What became of Nikola Tesla’s wireless dream?

Author: Léonie Alvey

“When wireless is fully applied, the earth will be converted into a huge brain, capable of response in every one of its parts.” – Nikola Tesla

Over the years, we’ve written a lot about Nikola Tesla, of his inventions and of his life. However, we’ve only touched briefly on his experiments at the Wardenclyffe Tower and until now, have said nothing of what has happened to the site since it was abandoned. In fact, a great deal of work has gone into saving the site and drawing wider attention to it. But to fully explain what’s happened, we must first revisit the site’s history.

Why did Tesla build the tower?

Tesla had the revolutionary idea of creating a global, wireless communication and power transfer system. That is to say, he wanted to supply electricity to homes and businesses wirelessly, without the need of today’s transmission and distribution grid. He saw the world itself as a source of ‘free’ energy and believed it possible to transmit electrical power through the Earth’s upper atmosphere - he just needed to find a way of achieving this.

Tesla’s ideas might seem far-fetched, and many in the scientific community considered them impossible, but experiments he had conducted at his Colorado Springs laboratory in 1899 had convinced him otherwise. He also had some success as he had previously managed to power three light bulbs from 30 m away without a wired connection. Unfortunately, he’d only been able to do this using near-field effects, meaning that the amount of energy transmitted decreased rapidly with increasing distance between the transmitter and receiver, making it unworkable over the large distances needed for wireless power distribution. It was this limitation that he needed to overcome to make his dream a reality and to do so, he needed to conduct larger experiments.

Seeing the potential in Tesla’s ambitious ideas, in 1900 J P Morgan decided to back him with $150 000 (equivalent to about $5 million today). Tesla used this to commission celebrated architect Stanford White to build a red-brick laboratory on a 16-acre site in New York, along with a 187 ft wooden tower for the purpose of carrying out large-scale practical experiments that would hopefully lead to the invention of a wireless power and communication system. This would later be known as Wardenclyffe Tower. Indeed, the tower itself was intended to be a prototype broadcasting tower that would be able to broadcast music, news, reports, and even facsimile images anywhere in the world wirelessly, using the Earth as a conductor.

Sadly, Tesla would realise none of these ideas. His vision was greater than his wallet (and the patience of his patron) and he ran into financial problems before the laboratory was even finished. The construction of the tower itself consumed a huge amount of money and resources and, partly due to the 1900’s economic crash, it became impossible for Tesla to get the funds he needed to finish the work. Ultimately, in 1917, the tower was dismantled and sold for scrap to pay off Tesla’s debts, leaving the once revolutionary site a painful, empty reminder of his failed dream. However, not everything was removed from the site; the original red brick laboratory and the base of the tower still stand today, making it the only Tesla laboratory still in existence.

Saving Wardenclyffe

After the tower was sold, the site (including the laboratory) spent many decades being used by various companies until the last business left in 1987. The next 20 years saw the site unused and neglected until it piqued the interest of a science museum board from a local high school. The school museum was looking for a way to expand to accommodate its growing number of programs. Wardenclyffe, with its historical significance and close location, seemed like the ideal place to do this.

The museum board began by creating the Friends of Science East, Inc (FSE) with the aim of preserving Wardenclyffe and developing it into a science and education centre. Over the next few years, FSE raised awareness and gained financial support from a range of fraternal, civic, and business groups. It then began to conduct business as the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe (TSCW), a non-profit organisation that had hopes of receiving the site as a donation.

However, in 2012 the site was put up for sale for $1.6 million by the company that owned it. They had a potential buyer who intended to use the site for retail purposes and was likely to tear down the laboratory. At this point, the TSCW needed financial support to save and preserve Tesla’s legacy and one of its supporters, New York State, offered help. The State said that if TSCW could raise $850 000, it would match it, which would make it possible for TSCW to buy the site. Yet, even raising that amount of money would be a significant challenge.

The internet steps in

In August 2012, popular internet cartoonist and creator of the card game, ‘Exploding Kittens’, Matthew Inman (TheOatmeal.com), became aware of TSCW’s fund-raising efforts. Having previously expressed his passion for Tesla in his comics, he wanted to help create America’s first Tesla Museum, so he worked with TSCW to launch an online campaign to help raise funds. The original web page for this can still be viewed on theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_museum.

With the help of Inman’s large internet following, the campaign was a huge success and raised $1.37 million. What’s more, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, donated $1 million to the cause! In May 2013, TSCW at last succeeded in buying Wardenclyffe.

The restoration

Once Wardenclyffe was safe in the hands of TSCW, the restoration and preservation work began. The site and buildings were secured and cleaned, and the grounds were cleared. Work was done to uncover the hidden parts of the tower base and to prepare for the erection of a Tesla statue, which was gifted to TSCW by the People’s Republic of Serbia at a ceremony attended by over 300 people.

All this work was done by volunteers and their efforts were eventually recognised in the local press, where they were named People of the Year 2013. The work did not end there and over the next few years, TSCW continued to turn the site into an accessible campus and to remove dense and invasive vegetation. As a result, the lab and tower base are now visible from outside the perimeter fence and the TSCW headquarters are on site within the Wardenclyffe grounds.

