Tesla’s Secret Deal with J.P. Morgan

 

Tesla’s Secret Deal with J.P. Morgan

Date: 1901–1906

Story:
In 1901, Tesla secured funding from financier J.P. Morgan for what was initially a transatlantic wireless communication project.
But Tesla had grander ambitions—he secretly planned to transmit free, wireless energy across the globe.
When Morgan learned this, he was furious. “If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?” he reportedly asked.
Tesla had deceived the most powerful banker in the world.
Morgan pulled funding, ensuring Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower was never completed.
Tesla scrambled for years, writing desperate letters to Morgan and other financiers, but no one would touch a project promising “free” energy.
He became a pariah in the investment world, viewed as brilliant but dangerously idealistic.
Tesla believed Morgan had blacklisted him—and some of his notebooks suggest corporate sabotage.
Eventually, the tower was demolished for scrap. Tesla’s vision of global wireless power died with it.
It was the beginning of the end for Tesla’s career and wealth.

Key Characters:

Nikola Tesla

J.P. Morgan

George Scherff (Tesla’s secretary)

Architects and engineers at Wardenclyffe

Reference:

Cheney, Tesla: Man Out of Time

Wardenclyffe Correspondence Archives

Morgan Family Letters