All language subtitles for Modern.Marvels.S22E10.Mad.Electricity.Plus.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-BTN_track3_[eng]

- [Narrator] Some say he
was the greatest inventor

of all time, even
beating out Edison

to electrify the planet.

- His name was known around
the world after this event.

- [Narrator] But was
he the mad genius

who revolutionized the modern
world, or was he just mad?

- [Narrator] At one point,
he actually referred

to one bird as his wife.

- [Narrator] Now, the shocking
truth behind Nicola Tesla.

You'll never flip on a light
switch the same way again.

On Modern Marvels.

[intense music]

[suspenseful electronic music]

- [Sam] He was a true American
hero, but after a while,

people forgot about what he did.

- [Jeff] I believe that he was
the most important inventor

in human history.

- [Joseph] Some of his
neighbors did think

he was absolutely
crazy and thought

he was a danger to
their community.

- [Samantha] I think that
he had a different version

of what the future
would look like.

He's responsible for
the 20th century.

[triumphant music]

- [Narrator] For the power
to change night into day,

thank Nikola Tesla.

- It's clear, there are so
many aspects of modern life,

everyday life that is
directly influenced

or created by Nikola Tesla.

- [Narrator] His
alternating current

or AC power system
paved the way for all

of our modern
electric conveniences.

- He's basically responsible
for our entire system

of electricity, our
entire modern world.

- [Narrator] But
tragically in later years,

his brilliance responsible,
for more than 200 patents

was overshadowed by what
some considered madness.

- He was often seen as
sort of the mad scientist

who was out of control and
would destroy the world,

when he really wanted to
improve the lot of humanity.

- [Narrator] Because of Tesla,

a turn of the switch brings
power to our fingertips.

Yet the same intellect

fanatically rescued
injured pigeons,

was repulsed by women's jewelry

and claimed to receive
communications from outer space.

- [Nikola Tesla] "Our virtues

and our failings are inseparable
like force and matter.

When they separate,
man is no more."

Nikola Tesla.

- [Narrator] At the beginning
of the 20th century,

Tesla's amazing accomplishments
were celebrated.

But he died in 1943 at
The New Yorker Hotel,

in this small room,

virtually destitute
and discredited,

as he watched the world he
helped create simply forget him.

Nevertheless, the FBI amassed
a secret file on Tesla

and when he died the
United States government

took charge of his papers.

- If you listen to
everything he talked about,

it was so powerful,

[electricity buzzes]

it was so frightening,

[electricity buzzes]

and so terrifying,

[electricity buzzes]

that they just pounced
upon all his possessions

and whisked them away.

- [Narrator] What
were the powerful

and terrifying
ideas that may have

threatened national security?

Were they a madman's
rantings or works of genius?

- There is still a place for
Nikola Tesla's contributions.

Many people believe that he
was actually onto something.

Maybe it's time to look
back and reinvestigate

what Tesla was really up to.

- [Narrator] We know one
thing Tesla was up to,

wireless energy that could be
transmitted around the world.

The wireless transmission
of power would appear

over and over again, even in
Tesla's most exotic visions.

The key to understanding
this remarkable idea was this

peculiar yet powerful invention.

First patented an 1891
by Tesla at the age of 35

called the Tesla coil.

- Nothing like it had
ever been done before.

Think of the Tesla coil as
a giant electrical pump.

This is an example of a
modern day Tesla coil.

We're gonna take power
from a wall outlet,

feed it to the base of the
unit where we're gonna step up

the voltage tremendously
until it comes out the top.

So I'm gonna step back and
we're gonna take a look.

[coil buzzes]

- [Narrator] This Tesla
coil steps up standard power

from a wall outlet of 120 volts
to more than 500,000 volts.

Imagine electricity
flowing in a wire

the same way as water
pumped through a hose.

The current can be likened
to the flow of water,

the voltage can be
likened to water pressure.

