urban legends

When I was in high school a friend of mine was really into the Erich von Daniken books, some of you might remember the best-selling books on ancient aliens in his "Chariots of the Gods" series. They were very popular with the geeks of my generation in the 1970s and 1980s The people who followed von Däniken's theories usually followed the overall genre of UFOs and conspiracy theories. I read all the Chariots of the Gods books, the books on Project Blue Book and UFOs, and whatever else I could find on what I collectively called strange science.

In the late 1970s I had a radio show where I discussed Project Blue Book and UFOs. Project Blue Book was one of a series of studies of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) conducted by the United States Air Force. Its ceased operations in January 1970 with the conclusion that there was no evidence that any of the sightings were extraterrestrial vehicles. With thousands of reports to analyze and hundreds of expert witnesses, the stories and conspiracy theories went on long after Project Blue Book was shut down.

I was happy to find my stash of books from the 1970s, as shown in the photo attached to this article. One of the books you see in the photo is "Strangest of All" by Frank Edwards, an American writer and broadcaster. Frank Edwards was a pioneer radio broadcaster in the 1920s through the 1950s, and a writer of a series of popular books about UFOs and "Strange Science."

I would buy a new book every week or two, as well as read about inventors and inventions in magazines like Popular Science or Popular Mechanics. Other than to talk about these topics with my friend, and read a few magazines, I did not have any way to really explore these topics in more detail. Back in the dark ages of the 1970s we did not have the internet to share ideas.  The stories have not changed since I first read them in the 1970s. What has changed is the new vehicle of the internet where myths and legends can take on a massive cult of followers.

Every great epic story needs a hero and a villain. In the romanticized story known as the War of Currents, Thomas Edison is the villain. He is the guy everyone loves to hate. Nikola Tesla represents the hero we can identify with, the dreamer in all of us.

Nikola Tesla was a handsome well dressed fellow. He hung out at New York's finest restaurants rubbing elbows with the rich and famous. Tesla was an entertaining guy, he had cool party tricks, he invited the rich and famous back to his lab so he could shoot lighting bolts at them. He was a very interesting character.

Thomas Edison is portrayed as the cranky old fart with no sense of humor. Edison symbolizes the establishment. He is your high school science teacher who yelled at you for screwing up your lab assignment. He is the guy that your mother told you to be, why can't you be more successful, you know, why can you be more like Edison. But you never wanted to be like Edison, he looked like he was always working, and would be no fun at parties.

Tesla and Edison were both very influential during their lifetimes. Both men also had a wide variety of personality issues, both men were obsessive compulsive inventors who deserved to be respected, but not necessarily worshiped. If you read about Tesla, you will notice he was interviewed often for magazine articles during his lifetime. He was also a bit of a rebel. He poked fun at the scientists of his day, even dared to call Einstein names. He was an easy guy to like, and it was easy to portray Tesla as the underdog unafraid to take on the establishment.

The internet loves a good story, and the battle of good versus evil makes for a good story with Tesla representing the good, the forgotten misunderstood geek, and Edison representing the evil man who took advantage of the innocent Tesla. It is very sad that to make someone a cult hero, you need to tear someone down as well. Some of the remarks made about Edison are very disrespectful of his contributions to the world of technology. Likewise, men like George Westinghouse who worked with Tesla, as a partner not an adversary, are equally disrespected.

It is the classic story of good versus evil, and everyone roots for the good guy underdog to defeat the evil bad guy. Much of what is written about Edison being the Devil, and Tesla being a God, is based on myths and legends, not facts.

The strange life of Nikola Tesla often reads like a the science fiction story of a typical mad scientist. The claims that Nikola Tesla's personal files mysteriously disappeared after Tesla's death and various government conspiracies surrounding the alleged the lost files sounds like an episode the television show the X-files.

Why would the FBI care?

As Nikola Tesla celebrated his seventy-eighth birthday in 1934 he made headlines by announcing he had invented a death ray that could stop at army from 200 miles away.  Convinced that he had the plan to build the ultimate defensive weapon, in 1937 Tesla sent proposals to several nations asking for financing on what called a peace beam. Of all the countries to receive his proposal, the Soviet Union seemed the most interested. According to popular stories Tesla received $25,000 from the Soviet Union.

Nikola Tesla died in January of 1943 at the height of World War II.  Tesla's estate, which possibly included the high tech plans for a weapon of war, was due to be inherited by Sava Kosanovic, an up-and-coming Yugoslav official with suspected connections to the communist party in his country.

Although the FBI did not take possession of Tesla's belongings after his death, there is documentation on the events after Tesla's death on the  FBI vault website describing the events that took place.  Near the beginning of the more than 250 pages of the FBI vault file on Nikola Tesla you will find an FBI document dated January 12, 1943, a few days after Tesla's death, that states the property of Nikola Tesla was seized by taken to Alien Property to the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Co.

The removal of the property was done in a very orderly fashion,  in the presence of several witnesses, and a certificate of ownership was issued to his nephew Sava Kosanovic.