Tesla’s Duel with Marconi: The Stolen Invention

 

Tesla’s Duel with Marconi: The Stolen Invention

Date: 1895–1915

Story:
Nikola Tesla was the first to patent the idea of wireless communication.
In 1897, he filed patents describing radio transmission using tuned circuits—long before Guglielmo Marconi sent his famous transatlantic signal in 1901.
Yet Marconi, using 17 of Tesla’s patents, won the credit and eventually the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909.
Tesla was incensed but couldn’t afford a legal battle.
The U.S. Patent Office had rejected Marconi’s patent multiple times—until powerful backers like Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie supported Marconi.
In 1915, rumors swirled that Tesla and Edison would share the Nobel Prize—but neither received it.
Tesla suspected a political cover-up, believing awarding him would mean admitting Marconi was a thief.
It wasn’t until 1943, shortly after Tesla’s death, that the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled Tesla’s patent was valid—legally declaring him the true inventor of radio.
But the world still credits Marconi.

Key Characters:

• Nikola Tesla

• Guglielmo Marconi

• Thomas Edison

• U.S. Patent Office

Reference:

• U.S. Supreme Court Decision, 1943

• Tesla Wireless Patents (U.S. Patent No. 645,576)

• IEEE Historical Reports