The success of this restoration project finally got the property listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. The site had been nominated for this listing many times over the course of its long history but failed to get it due to legal issues. The site’s new status was a significant achievement for TSCW and recognises the historical significance of both its architecture and its relation to Tesla’s work.

The most recent part of the ongoing restoration project was completed in 2020 and involved the chimney and upola. The chimney needed emergency repair and during its restoration an arched brick opening was discovered at the base of the eastern chimney wall. This is an unusual feature that the TSCW is currently investigating with the help of experts in historic architecture and archaeology. However, this isn’t the only interesting discovery the site has produced.

“As soon as completed, it will be possible for a businessman in New York to dictate instructions and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place. Millions of such instruments can be operated from but one plant of this kind. More important than all of this, however, will be the transmission of power, without wires, which will be shown on a scale large enough to carry conviction.” - Nikola Tesla, Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony magazine, 1908. Of the many engineers and scientists who have dared to predict the future of technology few, if any, have been as successful as Nikola Tesla. That his final dream of transmitting power wirelessly remains unrealised cannot be seen as a failure – maybe he could see possibilities and solutions that are still closed off to the rest of us. If he had had more funding, and lived a little longer, what new wonders might he have achieved?

A view from behind the laboratory, showing the tower in its entirety, courtesy of TSCW

Tunnels under Wardenclyffe

There were rumours that Tesla built a series of four tunnels underneath the laboratory, as mentioned in some newspapers from the 1900s. In 2017, a television crew from the TV show ‘Secrets of the Underground’ used ground-penetrating radar to confirm the existence of these tunnels and even two potential rooms.

We interviewed TSCW’s Chief Operating Officer, Douglas Borge, about these tunnels and he told us: “There were four tunnels about 60 to 70 ft underground, three of which were 100 ft long and a fourth about 40 ft long. Above them were ‘earth grippers’ fanning out like spokes on a wheel. The North Tower ran parallel to a main thoroughfare known as Route 25, around 30 ft away from the base of the tower. Two tunnels crisscrossed underneath the tower and at the ends closest to Route 25, they attached to the front tunnel. The 40-ft long back tunnel attached to one of the back crossed tunnels on the east side. That short tunnel ran parallel to the front tunnel and moved inwards, west.”

The purpose of the tunnels is uncertain, and many theories have been put forward: they could act as drainage for the main building, or maybe they were designed to enhance the tower’s connection with the earth, or maybe even to improve its resonance by interacting with the water table below the tower. They could even simply be paths to other buildings that weren’t yet built.

When asked about this, Douglas Borge commented: “We believe the tunnels were used to accommodate equipment for testing and experiments. It’s a long way to climb six flights of stairs every time you want to do an experiment, so it could be possible Tesla’s plan was to have them as staging areas. We are unsure of the purpose of the earth grippers, but they could have been used in part to map the interior of the Earth to look for precious metals and work on a global radar system. As far as we know, Tesla never wrote anything about the tunnels and earth grippers beyond what Marc J Seifer reported in his book Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikolas Tesla. If anyone comes across anything else about them, please let us know!”

No further research appears to have been published on these tunnels and it seems that they have yet to be excavated. Borge explains: “We can explore and excavate as much as we are allowed, but we face limitations from permitting and funding.” So, it is possible that the questions about these mysterious tunnels could be answered in the future.

What is Wardenclyffe like today?

Today, even though work on the site has not been completed, TSCW regularly holds events at Wardenclyffe. The site has become a landmark for the local area and is a popular tourist destination for dedicated Tesla fans.

A major demolition project is planned as part of the next phase of restoration, in which the surrounding dilapidated factory buildings will be removed. Additionally, a private donor has funded the construction of a visitor centre on site, enabling TSCW to welcome more guests, provide historic tours, and pilot innovative STEM-based exhibits, education, and community events.

Asked about long-term plans for the site after it has been fully restored, Borge said: “Tesla’s historic lab is at the heart of the visitor experience. It will be renovated and reimagined to showcase his legacy and inventions. It will honour Tesla’s life and work by telling his story accurately so future generations can fully understand this great man, the contributions he made to the world, and his ethos of innovation. The Tesla Lab Experience will attract visitors with interactive, immersive, and engaging exhibits and activities that merge history and storytelling with technology and innovation.

Tesla’s belief in the importance of invention will be demonstrated through cutting-edge, future-oriented science exhibits and public EdTech programming, both on-site and virtual. The focus will be on exploring the process of innovation and creating a collaborative laboratory environment to inspire emerging innovators of all ages from around the world.

Additionally, we will convene a global virtual network of incubators under the Tesla brand for start-ups in Tesla-inspired industries such as alternative energy, wireless, medical devices, and electronics. A business accelerator will hold innovation challenges, both on-site and virtually, aimed at solving social and corporate problems, and a maker space will be created to help train people on the tools needed to invent.”

The TSCW continues to fundraise to restore the laboratory and its grounds. You can visit its official website at https://teslasciencecenter.org, where you can read the full history of the laboratory, get updates on the site’s development, attend upcoming events held at the site and donate to the cause.

Wardenclyffe Tower can be seen on the north side of Route 25A between the intersection of Randall Road and the Fire Department in Shoreham, Long Island, New York.