If a nozzle was
attached to the hose,

the force of the water pressure
is dramatically increased.

While the flow of
water is decreased.

A Tesla coil acts
in the same way.

By passing the current
from a small primary coil

to a secondary much larger coil,

it steps up the
voltage tremendously

and reduces the current.

This makes the Tesla
coil a transformer.

- Much like firefighters
would connect a big hose

to a fire hydrant and
then use the nozzle

to spray that water
very far away,

Tesla coil does the same thing.

- [Narrator] Using an
enormous Tesla coil,

the inventor wanted
to pump the earth

and atmosphere full
of electric energy,

He believed he could use the
earth as a natural conductor

of electricity and send
power around the world.

In essence, the earth will
become a giant electrical outlet

To prove his wildly
original theory,

Tesla left his home
in New York City

and began experimenting
with wireless power in 1899.

At the age of 43 on the wind
swept prairies of Colorado.

- He believed that there
was some specific frequency

at which the earth could
be struck as with a hammer.

Tesla believed that the earth
could be rung electrically

just as a bell can be
rung with a clapper.

- [Narrator] He constructed
a laboratory and tower

that soared 80 feet
into the air.

Inside the barn-like structure
was an enormous Tesla coil.

- For Tesla to be creating
these electrical arcs

in his laboratory
was very unsettling

to the people in Colorado
because they felt

that he was conjuring
the work of God.

[thunder rumbles]
[electricity buzzes]

- [Narrator] By tapping into
the local electrical power

from Colorado Springs,

Tesla's coil produced more
than 12 million volts.

He often demonstrated
his wireless concept

by illuminating a phosphorescent
bulb while holding it

in his hand.

- When the machine
is on the entire lab

is filled with high
voltage electricity.

I'm gonna grab this
fluorescent light

and show you what I mean.

[coil buzzes]

- [Narrator] The Tesla coil
outputs electric energy

without harming humans,
similar to the way

transmission towers bombarded
us with radio waves.

- What you're seeing is
electricity fly through the air

from the Tesla coil to
the bulb, lighting it.

That's the essence of
Tesla's original idea.

He wanted to transmit power
globally so that people

need only receive it to use it.

- [Narrator] Tesla claimed
his experiments in Colorado

were a success and he achieved
the transmission of power,

illuminating light bulbs
up to one mile away.

[electricity buzzes]

In addition to pronouncements
of his Colorado electrical

discoveries, Tesla also made
an even more startling claim,

that he received messages
from outer space.

- He got a lot of flack when
he came back to New York

for saying I've spoken to
Mars, or talking to Martians

but it's interesting because
the ideas that he were using

are exactly the ideas
that we're using now

to send messages out
into outer space.

We're sending radio waves
out into outer space

to try to see if
anyone's out there.

So people back then
really had some idea

that he might be crazy,
but he was actually

probably really
ahead of his time.

- [Narrator] However,
Tesla believed

he had crossed a
threshold and proven

he could send power wirelessly.

He just had to find
more money to build

an even bigger transmitter.

[waves crash]

Tesla returned to the east
coast on Long Island Sound.

In the town of Shore,
a street sign marks

the entrance to a now abandoned
and forgotten location.

In 1901, based on his
Colorado experiments,

Tesla began to build his
visionary wireless power network

here on this site.

He called it Warden Cliff.

[electricity buzzes]

It was comprised of a
laboratory and power station.

Adjacent to it was a
tremendous 187 foot tower.

Power from the plant was
sent to a giant Tesla coil

in the tower.

Underneath the tower, the
inventor sank huge shafts

120 feet into the
soil to transmit

the electrical current
into the earth.

This was to be the first
of many transmitters

in a system that would
encircle the world

with wireless energy.

The vast amounts of
electricity necessary

would come from huge
hydroelectric projects.

- A lot of people
thought it was crazy

because they couldn't
understand what he was seeing

and what he was
envisioning for the future.

