h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A Journal about writing The Prize:
Introduction, A87776059
The Prize, Section 1 – A Sort of Sordid History, A87776789
The Prize, Section 2 – A Not So Sordid History, A87776798
The Pit and the Pendulum, A87777698

When Tesla was in Colorado for a short time, he picked up a repetitive radio signal he could not explain. He told the press that, but offered the possibility that it was from Mars. The press made a big deal of that “news.” This is the main fact that links Tesla to aliens. Part of what I admire about Tesla was that he had the courage to speculate about what others would not speak about. That did not mean that he believed in Martians, it meant that he did not know it was not Martians.

The fact that he experimented with things that scientists of his day did not understand made him spooky. After Colorado in 1900, he started planning the Wardenclyffe Tower. Tesla’s claim that it could act like a death ray added to his demise. With JP Morgan stopping the Wardenclyffe project, Tesla’s reputation would never be the same. At some point Tesla developed even more controversial behaviors. In his old age, fact and story blended into unbelievable reports. Tesla became a recluse except for his pigeons.

Did Morgan break Tesla’s spirit or was it just a “natural” failing of the mind? We probably will never know, but either way, Tesla still deserved credit for what he did before his mental decline.

History has a “funny” way with the truth.

[Amy P]