2 letters by inventor Nikola Tesla surface in Serbia
A culture society in Serbia made public this month two
letters that they say were written by late 19th- and early 20th-century
inventor and electricity pioneer Nikola Tesla, AP reported.
The Adligat group told The Associated Press they recently
obtained the letters from a collector and verified their authenticity with
multiple sources. Dated Dec. 28, 1934 and Jan. 12, 1935, the letters were sent
to the Yugoslav consul in the United States at the time, Radoje Jankovic.
“This is the first time that public has full and free access
to this documentation,” said Viktor Lazic, from Adligat. He explained that the
letters had been known to exist but could not be traced for around 20 years.
Written in Cyrillic alphabet, the letters refer to Tesla’s
relations with another prominent scientist of Serb origin, Mihajlo Pupin, Lazic
said.
Tesla is best known for developing the alternating current
that helped safely distribute electricity at great distances, including from
the hydro-electric plant at Niagara Falls in the mid-1890s. He experimented
with X-ray and radio technology, working in rivalry with Thomas Edison. Car
manufacturer Tesla is named after him.
An ethnic Serb born in 1856 in the Austrian Empire in
present-day Croatia, Tesla spent most of his life abroad, working in Budapest
and Paris before emigrating to the US in 1884.
In Belgrade, the Tesla Museum honors the scientist’s legacy,
including a vast array of personal items, tens of thousands of documents and
awards.
Curator Milica Kesler said the museum’s archives include the
drafts of the recently-publicized letters.
“The only difference is that they (drafts) were written in
pencil” and contain Tesla’s remarks and notes, Kesler said.
