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TLS signed “N. Tesla,” one page, 8 x 10.5, March 28, 1898. Letter to Mrs. McCoullough Williams, in full: “Your favor of March 10th, which was received in due course, would have been answered before this had I not been suffering from the grip all this time. I thank you very much for the expression of your good opinion, but I am grieved to know that I am not in any way deserving it. I would with pleasure comply with your request if it were of another nature, but it has been my rule, to which I have adhered firmly, not to furnish any material for interviews. Hoping that, in view of this, you will have the kindness to excuse me and regretting very much my inability to meet your wish.” In fine condition, with two unobtrusive edge tears.
A modest letter from the visionary inventor, typed and signed from a noteworthy location during a most noteworthy year. In 1898, at the first Electrical Exhibition at Madison Square Garden in New York, Tesla presented his most recent invention: a remotely controlled boat called the telautomaton. In doing so, Tesla performed the first public demonstration of the wireless transfer of commands at a distance by controlling the movements of the boat with radio waves. The moment was a pioneering step in the field of remote control and also one of the earliest milestones in the birth of robotics and automation.
That same year, while testing his electro-mechanical oscillator at his laboratory at 46 East Houston Street, Tesla reportedly caused a small earthquake in New York City — the epicenter being his own lab. Tesla attached the oscillator — around 7 inches long and described by Tesla as something ‘you could put in your overcoat pocket’ — to an iron pillar that went down through the center of this building to the sandy floor of the basement. It began to hum, sending out rhythmic pulses. Initially, it was subtle, barely noticeable.
Then, metal equipment clanged together, the floor started to tremble, and cracks appeared in the walls. Panic spread throughout the neighborhood as windows shattered and people rushed into the streets, convinced that an earthquake had struck. Realizing that the situation was spiraling out of control, Tesla grabbed a sledgehammer and smashed the device, which immediately stopped the vibrations. When the police arrived, Tesla met them at the door and calmly explained, ‘Gentlemen, I'm sorry. You are just a little late to witness my experiment. I was trying to shake the Earth.’
News about Tesla's earthquake machine spread, but rather than being celebrated, it was met with fear. Tesla sought funding to develop the device further, but found investors wary of such destructive potential. Years later, scientists confirmed the power of mechanical resonance, the same principle that caused the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington to collapse in 1940. Wind created a resonant vibration that caused the steel structure to twist and fall like a ribbon, a concept understood by Tesla decades earlier.
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