He was able to
conceive of things

that other people weren't,
he was a visionary.

Nikola Tesla had an ingenious
vision for a worldwide

wireless power network
but to realize that dream,

he needed to convince the most
powerful banker in America,

JP Morgan to invest
$150,000 in the project.

Tesla promised the
financier that the tower

would make millions by
also broadcasting messages,

news, music, and even pictures
to any part of the world.

- This is the original
foundation for Tesla's tower.

If you look, you can see that
it's an eight sided figure.

It had a huge hole
down in the ground,

right in front of
where I'm standing,

120 feet down and a spiral
staircase went around it.

And then opened to the
sky, 187 feet was the tower.

Tower was attached by huge
timbers on bars like this

at each of the points along
the side foundation walls.

It loomed over
everything in the area.

It was overwhelming when
you think of the size

and scope of such a
huge, huge construction.

- [Narrator] This
is the actual lab

and power plant at Warden Cliff,

where Tesla worked for
more than four years

trying to develop
his wireless concept.

It was purchased by a
photographic company

more than 60 years ago.

After remodeling, only part
of the outside lab remains.

- [Jane] Really
getting to go inside.

This is so exciting.
- All right,

this door hasn't
been open in a while.

- [Narrator] Although the
building hasn't been used

in more than a decade,
the owners agree to open

the doors to "Modern Marvels"
for a rare look inside.

- Wow.

Oh, this is incredible.

This is a amazing to be in
here where Tesla worked,

where he spent time
with his assistants.

It's just amazing that
over a 100 years ago

Tesla was walking
in these very walls,

his equipment it was here,
his dreams were alive.

He was looking forward
to what he hoped

would be a very glorious future.

- [Narrator] In
part, it was timing

that ultimately
doomed Warden Cliff.

On December 12th of 1901,
as Tesla was working

at his wireless network,
Guglielmo Marconi

beat him to the punch and
successfully transmitted

a radio signal
across the Atlantic.

While Marconi's achievements
were indeed a first,

in reality he used
17 of Tesla's patents

to accomplish this feat.

Tesla is not only forgotten
as the father of radio,

Marconi's transmission sealed
the fate of Warden Cliff.

- Morgan was no
longer interested

in supporting Tesla's work here.

Marconi already did it.

Why should he keep
supporting Tesla?

And of course, Tesla's plan
was greater than Morgan knew.

Tesla could see reason
to continue the funding

and continue the work, but
it wasn't Morgan's plan.

- [Narrator] So in 1905 while
still under construction

and after some amazing
electrical displays,

the Warden Cliff project was
abandoned and later destroyed.

[loud bang]

- [Nikola Tesla] "The world
was not prepared for it.

It was too far
ahead of its time.

But the same laws will
prevail in the end

and make it a
triumphant success."

Nikola Tesla.

- [Narrator] But could
Tesla have succeeded?

The mainstream scientific
community has grave doubts.

- Tesla's schemes for worldwide

electrification was simply
out of the question.

It makes no sense
from the standpoint

of the energy involved
and the inefficiency of it.

- [Narrator] Still
some aren't sure.

- I believe that the
wireless transmission

of power is possible.

The chance that power
could be transmitted

around the globe without
wires was too great

a discovery to pass up.

- [Narrator] Jeff Parisse,
a high voltage technician

was part of a team that
built one of the largest

Tesla coils in modern times.

The 13M.

[electricity buzzes]

- The reason that 13M was
built was to give scientists

the opportunity to
actually investigate

some of Tesla's wireless
transmission theories

to see if they're practical.

- [Narrator] The
13M generates close

to 12 million volts of power.

- What we learned is
that the machine we built

is not large enough.

It's actually a
quarter scale version

of what Tesla made
in Colorado Springs

and it seems the machine that
large is really necessary.

We hope in the future that
we'll have the funding

to be able to build a
full scale Tesla coil

and prove his theories.

Today, we take our
electrified world for granted.

