Editing Nikola Tesla (section)

=== Wardenclyffe ===
{{Main|Wardenclyffe Tower}}
[[File:Tesla Broadcast Tower 1904.jpeg|thumb|upright|Tesla's Wardenclyffe plant on Long Island in 1904. From this facility, Tesla hoped to demonstrate wireless transmission of electrical energy across the Atlantic.]]

Tesla made the rounds in New York trying to find investors for what he thought would be a viable system of wireless transmission, wining and dining them at the [[Waldorf-Astoria (1893–1929)|Waldorf-Astoria]]'s Palm Garden (the hotel where he was living at the time), [[The Players (New York City)|The Players Club]], and [[Delmonico's]].<ref name="teslascience.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.teslascience.org/pages/dream.htm|title=Tesla Wardenclyffe Project Update – An Introduction to the Issues|website=www.teslascience.org|date=22 June 2023|access-date=26 January 2017|archive-date=21 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170121115706/http://www.teslascience.org/pages/dream.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> In March 1901, he obtained $150,000 (${{Inflation|US|150000|1900|r=-2|fmt=c}} in today's dollars{{Inflation-fn|US}}) from [[J. P. Morgan]] in return for a 51% share of any generated wireless patents, and began planning the [[Wardenclyffe Tower]] facility to be built in [[Shoreham, New York]], {{convert|100|mi|km|0}} east of the city on the North Shore of Long Island.<ref name="broad1">{{cite news |last=Broad |first=William J |title=A Battle to Preserve a Visionary's Bold Failure |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/science/05tesla.html |access-date=20 May 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=4 May 2009 |archive-date=25 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725111710/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/science/05tesla.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

By July 1901, Tesla had expanded his plans to build a more powerful transmitter to leap ahead of [[Guglielmo Marconi|Marconi]]'s radio-based system, which Tesla thought was a copy of his own.{{sfn|Carlson|2013|p=315}} He approached Morgan to ask for more money to build the larger system, but Morgan refused to supply any further funds.<ref name="seifer2006"/>{{unreliable source?|date=July 2014}} In December 1901, Marconi successfully transmitted the letter S from England to [[Newfoundland and Labrador#colony|Newfoundland]], defeating Tesla in the race to be first to complete such a transmission. A month after Marconi's success, Tesla tried to get Morgan to back an even larger plan to transmit messages and power by controlling "vibrations throughout the globe".{{sfn|Carlson|2013|p=315}} Over the next five years, Tesla wrote more than 50 letters to Morgan, pleading for and demanding additional funding to complete the construction of Wardenclyffe. Tesla continued the project for another nine months into 1902. The tower was erected to its full height of {{convert|187|ft|m|0}}.<ref name="seifer2006" />{{unreliable source?|date=July 2014}} In June 1902, Tesla moved his lab operations from Houston Street to Wardenclyffe.<ref name="broad1" />

Investors on [[Wall Street]] were putting their money into Marconi's system, and some in the press began turning against Tesla's project, claiming it was a hoax.<ref>Malanowski, Gregory, <u>The Race for Wireless</u>, AuthorHouse, p. 35</ref> The project came to a halt in 1905, and in 1906, the financial problems and other events may have led to what Tesla biographer [[Marc J. Seifer]] suspects was a nervous breakdown on Tesla's part.<ref>{{cite book|first=David Hatcher|last= Childress|date=1993|isbn=978-0-932813-19-0|title= The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla|page= 255|publisher= Adventures Unlimited}}</ref> Tesla mortgaged the Wardenclyffe property to cover his debts at the Waldorf-Astoria, which eventually amounted to $20,000 (${{Inflation|US|20000|1914|r=-2|fmt=c}} in today's dollars{{Inflation-fn|US}}).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KRg9HWakBmQC&q=tesla+1908+Wardenclyffe+foreclosed&pg=PA185|title=Nikola Tesla on His Work with Alternating Currents and Their Application to Wireless Telegraphy, Telephony, and Transmission of Power: An Extended Interview|first=Nikola|last=Tesla|date=8 December 2017|publisher=21st Century Books|via=Google Books|isbn=978-1-893817-01-2|access-date=18 November 2020|archive-date=23 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240323123554/https://books.google.com/books?id=KRg9HWakBmQC&q=tesla+1908+Wardenclyffe+foreclosed&pg=PA185#v=snippet&q=tesla%201908%20Wardenclyffe%20foreclosed&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> He lost the property in foreclosure in 1915, and in 1917 the Tower was demolished by the new owner to make the land a more viable real estate asset.