TPC-8

TESLA AGAINST MARCONI

The Dispute for the Radio Patent Paternity

Paul Brenner, M.Sc., Senior Member, IEEE, Member WREN, Israeli Representative in the World
Renewable Energy Council

Abstract: The goal of this paper is to present the an academic title. Tesla was an autodidact. He started
multilateral personality of the greatest inventor in to read many works, memorizing whole books.
history, Nikola Tesla and the claims against Specialists supposed that T. had a photographic
Guglielmo Marconi for the radio patent paternity. memory. In his autobiography he tells that many
Index Terms: Tesla (T.), Marconi (M.), coherer, times he experienced detailed moments of inspiration.
magnifying transformer, LW (long wave), SW Since his childhood, T. was stricked by halucinations
(short wave), MW (medium wave). accompanied frequently by blinding flashes of light.
Much of the effects of this peculiar affliction were
related to a word or an idea; the simple hearing of the
I. INTRODUCTION: name of an item was able to induce its detailed
A genius is born - Nikola Tesla [1] envisioning in Tesla's mind. Most of his inventions
would have been apriori visualized in detail in his
Nikola Tesla (Fig.1) saw mind.(picture thinking). This perfect photographic
the daylight for the first memory was perhaps a hereditary inheritance from
time in his life in Smiljan, his mother, possessing, as said, a natural gift in
a small village in Croatia, remembering entire epic poems - who knows?
in the Lika region, on July
10, 1856. His father, Rev. Hungary and France
Milutin Tesla was a priest
in the Serbian Orthodox
After moving to Budapest in 1881 he started to work
Church Metropolitanate
in Tivadar Puskás's Hungarian National Telephone
of. Sremski Karlovci and Company. There, he worked with Nebojša Petrović, a
his mother, Ana Kalinić, young inventor from Austria, on a project using twin
Fig. 1.Nikola Tesla at a very talented home craft
the age of 23. turbines to create continual power. On the opening of
tools producer, never the telephone exchange in Budapest, 1881, Tesla
(Courtesy of Wikipedia)
learned to read, although became the chief electrician of the company, and
she was able to recall from memory entire epopees. later, the engineer for the country's first telephone
After the school in Gospić, where he finished a 4 year system. He also deviced a telephone repeater or
term in only 3, T. started in 1875 to learn electrical amplifier, but according to others, the first
engineering at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz. loudspeaker. In 1882 he moved to Paris, attending the
Despite the affirmations of some sources, there are no Continental Edison Company, where he was charged
precise indications if he received his Baccalaureate with the designing of improvements for electric
degrees from the university at Graz, since this equipments. In the same year, Tesla built the
university declared that he did not receive any title induction motor and improved a range of applications
and did not continue his study after the first semester using rotating magnetic fields for which he received
of the third year [1]. In December 1878 he left Graz, patents in 1888. After the death of his mother, in
breaking also all relationships with his family. Some April 1882. he fell ill. Recuperation followed in
friends thought that he had drowned in Mura. What is Gospić and Tomingaj, his mother's birthplace.
known is that T.was employed for a year as assistant
engineer in Maribor, Slovenia, where he suffered a United States
nervous breakdown. Persuaded by his father to
continue his studies, he attended the Charles- Tesla arrived in New York on 06.06.1884 with a
Ferdinand University in Prague in 1880, where he recommendation letter from Charles Batchelor, his
received the strong influence of Ernst Mach. former manager, to Thomas Alva Edison, in which
However, he did not finish his study and left the was stipulated textually: "I know two great men: you
university after the death of his father, completing a are one of them; the other is this young man". Tesla
term of only 1 year. But he was genial, even without got the task to redisign Edison company's DC motors
and generators. He claimed later that he was offered II. WIRELESS ENERGY TRANSMISSION – THE
US$50,000 (~ US$1.1 million in 2007, adjusted for FIRST 100 YEARS' LANDMARKS [2]
inflation) for this task. Tesla gave the Edison
company several efficient new patents, but as he 1864 – James Clerk Maxwell – the mathematical
asked in 1885 about the payment, Edison replied: model of electromagnetic radiation
"Tesla, you don't understand our American humor"
and refused to pay. T. resigned after a new refuse of 1888 – Heinrich Hertz – the apparatus for generating
Edison to raise his weekly salary from 18 USD to 25. electromagnetic waves – by many considered as the
After a period of digging ditches for the Edison
first radio transmitter.
company, T. formed his own company, Tesla Electric
Light & Manufacturing. The initial investors
disagreed with T's plan for alternating current and he 1894 – Jagdish Chandra Bose ignited gunpower and
was forced again to work as a common worker a year rang a bell with electromagnetic waves.
to feed himself and to subventionate his next project.