Energy that powers
our needs is as close

as the nearest outlet.

[thunder rumbles]

According to legend, a
man who made it all happen

was born in Croatia in 1856
at the stroke of midnight

during an electrical storm.

- Tesla's immediately associated
with thunder and lightning,

with electricity.

[thunder rumbles]

- [Narrator] Tesla
began his career

as an electrical engineer
with a telephone company

in Budapest in 1881.

One day as he was walking
through a park with a friend,

Tesla suddenly envisioned
a groundbreaking concept

for a new electric motor
and drew it out in the dirt.

This simple illustration
became the patent

for induction motor,
which would go on

to be the standard electric
motor for the world.

It's used for everything
from tools and appliances

to hybrid cars, to
industrial plants.

The induction motor works
by energizing coils of wire

placed around a stationary
frame called the stator.

This induces a current in
the coils onto a rotor.

The alternating current in
the coils causes the poles

of the magnetic
fields around them

to change between
north and south.

The resulting attraction
and repulsion with the coils

as they alternate causes
the rotor to spin.

- And the exact same
ideas that Nikola Tesla

came up with a 100 years
ago are still used today

in induction motors
such as this one.

The motor's made of two
parts, the rotor

and the coil.

Within the coil, a north
south magnetic field rotates

and as a magnetic field
rotates, the rotor follows it.

Just like it did a 100 years ago

when Nikola Tesla made
the first prototype.

[motor buzzes]

- [Narrator] In 1884 at age 28,

Tesla moved to America
with little money

and only a letter
of recommendation

from his boss to Thomas Edison.

The letters simply read,
"I know of two great men,

you are one of them.

This young man is the other."

Edison hired the
brilliant young engineer

and eventually asked him to
redesign his company's electric

generators for a $50,000 bonus.

After Tesla developed a number
of enormously profitable

new patents, he asked
Edison for his bonus.

- Edison says, you
gotta be kidding me.

You got a lot to learn about
an American sense of humor

and he doesn't give
him the $50,000.

And Tesla turns around
immediately and says,

well, Mr. Edison, I resign.

- [Narrator] And so
began a lifelong feud

between the upstart young genius

and the established inventor.

- Tesla leaves Edisons
and he was digging ditches

in New York City for a year.

Very, very dark time.

All of his dreams are in
shambles at this point.

- [Narrator] While
toiling to feed himself

and raised capital
for new inventions,

Tesla was appalled at
the web of power wires

strung up in the city.

- This whole system
was a nightmare

of cables and wiring overhead.

Matter of fact, in some areas,

it even blocked out the sun.

- [Narrator] The electrical
system he found deficient

was called direct current or DC.

Edison, Tesla's former
employer, was a major investor

in DC power.

Tesla knew there
was a better way

and was determined to
invent a new system

that became the global standard,
alternating current or AC.

- He used a direct current cable

that would carry
about a million watts

to light a typical
New York City block.

Using alternating current
and Tesla's AC system,

a small wire such
as this could power

the same amount of homes.

Same amount of power, just
look at the difference.

- [Narrator] The difference
between AC and DC power

is all about how electricity
or electrons flow.

For DC current to work
there must be a continuous

and direct flow of
electrons along a wire

from negative to positive poles.

- When power's applied
electrons, as signified

by the red band,
move to the work,

do the work and then come all
the way back to the generator.

The problem with this
process is that the electrons

encounter resistance
along these wires.

It's difficult for
electrons to travel

these great distances.

So most of the energy in the
system is lost in the wire.

- Well the way Thomas Edison
envisioned his system,

he would have to put a power
plant just about every mile

to keep the voltage steady
along his DC power grid.

- [Narrator] In 1887, Tesla
filed seven US patents

for another more efficient
and cheaper power system

called alternating current.

- What Tesla discovered
in his AC system

was it was not necessary
to send the electrons

all the way to the
work and back again.

