Nicola Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower

In 1901 construction was started on a tower in Long Island like no other. Designed to send transatlantic radio signals and provide power to nearby businesses without the use of copper lines, the 55 foot tower loomed ominously.  The dream of Nicola Tesla to provide free power with no lines by harnessing the ionosphere would be demonstrated with this project and backed by notable investors such as J. P. Morgan himself.

The tower was named for businessman James S. Warden who donated the land to constructed the tower, with the agreement that Telsa would provide the businessman's nearby real estate development (called "Wardenclyffe-On-Sound") with power. Wardenclyffe was planned to be the first of a series of towers built around the world. The towers would form the "World System" which would connect the world with power and communication services.

Contrary to other great thinkers of the time, Telsa believed wireless power was the future. Figuring out how to charge and profit from the power was something he could not explain. After realizing Telsa had no plans to actually make any money from the project, J. P. Morgan stopped investing and encouraged other investors to shy away. Tesla's patent on AC motors expired before construction was completed severing halting the royalty cash flow he was using to finance the remainder of the project. Regardless, Tesla pushed forward to complete his radical experimental tower.

Tesla's theory on how the tower would work was that, "By using two type-one sources positioned at distant points on the Earth’s surface, it is possible to induce a flow of electrical current between them." The inventor also believed that the earth was a charged source (which we know today to be true). His tower would work by combining these two principals and creating powerful disturbances in Earth's natural electric charge which could then be harnessed. Users of the power would receive it by burying one end of a wire in the ground, and then putting a large conductive sphere on their roof with another wire. One would serve as a negative power source, and the other positive. Tesla called it the "disturbed charge of ground and air method."

Funding ran out before Tesla completed the construction. The tower and it's accompanying building never were fully operational. Tesla did use it to conduct various experiments, and was successful transmitting small amounts of electricity short distances. By 1907 the building was in foreclosure, and abandoned shortly thereafter. In 1917 the US government ordered the tower's destruction, fearing that it would be used as a landmark by German submarines. The failure of the project contributed a great deal to Tesla's eventual mental breakdown.

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