In 1887, he invented the brushless alternating current 1895 – Jagdish Chandra Bose succeeded to transmit
motor, presented to the AIEE (now IEEE) in 1888. electromagnetic signals at a distance of approx. one
In the same year, he started to develop his Tesla coil mile.
and began working with George Westinghouse at
Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company. 1897 – Nikola Tesla (the real inventor of the radio,
In April of 1887, Tesla began investigating the X- inventor of microwaves and alternating current)
rays, with his own single node vacuum tubes, a device patented his first inventions in the field of wireless
without target electrode. Tesla was aware about the energy transmission using for experiments his
damages of these rays on the skin, but considered that Colorado Springs tower.
the ozone and the nitrous acide are merely responsible
and not the radiation itself. He made photos of his 1900 – Gulielmo Marconi failed to patent his radio
hand bones before Roentgen and sent them later to invention . The patent office remarks: "Marconi's
Roentgen, without commenting his discovery. T. was pretended ignorance of the nature of a "Tesla
sure that these waves are longitudinal waves, oscillator" being little short of absurd..."
produced in force-free magnetic fields, like in plasma,
a fact confirmed also by others.
1901 – Gulielmo Marconi sends and receives signals
. This concept was demonstrated in 1891 (see fig.2).
over the Atlantic. Replying to one of his
Unfortunately, much of these early researches of T.
collaborators, engineer Otis Pond, Tesla answers:
were lost in the 5th Avenue laboratory fire in March
"Marconi is a good fellow. Let him continue. He is
1895. T.proposed later, in 1904, a "world system" in
using seventeen of my patents."
which energy could be transmitted wireless through
various media, starting from a high-power ultraviolet
beam forming a vertical ionized channel directly 1904 – at the St. Louis World Fair, a prize was
above the transmitter-receiver stations. The same offered for operating an aeromodel having a motor of
concept was applied in further inventions of T., like 0.1 HP from a distance of 100 ft.
the virtual lighting rods, the electrolaser electroshock
weapon, being proposed for disabling war vehicles. 1926 – Shintaro Uda and Hidetsugu Yagi published
their first article concerning the future Yagi antenna.

1964 – CBS News presented a reality program in

which William C. Brown (former technical director of
JPL Raytheon) and Walter Cronkite demonstrated the
operation of a microwave-powered model helicopter,
supplied from a microwave beam.

Starting with the 1975 Goldstone Deep Space

Communications Experiments a large range of
researches, using powerful microwave devices and
lasers are now currently performed.

III. TESLA IN COLORADO SPRINGS [1, 2, 4, 5]

Fig.2. Tesla demonstrating his theory about
the wireless transmission of energy waves About a year before his lecture on wireless energy
in 1891[Courtesy of Wikipedia] transmission (1891) T. arrived to the conviction that
rarefied air can be a suitable conductor and therefore
he went to Colorado Springs to build a transmission result.
station in this part of the Rockies. Leonard E. Curtis,
a friend,, found land and provided power for the A third approach of T. was in the field of the
research from the El Paso Power Company of ionosphere. T. anticipated correctly that this high
Colorado Springs and Colonel John Jacob Astor stratus of the atmosphere may be highly ionized and
contributed with 30,000 US$ to the construction. therefore highly conductive. He started to think about
Nobody knew exactly what Tesla intended to perform a device able to transmit electrical energy from the
in this laboratory (fig.2) erected on the highest Earth's surface to this high altitude. During this study,
mountain of the Southern Rockies– the Pikes Peak – he received a repeating signal through his transmitter.
he generally informed the press that he wants to He considered – and despite his ridiculization at his
transmit a signal from the Pikes Peak to Paris. time for this announcement - today we may think too
that Tesla was perhaps the first person on Earth
receiving a cosmic radio signal.