In fact, he alternated
the current,

sending it back and forth.

- [Narrator] Tesla developed
a system of AC generators

that alternated electric
current between negative

and positive poles at
60 cycles per second.

By sending AC
through a transformer

with virtually no power loss,
he could step up the voltage

and lower the current so
that AC could be efficiently

transmitted hundreds of miles
further than DC current.

Millionaire entrepreneur
George Westinghouse

thought Tesla's inventions
could be the key

to long distance
power transmission.

He purchased the patents

for $60,000 and a
healthy share of stock

in the Westinghouse corporation.

If the new AC system
was successful,

Tesla would a rich man.

Nikola Tesla became a citizen
of the United States in 1891.

The same year an all
out war of the currents

erupted between his AC
and Edison's DC power.

Edison launched a
propaganda campaign

that showed the dangers of AC.

- The public, they had
rather grotesque experiments

where they would take
animals and electrocute them

with alternating current.

- [Narrator] Edison
convinced New York state

to use Tesla's and
Westinghouse AC power

for the very first
electrocution in 1890.

A reporter called it
a gruesome spectacle

far worse than any hanging.

Edison dubbed the
technique Westinghousing.

- Whether it was
electrocuting animals

or electrocuting
prisoners, the thrust was,

this is something you
don't want in your house.

- [Narrator] In 1893,
despite the bad press,

Tesla and the
Westinghouse Corporation

won the bid for illuminating
the Chicago World's Fair,

the first all electric
fair in history,

Edison who made an
unsuccessful bid

was frustrated over
losing this opportunity

and refuse to let Tesla use
his patented light bulbs.

[lights buzz]

- So Tesla needed to come
up with a new light bulb,

make 250,000 of 'em in six
months time to light the fair.

Edison's bulb had a
screw base at the bottom.

He patented the whole
method of powering the ball

through this screw
base and how to seal

the vacuum off inside.

Tesla's solution was to
have a ground glass stopper

in the bottom of the bulb.

The wires passed
through the stopper

and he was able to
manufacture a bulb

that didn't interfere
with Edison's patents.

Tesla was able to beat
Edison at his own game

by producing a lamp that
was more easy to manufacture

and he was able to do so
in a short amount of time.

- [Narrator] On May 1st, 1893,
President Grover Cleveland

pushed a button and
more than 200,000

of Tesla's incandescent
lamps illuminated

the fair grounds.

It was a monumental success
and ushered in the era

of modern electric lighting.

- Tesla was hailed
the mastermind

and the genius behind
making this possible

and his name was known around
the world after this event.

- [Narrator] Tesla,
filled with confidence

after this victory over Edison

Millions have witnessed
its stunning power.

Niagara Falls can send more
than 750,000 gallons of water

over its crest every second,
producing enough power

to generate 2.4 million
kilowatts of electricity.

At that rate, the
falls could power

half of Las Vegas on
a hot summer night.

Ever since pioneers
began building sawmills

along the Niagara
River in the 1700s,

many had envisioned
brand new ways to harness

the thundering
power of the falls.

In 1893 after witnessing Tesla's
and Westinghouse's triumph

at the Chicago World's Fair,
the Niagara Falls Commission

awarded them the
contract to tap the falls

for generating
alternating current.

- The big problem with
using Niagara Falls

for electricity was
that the major consumer

of that electric
power was Buffalo.

Buffalo is about 20 miles or so

and using DC transmission
was totally impractical

because a repeater station
would have to have been built

every two miles.

AC avoided all of that.

- [Narrator] At the
falls Tesla designed

and engineered a complex
system of generators

and transformers to
produce his AC power.

- Tesla didn't write
down everything.

Most of his stuff
was in his head.

He had to do it verbally.

Tesla was in his own
little world more or less.

He would not explain
things to other people,

but his assistants would.

- [Narrator] In 1896, the
first AC hydroelectric station

for long distance power
transmission went online

and Buffalo, New York
became the premier city

to be electrified by
power transmission.

