Sci-Fi Friday Part III

Nov. 1895 - London Exhibition hall

A hushed crowd stands around what looks like several phonograph speaker horns, mounted on top of a large wooden box.

New York, NY

On the other side of the Atlantic, Nikola Tesla stands before a large voice transducer (microphone). A small crowd of people watch the clock on the wall. At the appointed time, 11:00AM, Tesla throws a large switch, and starts to read a short statement "This is Nikola Tesla, I am speaking to you from my laboratory in New York City, this is a demonstration of wireless communication based on my tuned circuit radio patents".

In London the crowd is silent as the first few words are spoken, then a roar of applause drowns out the rest of Tesla's broadcast. The first transatlantic broadcast has been an overwhelming success.

Now history would credit Tesla with the invention of Radio and JP Morgan would recognized that Tesla holds some of the most valuable patents of all time, and would, if left to his devices, produce even more. Tesla had also convinced his long time friend Mark Twain to invest in his company instead of what seemed to be a money pit that had something to do with an automatic printing press.

And so the third Tesla Company was established, with Nikola as the head of Research and Devleopment, it would be one of the first think tanks. With the right management in place, Tesla was indead "left to his devices" while others in the company helped him patent his many ideas. Tesla would now be credited with the discovery of X-ray, the electron microscope, fluorescent tubes and the most important: radio.

1896

Marconi, tries to get funding for his "version" of the Radio, but the publicity that had been generated by Tesla, now overshadows Marconi's efforts.

Nikola sits back in his chair in the restaurant of his hotel glancing down at his plate. In years passed, he used to fret about germs and spend his time calculating the cubic volume of each bite of food. But with his recent success, these things seemed not to creep into his mind as they used to, and what a waste of time and mental energy. He was also attracted to a beautiful socialite, who would be joining him for Dinner tonight.

To be continued...