The latest testimony about Nikola Tesla’s life in the USA was revealed only recently, thanks to writer Barbara Dadino, the owner of the house on Long Island where one of the greatest minds of humanity lived at the time he was realizing his grand vision – the construction of a laboratory and the famous Wardenclyffe Tower.
Dadino turned her years-long research on Tesla and the part of Wardenclyffe’s lost history, to which he moved from New York because of a great dream, into the recently published book in Serbia as well, “Return to Wardenclyffe.”
“The story I discovered about Tesla is truly incredible,” Dadino told Tanjug, recalling that because of that “never before told story” she received the title of Tesla Ambassador from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, of which she is proud.
She states that five years ago, a plaque was placed on the house as testimony to the period of Tesla’s life spent there, which, as she added, was a time of both his greatest happiness and sorrow. The plaque bears the words of Tesla’s biographer, one of the most influential in the world, Marc Seifer, who dedicated half a century to Tesla’s achievements and, thanks to that research, earned a doctorate and became the author of numerous books, including “Wizard.”
“Tesla rented this house in 1902; it was his home during the construction of the laboratory and Wardenclyffe Tower based on one of Tesla’s most revolutionary ideas about a global, wireless system for communication and energy transmission. Here he loved to swim in the bay and from the elevation at the back of the yard, as well as from the shore itself, control his own invention – a remote-controlled boat,” Dadino said.
Barbara and her partner Daniel Byrne, great admirers of Tesla’s life and work, only learned that the “father of the electrical age” had lived in the house after they became its owners on the Atlantic in 2011. Since then, she says, they have worked to preserve the memory of the Serbian-American giant of humanity and joyfully welcome all who come to see it.
“The house enchanted us immediately, but only after two years, when our second purchase offer was accepted, did the owners tell us ‘you know, Nikola Tesla lived here.’ Dan and I almost fainted, because we are huge fans of Tesla, but we never knew he had lived here,” Dadino said, adding that this fact was not known even to local residents, which prompted her research.
“At first, over coffee, I flipped through old newspapers looking for proof that Tesla had a house here. My interest in Tesla grew and not only did I find evidence that he lived here, but I discovered what a magnificent man and researcher he was. I found out who he socialized with, that he talked to children, neighbors, farmers, that he was interested in agriculture as well,” she said.
In Wardenclyffe he led a life different from New York, although he was very busy with the laboratory and tower, said Dadino, with whom Tanjug, as the holder of the Tesla Ambassador title, spoke within the series “Tesla, the Man of the Future,” recorded with the support of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications.
“He planned to live here for the rest of his life. He wanted to build an entire ‘Beautiful City – Radio City,’ in the spirit of the movement of the same name,” she said, emphasizing that the house was meant to be his headquarters, the world center for electrical energy.
In the book, as Dadino stated, she wrote not only about Tesla, who was then a world star and part of the New York elite, but also about Wardenclyffe, its history, events, and the reasons he came to Long Island.
Tesla arrived in Wardenclyffe at the time of its “blossoming” – after the railroad expanded services from New York to eastern Long Island and investor James Warden came up with the idea to create an exclusive oceanfront resort that would operate year-round.
Dadino recalls that in 1901 Tesla bought 200 of the 2,000 acres owned by Warden and built the famous laboratory and tower on that land, financed by J. P. Morgan and designed by one of the associates of the famous American architect Stanford White, whose projects include the first Madison Square Garden and the Washington Arch reminiscent of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Tesla and White, as Dadino recalled, also envisioned a new “beautiful city.”
“While the laboratory was being built in 1901, Tesla arrived every day by train from New York to supervise the works, and in June 1902 he moved all activities to Wardenclyffe. He rented a house by the sea and this became his home for the next two years. In March 1901 he convinced J. P. Morgan to finance him with 150,000 dollars for the construction of the laboratory and tower. He arrived by train in Wardenclyffe, which was then a village with dirt roads, orchards and farms. He was attracted by the proximity of the 41st parallel, necessary for transoceanic communication, but also by the friendships that tied him to this place,” she said.
Tesla had here the privacy he needed, but also the proximity of New York and friends such as Stanford White and Mark Twain.
“Everything he needed was within reach, and he could walk to the laboratory. That was one of the happiest periods of his life,” Dadino said.
She recalled that things later changed when he parted ways with Morgan, who stopped financing him also because Tesla built the tower twice as high as agreed, without informing him.
“Unfortunately, Tesla’s funds ran out before he managed to complete the tower, which is why he returned to New York in 1904 to seek additional financial support when Morgan abandoned his dream,” she said.
The tower, which when tested emitted light visible all the way to neighboring Connecticut, was demolished and turned into scrap metal in 1919, while the laboratory was later seized – however, she adds, Tesla never gave up on the dream of a system for wireless transmission of messages and energy around the world.
“Tesla invested all his money into the project. He was exhausted, suffered a nervous breakdown, but he still considered this place a refuge. He wrote that he would like to return to Wardenclyffe, today’s Shoreham, and lie down ‘in a bed of wild onion’ that grew everywhere around,” Dadino said.
“He invented the motor that enabled the use of alternating current and powered the turbines at Niagara. In Colorado he proved the theory that the Earth can produce energy and that this energy can be sent around the world. His vision was to improve humanity. As early as 1900 he wrote about the problem of increasing human energy – not only electrical, but how people can become better through education, health, sufficient food and without wars,” she said.
Dadino emphasized that Tesla believed the energy he would send around the world could help feed and educate people and make wars meaningless.
According to her, that house on Long Island was the only one he lived in after leaving Smiljan, and it is known that he resided in numerous hotels from the New Yorker and Waldorf Astoria to the Gerlach, which today is a residential building named Radio Wave in his honor.
“The house offers a 180-degree view of the ocean between Long Island and the mainland where Tesla would swim and perform tricks that gathered children and people to watch him. He was in contact with locals and invited personal friends into the house,” Dadino said.
She says the house has become a pilgrimage site for Tesla admirers, and that she is surprised by how many people respect Tesla, especially when she saw a young man helping them set up the kitchen who had Tesla’s image tattooed on his arm.
“People come and are spontaneously moved by the fact that he lived here,” Dadino said, adding that they have so far been visited by numerous distinguished guests including Tesla’s descendants William Terbo and Dušan, who lives in Singapore, as well as Tesla’s most famous biographers Marc Seifer and Bernard Carlson, who are frequent guests.
Dadino states that in July, organized by the General Consulate of Serbia, they celebrated Tesla’s birthday for the first time in the presence of guests from all parts of the world.
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Source: Tanjug, Foto: Nikola Tesla