- Tesla was not here when they
actually flipped the switch

but he had so much
confidence in his own work

that he knew it would work.

- [Narrator] Today
new power plants

have replaced Tesla structures.

The buildings of one of the
most important historical sites

in the modern world,

now stand forgotten
like dinosaurs.

And for the man who
envisioned it all

only an isolated statue marks
his extraordinary achievement.

- I wonder how many
people who come by here,

past this statue
actually have any idea

who Nikola Tesla was and what
he did to shape their world.

- [Narrator] Today,
our world is ablaze

thanks to Tesla's AC technology.

He had won his final
battle with Edison

but victory came at
an enormous cost.

Westinghouse was
financially drained

by the war of the currents.

In a grand gesture to
keep the company afloat,

Tesla tore up his
royalties contract

claiming better
inventions lay ahead.

- Had the contract
been fulfilled,

Tesla would have been a
millionaire

and been free of financial
worries the rest of his life.

- [Nikola Tesla] "Money
does not represent

such a value as men
have placed upon it.

All my money has been
invested into experiments

with which I have
made new discoveries

enabling mankind to have
a little easier life."

- [Narrator] After the triumph

over Edison and the success
of his alternating current,

Nikola Tesla was a celebrity.

- And he's friends
with Mark Twain,

he's friends with all
manner of ambassadors

and ballerinas and prima donnas,

and he's really kind of
at the height of society.

- [Narrator] But genius
often comes with a price.

Tesla suffered from
bizarre compulsions

like his consuming need
to rescue injured pigeons

and nurse them back to health.

- He has an infirmary for
them right out outside

his bedroom window where he's
trying to heal, you know,

some that have broken
wings, broken legs.

And in fact, at one
point he actually

referred to one
bird as his wife.

And he said, you
know, when she died,

the inventive spirit left him.

- [Narrator] Tesla had a fear
of germs that compelled him

to wash his hands constantly.

He did things in threes and
was adamant about living

in a room at The
New Yorker Hotel

with a number
divisible by three.

- He demanded the room 3327,

where he'd lived for 10 years.

He always requested nine napkins

and if he had a
bread or something,

it could be cut into nine,
three times three pieces.

Even the number of dishes he
had or the number of towels

he received in this room
was usually a three or nine.

- Tesla never married and
claimed he was celibate.

- He had a horrible
affliction against women

with pierced ears.

He couldn't stand the site
of pierced ears and jewelry.

And pearl earrings he said,
just set his teeth on edge.

It was almost like
fingers on a chalkboard

for him to see pearl earrings.

- [Narrator] Even with
his list of obsessions

and compulsions, Tesla
had always been able

to tap into his remarkable
inventive intellect.

In 1898, he created
the remote control

when he demonstrated a
six foot long radio wave

controlled boat at
Madison Square Garden.

[horn blows]

[model boat hums]

On a quiet lake in
Riverside, California,

Tesla's work is alive
and well as a fleet

of remote controlled
model boats set sale.

- This is very much like
Tesla did a 100 years ago.

- [Narrator] Inside these
boats are the basic components

of remote control
Tesla conceived

at the turn of the 20th century.

A battery inside the
remote control device

sends power to an
oscillator that

converts it into a
radio wave pulse.

The radio wave is transmitted

to a small receiver on the boat,

which sends the electric
pulse to a motor.

Varying the pulse
of the radio wave

from the transmitter
to the receiver

causes the motor arms to
move in different directions.

Using a joystick,
the operator controls

the radio pulse signal
and controls the boat.

[model boat hums]

Tesla's remote control
principles are seen today

in everything from televisions

to unmanned military
predator drones

used for battlefield
reconnaissance

to satellites
operating in space.

Tesla's shocking
experiments continue now

on "Modern Marvels
Mad Electricity Plus."

One of the most powerful
forces in nature

is an earthquake.