Fig.3. Tesla's Pikes Peak experimental station near

Colorado Springs [Courtesy of PBS][

What was experimented in this experimental station is

still not clear. In Colorado, with its strong storms, T.
performed measurements and soon came to the idea
that the earth is a relatively good conductor. He
emitted the hypothesis that man could transmit strong
Fig. 4. The magnifying transformer at work in
impulses to any location on Earth practically without
Colorado Springs[Courtesy of Wikipedia][1]
losses. To confirm his theory he constructed a new
laboratory in Colorado Springs that would be able to
produce the strong impulses that will be conducted to IV. THE LECTURES OF TESLA AND HIS
the earth. This new laboratory has a rolled back roof PREDICTIONS [1, 2, 4, 5, 6]
to prevent it from sparks and a wooden tower 80 ft
high. On its top was placed a 142 ft metal mast that Hertz had demonstrated the existence of
supported a large copper sphere. Inside the wooden electromagnetic waves in 1887 using as source of
tower was placed a huge Tesla coil. In an experiment high frequency oscillations the sparks produced by
of one second, the secondary coil produced wonderful discharges of condensers [6]. In his experiments,
electric sparks and a blue corolla. T. ordered to repeat Tesla needed high frequency power on a vast scale
the experiment without a time limit. Huge 100 ft long and at very high voltages. In 1891 Tesla developed an
man-made lightning bolts were produced from the AC generator with 384 poles and an output frequency
metal mast to the earth. The play came to an end with of 10,000 Hz and soon he invented other generators
the burning of the power plant's generators. Since this even at higher frequencies, up to 25,000 Hz. In his
event, T. received no more free electricity for his study of increasing frequency and voltages, he started
experiments from the El Paso Power Plant. The with the invention of such giant rotating machines,
experiments in Colorado Spring lasted 9 months. but finally he came to the conclusion that they are
Though T. wrote all the experiments in his diary, a unable to produce the necessary effects and switched
question remains still not elucidated: did T. transmit to other alternatives. Tesla was all the time convinced
powerful energy waves at Pikes Peak? Some reports that undamped current generation is very important, a
conclude that several vacuum tubes planted in the soil method which at his time was still inapplicable and
in a certain distance from his laboratory were will be introduced only after 1910. His early models
alighted, but this fact can be attributed to the specific utilizing the induction principle with stationary coils
high conductivity of this soil [1]. formed the equipment used for the large commercial
machines built afterwards for radio communications.
Another approach of T. was on the resonance In his experiments Tesla used tuned circuits,
frequency of the atmosphere between the earth's reduction coils and oscillatory spark circuits, which,
surface and the ionosphere. T. calculated that this combined with an oscillation transformer create
may be about 8 Hz, a result which was verified in the spectacular arc discharges. He exposed his theory in
50's by other researchers that reached the same some famous lectures. The first of them was in 1892,
before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers objective for himself a worldwide range of grandiose
in New York, the second, also in 1892, before the electrical effects, many of his priory invented patents
Institution for electrical Engineers and the Royal were left for others to make from them less ambitious,
Institution in London, the Societe Internationale but more practical applications. A few other
Francaise des Electriciens and the Societe Francaise researchers, inspired by his experiments and
de Physique in Paris and the third in 1893 before the revelations, like Marconi, used his published patents
Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the National for their own profit. [1].
Electric Light Association in St. Louis. In these
lectures, Tesla included also references on the V. TESLA – FATHER OF THE AC SYSTEM[1,16]
structure of matter. In 1893 he also had an extensive
exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair. A couple of years
We remember that as a young scientist Tesla had to
before, he explained how metals and dielectric
compete with the then universally recognized "Father
materials could be heated using high frequency coils. of the DC electricity", Edison. The AC system
He also described the effect of high frequency on the invented by Tesla was much more effective than the
human body (diathermy). He produced vacuum tubes
DC system proposed by Edison. The facility to
and introduced them in high frequency fields. In this
transport electrical energy at long distances was the
way, he became the father of the neon tube and of the
main reason which determined the abandon of DC
fluorescent lamp. He predicted the use of cheap
networks in favor of Tesla's AC network. The Tesla
synchronous electrical clocks. Such clocks were system was adopted for the first time at the Niagara
presented at the World's Fair in 1893. Tesla claimed Falls power plant, which was put in service in 1895.
