New Britain herald., 1916-03-18
TELSA BROKE AFTER
 8 YEARS OF WORK
Electrical Genius Has Nothing
 From His Many Inventions

New York, March 1s.-Thirty-three : Years of unceasing efforts for hu-
 manity by Nikola Tesla, inventor and
 engineer, whose name is known wherever electricity is used, have ! proved to be a labor of love alone. The man who ranks with Edison and Marconi yesterday confessed himself not only unable to pay his personal taxes, but dependent on credit for the necessities of life.
 AS a living proof of the inability of @ genius to convert his gifts into cash, Tesla presented himself as Ex- hibit A in supplementary proceedings
 instituted by Corporation Counsel
 Hardy for $935 personal taxes Jus
 tice Finch, of the supreme court, has
 appointed R. McMath receiver for the
 Inventor. Eighty independent inven-
 tions, every one of which has been adopted by the engineering world,
 have failed to place a penny in the pocket of. the man who created them. Once Worth Nearly S5OO,0OO
 Only few years ago Tesla owned , nine-tenths of the stock of the Nikola Tesla company, a s5OO,O0O corpora tion, with offices ct West Fortieth street. All of this stock was used as
 security on loans to be used in malz-
 ing new inventions. Just now the
 Inventor has neither place of busi--
 ness nor home. He is occupying D
 room at the Waldorf-Astoria, which,
 according to his testimony, he is al-
 fn
 tel bill that has been unpaid for
 years.
 How do you live?" asked Corpor- ation Counsel Hardy, who examined Tesla.
 ''Why, mostly on credit" he an- swered, after some hesitation Has the Tesla company any as- sets %
 No, not now," said it's founder. 'It Us getting little in royalties, but not enough to pay expenses"
 Do you own any patents?'
 No, not any more. All of them have been assigned to various cred itors or to the company There were more than 200 patents In answer to a question whether there were any judgments against him Tesla said there were scores of ,them-and more pending. He said she, had no money in the bank nor ! elsewhere. When asked whether he 1 had any jewelry he said he abhorred | It,.
 200 H. F. Engine in q Hat. S Probably the greatest of Tesla's ! rhume erous inventions was that of the alternating motor, into which was compressed the maximum of horse | power in the minimum of space and l weight of material. His 200-horse- l power engine was of such size that l 1t could be placed in a receptacle lit l tie larger than a hat box. A 10-horsepoWer engine was con- Astructed by Tesla of such diminutive proportions that it might be dangled from the hand by a. string. The pos Liabilities of this method of storing &s@wer, as we'll as the numerous uses to which an alternating motor might be put, were such that scientists un- hesitatingly said it would bring un- told wealth to it's inventor.
 The Tesla arc light, methods of Eliminating waste in distribution f $ electricity, development of wireless a telegraphy and numerous other prac- teal inventions at various times promised to bring wealth to their creator. But money was as hard to lure into the pockets of Tesla as en- gineering ideas were easy to bring a from his brain. Practically all of a his engineering dreams have come Atrue without bringing about the req S1ization of one of his modest dreams of financial independence.
 a Earge1y as @ matter of form, the #justice appointed receiver for Tes- Ala because of the citys claim against shim. Neither Tesla nor the receiver expects to find anything to receive.