Suppose that power was
harnessed as a weapon.

[tense music]

Some believe Tesla may
have discovered a way.

- The Tesla earthquake machine
was a mechanical oscillator,

which is basically a machine

that produces vibrations.

And by producing
these vibrations

the machine could
be made to resonate

with different structures.

- [Narrator] The
oscillator machine is based

on the principle
that every substance

when stimulated has
a resonant frequency.

If the frequency is
matched and amplified

by an outside force such
as the oscillator machine,

any material can be
literally shaken to pieces.

The destruction of the
Tacoma Narrow's Bridge

in Washington in 1940,
demonstrates this principle.

The winds whipping
around the bridge

hit just the right
frequency, causing the steel

to sway violently in
a rhythmic pattern

that finally broke it apart.

[water splashes]

- To demonstrate the
power of resonance,

we're going to see what
happens to a wine glass

as it vibrates to
its breaking point.

First, I'll start
a glass vibrating

and use a microphone
connected to an oscilloscope

to see what frequency
the glass vibrates at.

I'll then set that frequency
on a signal generator,

[mellow hum]

Which is going to play a
bag through an amplifier

into a speaker.

Because the glass is
going to be moving

more than 400 times per second,

we will be using a strobe light

in order to slow
down the motion.

Now this is going to be loud,

so I have to wear
some protection.

As the vibrations
increase in intensity,

the glass will start
to move more and more

and eventually it
can't take it anymore.

So as I turn up the volume
the glass will break.

[oscilloscope hums]

[high pitched hum]

[glass shatters]

So what we saw was
like a mini earthquake

and Tesla's earthquake machine
would be able to do this

but on a much larger scale.

- [Narrator] In
1898, Tesla claimed

to have created an oscillator
with an adjustable frequency

that was no bigger
than an alarm clock.

And he wrote of an
attempt to use it

on a building
under construction.

- [Nikola Tesla]
"In a few minutes,

I felt the building
beginning to tremble.

10 minutes more and I could
have laid it in the street.

And with the same device,
I could have dropped

the Brooklyn Bridge
into the East River

in less than an hour."

- [Narrator] Perhaps this
opened a Pandora's box

during later experiments
with a device.

- There's a legend that he
started up his little oscillator

or what some called
the earthquake machine

and he started vibrating
Lower Manhattan

and they call went out
to the police department

and the police came running.

They were pounding on the door.

They broke into his
lab and they saw him

with a sledge hammerer
smashing the machine.

The switch got stuck,
he couldn't turn it off

and he almost brought
down some buildings

in the neighborhood.

- [Narrator] In 1934, Tesla
conceived a death ray.

His idea was to blast
concentrated beams of particles

charged with millions
of volts of electricity

through the air,

which could down fleets

of enemy aircraft at a
distance of 250 miles.

[electricity buzzes]

- Tesla terrified people with
this idea of the death ray.

I mean, even the
name death ray,

it sounds like it's science
fiction, right?

- [Narrator] Tesla
spent his later years

in two small rooms in
The New Yorker Hotel.

Today room 3327, one of his
rooms, showed the cramped space

he occupied for the last
10 years of his life.

- Tesla died alone in
his room at the hotel.

They weren't even sure
exactly when he died

because people hadn't seen
him for a couple of days.

A chamber maid finally
entered his room

the day after he died
and found his body.

- [Narrator] But when
his death at the age

of 86 was discovered, the
United States government

took control of his
scientific papers.

- There was a great
deal of concern

at the time of his death as
to what was in his papers,

because we were in the
middle of World War II

and there's a great
deal of concern

what if the Nazis
get ahold of this.

- [Narrator] The
government claims

that after inspecting
Tesla's papers

they were released in
1952 and later sent

to Belgrade, Serbia
where they now remain

at the Nikola Tesla Museum.

However, many believe some of
his papers are still missing.

- Who knows what
were in these papers.