that the future of aviation – than still inexistent,
The first recorded assets for economical use of the
except the balloons - depended on the use of
Niagara Falls waters are dated 1759 (the Daniel
aluminum. Aluminum was a scarce and expensive
Joncairs sawmill's channel). The Niagara Hydraulic
material at this time and only the development of Power & Manufacturing Company was founded in
electricity contributed essentially to its price 1853. In 1875, the water turbines in the new erected
reduction. Tesla described in his early lectures and
powerhouse began to turn, but electrical power was
patents devices that became important many years
produced commercially here only starting from 1879,
later. For example, rotary sparks gaps and series spark
since Schoellkopf introduced electrical technology to
gaps with small spacings predicted by T. in 1892-93
his powerhouse turbines. This was the start of one of
became a main issue in the wireless telegraphy from the first power stations in the world. Illuminating the
1909 to 1920. In February 1892, Sir William Crookes spectacular falls was a desiderate of many sponsors.
published a prediction concerning the possibility of
In 1860, this occurred using expensive calcium flares,
electromagnetic waves to be used for
but in 1881, Charles Brush installed electric carbon
communications. Tesla has the idea to disturb the
arc lights, supplied by a small DC generator. In 1904
electrostatic field of the Earth using standing waves
a new power plant, featuring 34,000 HP was built. In
by excitation of its entire surface with high frequency 1918, Schoellkopf's Hydraulic Power Company
power and than taking off power anywhere. Tesla merged with the Edward Dean Adams' Niagara Falls
described in his lecture in 1893 large antennas
Power Company. In 1886, Thomas Evershed
connected to the ground by wires for both purposes –
proposed a project of 200,000 HP electricity
transmission and reception and emphasizes the
generation at Niagara Falls, but this plan was demised
importance of applying the electrical resonance
due to the impossibility to distribute DC power at
principle to these schemes, using even variable long distances. The Niagara Falls Power Company
tuning. In 1896 Tesla succeeded to transmit
offered a 100,000 US$ award for anyone who could
electromagnetic signals to a boat on the Hudson
invent a system able to transmit electricity long
River. About 1900, talking about the radio, he
distance. No one responded to this offer, because
declared: "I have no doubt that it will prove very
nobody was able to oppose to Edison, except Tesla.
efficient in enlightening the masses, particularly in The greatest scientific minds of the world met in
still uncivilized countries and less accessible regions, London to discuss the solutions. Against the advice of
and that it will add materially to general safety
Thomas Edison and William Kelvin, Tesla's
comfort and convenience, and maintenance of
alternating current system was selected as the
peaceful plants, all of which are capable of
standard to be utilized. George Westinghouse started
transmitting individualized signals to the uttermost
to develop Tesla's system. In 1883, Westinghouse
confines of the earth. Each of them will be preferably replaced the illumination system of the Falls with AC
located near some important center of civilization and technology. Ten years later, on May 6th, 1893, the
the news that it receives through any channel will be
Cataract Construction Company, a subsidiary founded
flashed to all points of the globe. A cheap and simple
in 1889 of the Niagara Falls Power Company, headed
device, which might be carried in one's pocket, may
by the world's greatest financiers (J.P. Morgan, John
then be set up somewhere on sea or land, and will
Astor, William Vanderbilt and Edward Dean Adams),
record the world's news or such special messages as decided to use in its works in the Niagara Falls region
may be intended for it." Since 1893, Tesla put as basic alternating current (AC) for power generation and
transmission. A new era in the history of electricity in detail, is shown in Fig. 8 [Fig.5 – P.B.][3]. In this
began. The AC system – today extended in the entire case an alternator energizes the primary of a
world – is one of the major inventions in transformer, the high tension secondary of which is
electroenergetics, and all this - thanks to Tesla. connected to the ground and an elevated capacity and
tuned to the imprest oscillations. The receiving circuit
VI. FROM COLORADO SPRINGS BACK TO NEW consists of an inductance connected to the ground
YORK [1] . and to an elevated terminal without break and is
resonantly responsive to the transmitted oscillations.
