The story of Nikola Tesla's tower begins with Heinrich Rudolf Hertz's discovery of Hertzian radio waves in 1888, but at that time scientists were still convinced that these waves, like visible light, would propagate in straight lines and disappear into the vacuum of space. After large-scale experiments, Tesla developed his ideas on how a worldwide wireless system could work. He believed that if he conducted an electric current into the ground, he could collect the earth's electrical charge, transmit it in standing waves, and tap into it anywhere on earth to power devices. Tesla based his ideas on an electrical pulse conducted through the ground and returned through the air. Not only did he use the earth's layer for his electrical conductor system, but he also imagined that the energy flowing through it would cause it to glow, providing lightning at night. Tesla needed a place to turn his ideas into products, and this is where the Wardenclyffe Tower was born.
Nikola Tesla began building the Wardenclyffe Tower, also known as the Tesla Tower, in 1901. It was a 57-meter-high radio transmitter and experimental tower. He received $150,000 from financier J.P. Morgan to build a mushroom-shaped tower that would transmit messages, telephone calls, and images to ships on the other side of the Atlantic. At the time, more than a hundred years ago, he was convinced of wireless energy and believed, based on his experiments with radio and microwaves, that he could transmit millions of volts of electricity through the air. They had begun work on the structure, later called Wardenclyffe Tower, also known as Tesla's Tower, but abandoned the project in 1906 because Morgan turned off the money spigot before it got underway. Some say that the investor Morgan realized that this invention would cripple his other holdings in the energy- sector. In common explanations, Morgan withdrew his support for Tesla because he feared that Tesla would not make money from wireless power and that he intended to give the energy away for free.
Bernard Baruch, an American powerful man, politician, and financier, said to J. P. Morgan, ‘Look, this guy is going crazy. What he is doing is, he wants to give free electrical power to everybody and we can’t put meters on that. We are just going to go broke supporting this guy.’
Tesla's support ended overnight, and the work was never finished.
The remains of the Tesla Tower
When the Wardenclyffe Tower was designated as a historic site in 1967, several members of Brookhaven National Laboratory placed a plaque from Yugoslavia near the building's entrance. It reads,
"Stanford White Building at the corner of Tesla Street and NY 25A (2009) In this building designed by Stanford White, architect Nikola Tesla born Smiljan, Yugoslavia 1856 - died in New York, U.S.A. 1943. constructed in 1901-1905 Wardenclyffe huge radio station with antenna tower 187 feet high/destroyed 1917/ which was to have served as his first world communications system. In memory of the 120th anniversary of the U.S.A. independence July 10, 1976."
In November 2009, the sign was stolen, and an anonymous benefactor has offered a $2,000 reward if it is returned to the property.
The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe is a nonprofit organization that seeks to develop the site of Tesla's laboratory into a transformative global science center and preserve its legacy in the Tesla Museum.