You know, maybe they
are very sensitive,

maybe they are the
plans for the death ray

and, and you know, I
guess that shouldn't

be public knowledge.

It's a terrific mystery who
took Nikola Teslas papers.

- [Narrator] We
may never know what

all these papers contained.

The United States consumes
nearly 20 million barrels

of oil a day and gasoline
prices fluctuate wildly.

Even a century ago Tesla saw
the future of fossil fuels.

- [Nikola Tesla] "If we
use fuel to get our power

we are living on our capital
and exhausting it rapidly.

This method is barbarous
and wantonly wasteful

and will have to be
stopped in the interest

of coming generations."

- Tesla was
disturbed by the rate

at which society was burning
up non-renewable fuels,

coal, oil was just
coming in then

and he foresaw a time
that you would need

to go to some other
source of power.

- [Narrator] Tesla
anticipated the development

of what we now call
renewable energy.

In 1901,

he patented an apparatus
for the utilization

of radiant energy.

The patent refers
to the sun as well

as other sources of radiant
energy, like cosmic rays.

- Nikola Tesla was

one of the first
people to realize

that we have an almost
endless supply of energy

coming in from space,
from our own sun.

I bet you wouldn't be surprised
to find out that today,

all kinds of applications
run on solar power.

- [Narrator] Tesla also
championed geothermal power.

In 1931, he wrote an article
for The New York Times

entitled "Our Future
Mode of Power",

which explored how to utilize
the earth's natural energy.

- [Nikola Tesla] "All
that is necessary

is to find an economic
and speedy way

of sinking deep shafts to tap

into this enormous
geothermal energy."

- One cutting edge car
maker is paying homage

to Tesla's green
foresight by adopting

his name.

Today, Tesla motors
produces the best selling

electric vehicles on the market.

The company's all electric
fleet includes cars

assisted by cutting edge
autopilot technology.

A step towards a potentially
self-driving vehicle.

The company began
cranking out electric vehicles

in 2008 with a battery
driven Tesla Roadster,

a vehicle that used a version

of its namesake and
better's AC induction motor.

The Roadster could go from
zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds

and travel more than 200
miles without a drop of gas.

[electricity buzzes]

Tesla was also a green
lighting pioneer.

At the 1893 Chicago
World's Fair,

Tesla displayed a
fluorescent bulb that burned

much cooler and lasted longer

than Edison's
incandescent bulbs.

A forerunner of today's longer
lasting efficient lighting.

- This is an actual
Edison light bulb.

This filament's made of carbon
and by passing electricity

through it, it becomes
heated and this heat produces

a white light,

More than half of
the energy that went

into this light bulb produced
heat instead of light

and that made it
very inefficient.

Tesla as a result developed a
lamp on a different principle

that didn't produce heat.

It produced light by a
gas inside of a bulb.

The electricity enters
the bulb through the ends

and there's electrodes inside.

And as it enters the bulb,
the gas would get excited

and ignite inside
lighting the whole space

within the walls of the tube.

The result was the
light was brighter,

it ran cooler and it was more
efficient than Edison's bulb.

The modern compact
fluorescent light operates

on the same principle.

There's gas inside that's
excited by a high voltage.

And this is Tesla's
principle still used today.

- [Narrator] Which
other of Tesla's ideas

were too far ahead of his time?

History may have
neglected this genius,

but today he is
being rediscovered.

- I believe that someday

we will reinvestigate
Tesla's work

and we will discover the secrets

that he was so confident in.

- Nikola Tesla made
the modern world

what it is today and
although it took many years

for a lot of people
to finally realize it,

I think perhaps that
is changing now.

- The legacy of Tesla is really

this creative spirit
of the inventor,

to have no bounds on thought.

He really believed
anything was possible.

- [Nikola Tesla] Let the
future tell the truth

and evaluate each one
according to their work

and accomplishments.

The present is
theirs, the future

for which I really
worked, is mine."

Nikola Tesla.