Back to New York, Tesla wrote an enthousiastic
paper for the "Century Magazine", where he describes
in a futuristic view means to capture the Sun's
radiation energy, to control the weather using
electricity, predicts machines that would make wars
impossible, and exposes his theory on the worldwide
wireless energy transmission, as a global network that
would link power stations, telecommunication, radio
and even transmit images at remote locations. One of
the most powerful magnats of this time, J.P. Morgan,
offered to Tesla a capital of 150,000 US$ to build a
transmission tower and a power plant, but the sum
Fig. 5. Tesla's System of Wireless
was too small to cover all the expenses. An offer of
Transmission Thru the Earth as Actually
1,000,000 US$ would be more reasonable for this
Exposed In His Lectures Before the Franklin
goal. T. accepted this sum and started the construction
Institute and Electric Light Association in
works. Unfortunately, the history was cruel with this
February and March, 1893 [3]
project. After tangled construction phases, due to lack
of funds, in 1917 the Marines dynamited it by order
of the USA Government, to avoid German spies' use.
I gave to the world a wireless system of potentialities
VII. TESLA – FATHER OF ROBOTICS [1]. far beyond anything before conceived. I made
explicit and repeated statements that I contemplated
Arrived in New York from Colorado Springs, Tesla transmission, absolutely unlimited as to terrestrial
tried to shock the assistance in his presentations. For distance and amount of energy. But, altho I have
example, a short time after his arrival, in 1898, he overcome all obstacles which seemed in the
presented in the Madison Square Garden arena in beginning unsurmountable and found elegant
New York, in an electrical exhibition, the world's first solutions of all the problems which confronted me,
radio controlled vessel model. This is the first attempt yet, even at this very day, the majority of experts are
to build automatic robots. Tesla Patent Nr. 613,809 still blind to the possibilities which are within easy
describes the first device having a wireless remote attainment. My confidence that a signal could be
control. The working model, the teleautomaton was easily flashed around the globe was strengthened thru
controlled with radio signals and powered with an the discovery of the "rotating brush," a wonderful
internal battery. On the device were mounted some phenomenon which I have fully described in my
small lamps by means of which – by switching them address before the Institution of Electrical Engineers,
wireless on and off from the remote controller, Tesla London, in 1892… This is undoubtedly the most
responded to some easy mathematical questions of the delicate wireless detector known, but for a long time
assistance. Being questionned by a reporter about the it was hard to produce and to maintain in the
possibility to use wireless controlled robotics in war sensitive state. These difficulties do not exist now and
missions, like explosive charges' bearing machines, I am looking to valuable applications of this device,
T.replyed: "You do not see there a wireless torpedo, particularly in connection with the high-speed
you see there the first of a race of robots, mechanical photographic method, which I suggested, in wireless,
men which will do the laborious work of the human as well as in wire, transmission"[3].
race."
IX.NOBEL PRIZE CONTROVERSIES [1].
VIII. TESLA – FATHER OF WIRELESS [1,2,3,5,6]
Thomas Edison and Tesla were proposed as
In a paper entitled "The True Wireless"[3], published potential laureates to share the Nobel Prize of 1915 in
in the Electrical Experimenter in May 1919, Tesla a press dispatch, but finally due to their reciprocal
explains his patent concerning wireless transmission animosity, the prize was not given to them., despite
of energy using earth's electric resonance in a more their enormous scientific contributions. In the
popular language: The arrangement, as I described it following events after the rumors, neither Tesla nor
Edison won the prize (although Edison did receive South Foreland lighthouse and on March 3, 1899,
one of 38 possible bids in 1915, and Tesla did receive wireless communication was employed to save life.
one bid out of 38 in 1937). Earlier, rumors circulated In summer 1899 the Marconi's wireless signals
that Tesla was have been nominated for the Nobel crossed the English Channel and on November 15,
Prize of 1912, for his experiments with tuned circuits 1899 the first ocean wireless transmissions linked
using high-voltage high-frequency resonant ships. On April 26, 1900, M. received his patent Nr.
transformers. In 1915, Tesla filed an unsuccessful 7777 for "Tuned Syntonic Telegraphy", an invention
lawsuit against Marconi. that used tuned circuits, enabling a wireless set to be
tuned to specific emitting station (like a radio receiver
X. TESLA'S AWARDS [1]. today). On January 23, 1901 the first long distance
(196 miles) wireless transmission was performed
from the Isle of Wight to The Lizzard in Cornwall.
