How Nikola Tesla Repaid An Enormous Debt He Owed A Hotel By Giving Them A Death Beam
One of the world’s most brilliant minds found an unusual, if not underhanded way, to pay off a huge bill
Nikola Tesla is one of the brightest minds the world has ever known. His rampant curiosity and ability to see solutions led to some significant discoveries and advancements that made the world a better place because of his work. Unfortunately, he wasn’t great with money, and sometimes found himself in tight spots when it came to settling debts. Famously living out of hotels, he once had to settle up with his lodging over a massive unpaid balance. Not possessing the needed money, he was able to barter his way out of being evicted by giving the establishment a death beam in exchange for a clean ledger.
Born in Serbia in 1856 to a priest and a homemaker, Tesla showed at an early age that he possessed a photographic memory. As a student, he used that to his advantage as he gobbled up knowledge in science and math, in addition to speaking eight languages. No matter the difficulty, there were few math equations he couldn’t solve by simply calculating them in his head, leading his teachers to sometimes wonder if he was somehow cheating.
By the time he was a young man, Tesla got a job in Paris working for the Continental Edison Company. He was fascinated by the study of electricity, so it was a uniquely good fit for him. In 1884, he was transferred to New York City’s Edison branch, to take advantage of his genius. For the remainder of his life, he was one of the primary faces of engineering and tech.
He registered 300 patents and invented things like the hydroelectric system, X-rays, wireless transmission alternating currents and the induction motor. He was also a lonely man with a number of quirks. Among them was his aversion to close personal relationships, or established a home in a traditional setting like an apartment or house. Instead, he preferred staying for lengthy periods in hotels.
Tesla was also not good with money, which could put him in the occasional predicament. In 1915, he had to sell his Wardenclyffe tower plant, which was his experimental wireless transmission station, in order to satisfy the $20,000 bill he had accumulated by staying at the Waldorf Astoria. Stacy Conradt of Mental Floss explained how he faced a similar circumstance in the 1930s, when he racked up another mammoth tab — this time at the Governor Clinton Hotel in Manhattan.
Unable to settle his bill with cold hard cash, Tesla proposed an unconventional alternative. He presented hotel management with something he claimed was worth far more than what he owed– a device he cryptically described as a “death beam.” He had been known to discuss such an invention frequently, and previously indicated that such death rays were capable of shooting ions at 270,000 miles an hour. In theory, this made it powerful enough to take down fleets of airplanes from hundreds of miles away. He insisted the contraption was highly dangerous, warning that improper handling could lead to a catastrophic detonation.
The problem was that while Tesla believed death beams were possible, he never actually built one. However, that was a secret he didn’t need to tell everyone.
Perhaps knowing the genius of their tenant, the hotel agreed to assume ownership of the beam, in exchange for wiping his bill. However, to make sure it wasn’t improperly operated, the device remained with Tesla in his rooms for safekeeping.
In 1943, shortly after Tesla’s passing, the task of retrieving the potentially lethal beam fell to an MIT scientist working for the National Defense Research Committee — John G. Trump, the uncle of Donald Trump. Believing he was about to corral something that could be extremely dangerous if placed in the wrong hands, he later admitted to thinking hard prior to carrying out his mission. However, the suspense over securing the supposedly devastating weapon was short-lived.
Within Tesla’s rooms, Trump found an elaborately crafted wooden chest containing a simple box used for a Wheatstone bridge resistance measurements with some basic electrical components inside. In simpler terms, the brilliant thinker had packaged everyday items in a visually impressive box, and by doing so was able to convince others that it held a formidable device.
Over the years, Tesla did attempt to get death beam projects off the ground, including $25,000 the Russian government gave him in 1939 to start building a prototype. However, he was never able to get enough traction to actually start building anything.
It’s unknown if the hotel ever got the money they were owed to them. Regardless, Tesla used his quick thinking yet again to his advantage — this time ensuring that he wasn’t evicted and had a roof over his head while he continued to do his work that ended up impacting so many around the world.
