Editing Nikola Tesla (section)

=== Nobel Prize rumors ===

On 6 November 1915, a [[Reuters]] news agency report from London had the 1915 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] awarded to Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla; however, on 15 November, a Reuters story from Stockholm stated the prize that year was being awarded to [[William Henry Bragg]] and [[Lawrence Bragg]] "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays".{{sfn|Cheney|2001|p=245}}<ref>{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1915 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1915/ |publisher=nobelprize.org |access-date=29 July 2012 |archive-date=8 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120808195305/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1915/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Cheney|Uth|Glenn|1999|p=120}}</ref> There were unsubstantiated rumors at the time that either Tesla or Edison had refused the prize.{{sfn|Cheney|2001|p=245}} The Nobel Foundation said, "Any rumor that a person has not been given a Nobel Prize because he has made known his intention to refuse the reward is ridiculous"; a recipient could decline a Nobel Prize only after he is announced a winner.{{sfn|Cheney|2001|p=245}}

There have been subsequent claims by Tesla biographers that Edison and Tesla were the original recipients and that neither was given the award because of their animosity toward each other; that each sought to minimize the other's achievements and right to win the award; that both refused ever to accept the award if the other received it first; that both rejected any possibility of sharing it; and even that a wealthy Edison refused it to keep Tesla from getting the $20,000 prize money.{{sfn|Seifer|2001|p=7}}{{sfn|Cheney|2001|p=245}}

In the years after these rumors, neither Tesla nor Edison won a Nobel prize (although Edison received one of 38 possible bids in 1915 and Tesla received one of 38 possible bids in 1937).{{sfn|Seifer|2001|pp=378–380}}