For his multilateral groundwork in theoretical
electrotechnics and for his prodigious inventor's and The next task was to transmit over the Atlantic and
teacher's activity Tesla was awarded with some of the this was realized on Thursday the 12th of December
1901.The letter "S" transmitted from Poldhu,
highest titles and prizes a scientist and an engineer
Cornwall, was – according to Marconi and his
can dream about during his life – except the Nobel
assistant, Georges Piget - received at Signal Hill, St.
Prize, that he virtually might have received instead of
Johns, Newfoundland. In a span of a few decades,
Marconi if in 1909 the Nobel Commission would had
been correct. Tesla received the Elliott Cresson Gold radio transmissions changed the world and brought
Medal in 1893, the Edison Medal in 1916 and the nations closer to each other. In 1909, Marconi shared
the Nobel Prize with Karl Ferdinand Braun, from
John Scott Medal in 1934.
which he "borrowed" some parts of his work (like
Braun's British patent on tuning), as he will recognize
XI. THE RIVAL APPEARS [10, 12, 13, 14, 15] later. Guglielmo Marconi used also the patents of
others, as we will see in the next chapter.. Marconi's
Guglielmo Marconi 1901 tests were contested by scientists (Edison and
(fig.6) was born on others), motivating that M.receives only parasite
April 25,.1874 in signals from the atmosphere. Dr. Jack Belrose
Bologna, Italy. His estimated that the Poldhu transmitter has a frequency
father was a rich Italian of 850 Hz and what Marconi received were only SW,
landowner and his emitted by the ionosphere. Fearing to be challenged
mother, a granddaugh- by concurrents, M. conducted new tests over the
ter of the founder of the ocean, this time using a ship. These tests gave
Jameson whiskey coherer-tape reception up to 2,496 km (1,551 mi), and
distillery. Marconi audio reception up to 3,378 km (2,099 mi) during the
learned in Bologna in night and half of these results during daytime, i.e. that
the lab of Augusto Marconi's mid-day Atlantic wireless first crossing in
Righi, in Florence at the 1901 with LW and MW was seemingly not real. An
Istituto Cavallero, and, 1902 unsuccessful test from Glacier Bay confirmed
finally in Livorno. First this supposition. In 1903, President Theodore
experiments were Roosevelt greeted wireless King Edward VII to HM
Fig.6. Guglielmo performed at home, in birthday [ I still must look for the way - directly or by
Marconi, [Courtesy of December 1894 intermediary ship-stations (?)]. The two Marconi's
INVENTORS ] [10]
company radio operators on the "Titanic" rescued
survivors by their SOS signals.. In 1915 the
. After sending LW signals at a distance of 1 mile in Chelmsford Marconi factory, using a vacuum tube
1895, he went to England and founded the Marconi transmitter, organized the first entertainment radio
Company at Chelmsford, Essex in 1897. His first broadcast and in 1922 such transmissions became
patent in wireless telegraphy, Nr. 12039, was received regular (from the Marconi Research Centre at
on June 2, 1896, followed in July by experiments Writtle). Marconi. reached the Italian Senate in 1914
from the General Post Office building in London in a and was made a marchese in 1924 by King Victor
distance of 1.5 miles. On September 2, 1896 the span Emmanuel III. In 1923 he had adhered to the fascist
had increased to 8 miles with tests at Salisbury plain party of Benito Mussolini, which made him in 1930
and then, on 11.05.1897, across the Bristol Channel President of the Accademia d'Italia. Later he was
(3.5 miles). Daily Express, in July 1898 was the first appointed a Member of the Fascist Grand Council.
newspaper using radiotelegraph. Another device was Marconi died in Rome in 1937 at the age of 63, after
installed at the board of Queen Victoria's Royal a series of heart attacks. All the radio stations in the
yacht. The extension of the new invention was really world kept silence for two minutes. After state
rapid. In December 1898 wireless telegraphy was funerals his remains were deposed in his house, Villa
installed between East Goodwin light ship and the Griffone, Sasso Marconi, Emilia-Romagna.
