Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in what is now Croatia (part of the Austrian Empire at the time). His father was a priest in a local church and hoped that Nikola would follow in his footsteps, but young Nikola had a mind for math and science. He would later describe incidents where he was blinded by a bright flash of light followed by visions, almost like a daydream. He could see ideas - inventions with all of their moving parts without ever having built them. We use this ability as the key to using the Wall of Light. "You said that you can visualize like me. See things, inventions with all of their moving parts, without ever lifting a finger, correct?" he asked. "That is correct." "Well that, my young friend, is what is needed. My time travel invention will not work without this ability, for you must visualize a time in history for it to appear." In 1875, young Nikola attended Austrian Polytechnic in Graz studying electrical engineering. It is at the university that Nikola would first envision his motor that used Alternating Current. One of his professors famously claimed that Nikola's vision for and AC motor was nothing but a perpetual motion scheme, as if to say it was impossible. We use this phrase in Shadow's journal entry where Nikola reveals that he built the Wall of Light. "I've been told that time travel is impossible, nothing more than a perpetual motion scheme, but it is not. Space, and even time itself, can be controlled. Fantastic as time travel sounds, I have in fact done it!" |
 A young Nikola Tesla |
From the university Nikola traveled to Paris, and then to New York where he was employed by Thomas Edison. Edison charged him with improving his Direct Current (DC) system, but Nikola advocated his own Alternating Current (AC) methods. Edison already had a tremendous investment in DC, so he wanted nothing to do with Tesla's brand of science. So, for about a year Tesla labored with Edison to improve his DC system. Tesla and Edison did not part on good terms. Tesla believed that Edison lied to him about his compensation and his demands for a pay increase were turned down. Nikola left Edison's company, and spent the next year digging ditches all the while improving on his AC motor design. Eventually, Nikola teamed up with a man named George Westinghouse to use his AC method of power generation, and the Battle of the Currents was born. Over the next decade, Thomas Edison would pit his DC power system against the AC production of George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla. Tesla would continue making improvements to his AC motors, but would also develop methods for X-Ray, radio, remote control, florescent and neon bulbs, spark plugs for gasoline engines, and robotics. |
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Tesla built a laboratory in Colorado Springs in 1899. He believed that the earth could conduct electricity, and proved it in Colorado Springs by pumping electricity in to the ground that illuminated light bulbs hundreds of feet away. He also conducted an experiment, the same one that we talk about in the journal entry, where he created a massive man-made bolt of lightning. "As I neared the corner of the building, a large crack of lightning stopped me in my tracks. It was not a storm. The lightning came from the laboratory's tower. It rose higher and higher into the air and did not disappear. I have seen countless lightning storms in my life, but nothing compared to this." Residents as far away as Cripple Creek in the Colorado mountains (approximately 50 miles away) reported hearing the experiment. The experiment eventually destroyed the generator at the local power plant and Nikola was charged with fixing it. Nikola theorized the resonant frequency of the ionosphere and of the earth, both of which were proven accurate decades later. In addition to being a brilliant scientist, Nikola had a tremendous imagination. This imagination no doubt contributed greatly to his inventions. One of his ideas was called the Wall of Light - using energy to control time. We use this idea of Nikola's in the book, though we took significant liberties with its creation as Nikola never described how his ideas might be implemented. Nikola was also fascinated by light, and ways to bend it using electricity and magnetism. Shadow's ability to bend light around himself is our manifestation of this interest. Nikola was also reported to have created ball lightning, a phenomena that has been witnessed countless times in nature, but has very rarely been created at-will. Shadow can do this in our book as well. |
 Tesla's lab in Colorado Springs |
Nikola formed some interesting relationships with people from all walks of life. Reading through some of his biographies, no friendship of his surprised me more than that of Samuel Clemens. You may know him better by his pen name, Mark Twain. Samuel would come by Nikola's laboratory and marvel at his experiements, and Nikola was all to happy to show off his latest tests. We make casual reference to Mark Twain in Shadow's journal entry, noting: "I borrowed books from Nikola's laboratory to read...Nikola must have loved books by Mark Twain..." |
 Mark Twain in Tesla's lab (Tesla in background) |
| Nikola left for New York on January 7, 1900, and his laboratory was torn down to pay for outstanding debts. He filed for numerous patents when he returned, and continued his research on wireless transmission of power and radio, largely at a facility known as Wardenclyffe, but lacking business sense he was unable to build on his prior successes. Combined with what most believe was an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Nikola had a difficult time protecting his inventions and convincing investors that they could expect a return on their investments in his ideas. As a result, Nikola would eventually lose most everything he had accumulated through his life. He died in 1943 in the New Yorker Hotel. |  Wardenclyffe laboratory |