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By John F . Wasik

World-changing inventions made the inventor Nikola Tesla a celebrity in his own time , but something otherworldly makes him transcend his era and remain a perpetual beacon for our civilization 70 years after his death .

He ’ s now an immortal rock star , an icon for billionaires , cyberpunks , artists and “ maker ” inventors who are still fiddling with everyday machines in their basements and garages . Search engine designers , energy czars , musicians , artists and creators everywhere feel his influence . He ’ s our Leonardo , the Shakespeare of invention .

A car , a rock band and a unit of magnetic measurement have been named after Tesla . You can talk to anyone who ’ s enjoyed any mad scientist scene in any science fiction or horror movie and see his Tesla coil pulsing electricity like a dynamic spider web of electrons . Tesla is energy , meters , dials , lightning bolts and the robot-drone master . He ’ s patron saint and mystic , discoverer and wronged entrepreneur . A prophet dishonored in his own time , but revered in ours .

To some of his latter-day followers , it ’ s as if Tesla never died , instead becoming a techno-mystic deity . A few years ago , actor Nicolas Cage described preparing for his latest role by immersing himself in the character of Tesla , who ’ s appeared directly or indirectly in hundreds of movies , usually accompanied by the dancing sparks of his Tesla coil .

Tesla broke the rules to become one of the most successful inventors of all time . To call him just an inventor , though , is to understate his thorough understanding of how energy , science and world peace could co-exist . His was a mind burning with powerful ideas that have resonated and become amplified since his passing in 1943 .

He ’ s now seen as a visionary who wanted to marry technology with world peace .

Few of Tesla ’ s peers have attracted such devotion , making him an object of cultlike veneration . New Agers insist that he talked with alien worlds ( or was an alien himself ), while conspiracy theorists think his idea of a “ death ray ” that could blast planes out of the sky was eventually developed by the Pentagon , and that the government has been keeping it a secret for nearly 70 years . Over the years , Tesla ’ s technology has been blamed for everything from destroying Siberian forests to Hurricane Katrina .

Today , there are few stronger , sexier brands than Tesla . Year by year , Tesla ’ s popularity grows as the memory of his contemporaries — George Westinghouse , Thomas Edison and J . P . Morgan — recedes even further into history .

In our day , Tesla ’ s achievements have come to overshadow those of his nemesis

18 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2017 | www . MoAF . org