XI. A LATE RECOGNITION[2, 9, 12, 13, 17] that he first conceived of the invention." Following
to this decision, most of Marconi's patents were
Marconi's work is based on copies of patents of many
other inventors without their permission. His so-
called original "two-circuit" device, a spark-gap
transmitter plus a coherer-receiver, was similar to
those used by Oliver Lodge in a series of worldwide
reported tests in 1894. Tesla disputed that Marconi
was able to signal for greater distances than anyone
else when using the spark-gap and coherer
combination. In 1900 Alexander Stepanovich Popov
declared to the Congress of Russian Electrical
Engineers: "[...] the emission and reception of signals
by Marconi by means of electric oscillations [was]
nothing new. In America, the famous engineer Nikola
Tesla carried the same experiments in 1893." The
Fascist regime in Italy credited Marconi as inventor
of the radio. The doubt is if his own contribution was
sufficient to constitute an independent patent, or if
his component devices were too similar to the original
ones (if not copies) developed years before by Hertz,
Popov, Branly, Tesla, and Lodge – and in this case,
they are copies. Marconi's "four-circuit" design,
having two tuned-circuits at the transmitting and
receiver antennas, British Patent Nr.7777 from 26
April 1900 is a compound of the earlier work of Tesla
and other inventors. 5of 9 judges of the Supreme
Court stated that Marconi's work had been anticipated
by John Stone Stone (patent No.714,756) and Oliver
Lodge (patent No. 609,154). The Supreme Court also
studied Tesla's patent No. 645,576 and noted that Fig. 7. Tesla's System of transmission of electrical
Tesla had used four tuned circuits before Marconi. energy, Patent No. 645,576, patented Mar. 20,
In order to defend himself, in 1911 Marconi 1900 [5]
purchased through his company the Lodge-Muirhead
Syndicate, whose main performance was Oliver overturned by the US Supreme Court. A decision that
Lodge's tuning patent, invented in 1897. Thus, the
7777 Patent was vividly discussed at this time from
validation to complete rejection. In 1943, the US
Supreme Court stated that: "The Tesla patent No.
645,576, applied for September 2, 1897 and allowed
March 20, 1900, disclosed a four-circuit system,
having two circuits each at transmitter and receiver,
and recommended that all four circuits be tuned to
the same frequency. [... He] recognized that his
apparatus could, without change, be used for wireless
communication, which is dependent upon the
transmission of electrical energy." In its decision, the
court noted: "Marconi's reputation as the man who
first achieved successful radio transmission rests on
his original patent, which became reissue No. 11,913, a) b)
and which is not here [320 U.S. 1, 38] in question.
That reputation, however well-deserved, does not Fig. 8. Marconi's British Patent No.12039
entitle him to a patent for every later improvement from 1900 – the so called "4 circuits patent":
which he claims in the radio field. Patent cases, like a) - emitter diagram, b) – receiver diagram
others, must be decided not by weighing the [Courtesy of Sparkmuseum][9]
reputations of the litigants, but by careful study of the
merits of their respective contentions and proofs".
The court also stated that: "It is well established that
as between two inventors priority of invention will be came unfortunately 9 months after Tesla's death.and
awarded to the one who by satisfying proof can show
which was pronounced not mainly in order to do XIII. REFERENCE
simply justice. At the time, the US Army and
Marconi's company were involved in a trial on the [1] Wikipedia – Nikola Tesla
radio patent rights, and in order to anullate Tesla's [2] Wikipedia – Wireless energy transfer
former claims for compensation, the Court nullified [3] Nikola Tesla – The True Wireless, Electrical
Marconi's other inventions. The priority of Tesla's Experimenter, May 1919, Wikipedia
US Patent No.645, 576 on the Marconi's US Patent [4] Nikola Tesla – Colorado Springs Notes, Nolit,
No.763,772 is more evident if we use the following Beograd, 1978
suggestive comparative timeline diagram, published [5] Leland Anderson - Work with Alternating
in the Internet (Fig.9) [1] Currents and TheirAplication to Wireless Telegraphy,
Telephony and Transmission of Power, Apendix B,
United States Patents Office - Nikola Tesla, System
of transmission of electrical energy, No. 645,576,
patented 20.03.1900, Sun Publishing, Denver, 1992.
