off by the local magistrate to pay for some of the money, and the rest of the Tesla dragged on for six years, with an additional $30 a year.

Later, for a while, Tesla seemed to be running for a while, and he started an assembly line in Worden Cliff to make medical coils and sell them to hospitals and research labs, and money began to flow in. In addition, he invented a new type of turbine with a reformed structure.

But the good situation did not last long, in Nikolai? The people who own the shares in Tesla are now worried about whether the shares are misunderstood by the company. They had asked Tesla to write articles and provide advice to Century magazine, and some clues could be seen from this. They proposed to the inventor that the part of the money they had previously "invested" was best understood as a loan, just with stocks as insurance. Such a fear of loss of his interests is tantamount to saying that Tesla's credibility as a scientist is declining, and his name is no longer as prestigious as it once was.

Many people in the industry have always thought that Tesla is still receiving the "generous" royalty paid to him by Westinghouse for the alternating current patent, but they don't know that his patent rights were bought cheaply as early as 1896. On May 15, 1905, the Brooklyn Eagle published an article mentioning that Tesla's valuable patents had "lapsed," and the matter was shattered at once. The newspaper reported that the announcement of the invalidation of the patents caused a "huge stir" in the electrical community: "There is a fierce scramble everywhere to make the Tesla electric motors that are now commonly used, without having to pay a penny of royalty to Tesla." Westinghouse announced that it also has a number of ancillary patents and is ready to make a big deal. ”

This world is like this, once you know that someone is penniless, everyone will look at him coldly and ignore his actual contribution.

Throughout the winter, Tesla was worried about the Wordencliffe Project every day, not knowing when this ordeal would end!

The year 1906 was not good, and it seemed that the situation was worse than in 1905. Even his old friend Westinghouse seemed to be avoiding him. Tesla still desperately needs Westinghouse to provide Wordencliffe with machines, just as urgently as he needs money. So he wrote to the industrialist to inquire; "What's wrong? What ruined the sincere relationship between the two of us? I feel so sorry, not only because I admire you, but also because there are other important reasons. ”

Tesla repeatedly stressed to him: "Wireless transmission of electricity will soon lead to an industrial revolution, a revolution that the world has never had before." Who else but you can contribute more to this great development and reap greater benefits? Westinghouse knew that his company would never have prospered without Tesla's alternating current patent, but this time he made a different choice.

Bad news came one after another, and Sherver wrote that a wagon of coal that had been promised had not yet arrived, and that the planned test had to be postponed. He also euphemistically mentions that he does bookkeeping two days a month for a sulfur manufacturing company. That bodes badly for Tesla, as Mr. Schaefer soon became a regular employee of the company. That fall, Sherfer left Wordencliffe. Still, he kept an eye on Tesla's finances, helping him out at night and on weekends, and almost never forgetting to get his tax returns in order on time.

The idea of a "world system" -- a one-fold convergence of almost all the achievements of modern communications -- has now come to naught, and all that remains is mourning.

No one can say exactly when all the workers will be gone. Travelers don't get off here anymore. From time to time, curious journalists and engineers and technicians working on research come here, who are allowed to climb to the top of the tower and get an unobstructed view of the Long Island Strait. The tower looks light, but not a single nail is needed, and even the wooden columns and beams are inlaid with wooden bolts. It was originally planned to install a dome covered with copper plates on the top of the tower, but this plan was cancelled, and later Tesla installed a detachable disc through which radiation beams were shot into the sky.

In 1912, the inventor was fined $23,500 to pay for the machines provided by Westinghouse, Church and Kerr for the project. The equipment left on the site was confiscated as collateral.

(To be continued)