[6] Charles A. Jost – The Tesla Experiment, Lightning
and Earth electrical resonance – A Commentary on
1983 Research and Test Results, Millbrae, CA, 1983.
[7] Catalogue of Tesla's patents, Beograd, 1987.
Fig. 9. Comparative timeline diagram illustrating [8] Margaret Cheney - Tesla: Man Out of Time, New
the priority of Tesla's Patent No.645,576 on York: Dorset Press, 1981
Marconi's radio patent [Courtesy of Wikipedia][1] [9] Sparkmuseum, Internet.
[10] Inventors, Rockradio, UK, Internet.
Tesla was not alone in claiming against Marconi. [11] PBS, Internet.
Oliver Lodge claimed the usage of his unpatented [12] Joe Craig, VO1NA - Marconi's First
ideas in Marconi's first radio patent. Don Kimberlin Transatlantic Wireless Experiment, Marconi Radio
comments: "…What did happen by April 1900 was Club of Newfoundland
that Marconi uniquely had combined Professor [13] A. David Wunsch - Misreading the Supreme
Righi's transmitter, Branly's coherer, Tesla's elevated Court: A Puzzling Chapter in the History of Radio,
antenna and Lodge's tuned circuits to realize what Internet, Antenna, Newsletter of the Mercurians, in
ultimately became first wireless telegraphy…"[18]. the Society for the History of Technology
In order to compare the patents, please see the figures [14] Barry Mishkind - This is the Marconi Archive
(Fig.5, 7, 8a and b). From these drawings results that Section of The Broadcast Archive, Internet.
the use of resonant circuits was clearly primordially [15] Helen Briggs - Profile: Marconi, the wireless
demonstrated (1893) and filed (1898) by Tesla, the pioneer, BBC Sci-Tech, Internet
Marconi patent was only afterwards "adjusted". [16] Niagara Falls – History of Power, Internet
Marconi's invention is only an application of Tesla's [17] Leland Anderson – Priority in the invention of
(and of others') prior researches and studies. The the radio, Tesla vs. Marconi
differences consist in the used media – in Tesla's [18] Don Kimberlin - Jurassic Telecommunications,
patent it was the Earth, in Marconi's patent it is the Part II, - The Global Influences Leading Up To
air. In Tesla's patent, a high frequency polyphasic Marconi's "Lucky 7's" Patent, The Jurassic Radio
alternator provides the HF initial impulses, whereas in Section of the Broadcasting Archive, maintained by
Marconi's feature, the impulses are produced by Barry Mishkind, Internet.
switching on-off manually the telegraph's switch. The ---------------
differences are not in the principle, but in the Paul Brenner , M.Sc.,finished his studies at the Bucharest
application's purpose. Tesla – as discussed – wanted Polytechnic Institute in 1970 and worked in the field of
to create his planned worldwide wireless system, energy balances' achievement (and, as well, also in other
whereas Marconi – using the wireless transmission projects), all of them for large industrial platforms and for
knowledge and technology previously set by Tesla the coal mining industry, until his emigration to Israel in
and others – performed an apparatus for common 1982. In parallel with his actual daily activity in the Israel
use– the radiotelegraph - and fructified the results. Electric Corporation in Haifa, Israel, he is a permanent
member of the World Renewable Energy Network and
Council and participates regularly in WREC/ WREN
XII. CONCLUSION congresses. Author of more than 30 papers, presentations
and a course of energy balances' achievement, he sustained
Tesla was the first to invent the radio. Marconi did together with Christopher Dunn, an USA laser engineer,
not really invent the radio, he only combined, copied the known author of the bestseller The Giza Power Plant -
Technologies from Ancient Egypt a workshop in
and adapted patents of Tesla and others and Aberdeen, UK, in May 2005, in the pre-congress days of
commercialized them as his own patent. He died in a WREC 2005 Europe, entitled Hi-Tech Antiquity. E-mail
plenty of glory and richess, whereas Tesla died as a addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]
poor man. No comments…