Tesla is perhaps the greatest inventor humanity has ever seen emerge. With his revolutionary ideas he came to create the foundations of what is now modern technology. Although around it there are also great mysteries that are still valid to this day. One of them is the so-called Death Ray, with which Nikola Tesla assured it would be possible to carry out attacks from kilometers away. But did it really exist?
In the 1930s, Tesla was already an established inventor with his electrical advances. The young Serbian immigrant who in the late 1800s had diversified radio and wireless power transmission, now elderly, wandered between Manhattan hotels. His previous inventions included the Tesla Experiment Station in Colorado and the Wardenclyffe Tower, or Tesla Tower, on the east coast of the United States. An extremely ambitious project with which he demonstrated wireless energy transmission.
Not surprisingly, his other inventions could reach great dimensions. The mind of this creator had the power to look far beyond any conventional thought. For this reason, when in 1930, an elderly Tesla began to talk about an even more ambitious project, people turned to pay attention.
Tesla himself announced what later became known as ‘The Death Ray’, as a weapon capable of destroying everything hundreds of miles around. «My invention requires a large installation, but once established, it is possible to destroy everything within a 200-mile radius, whether man or machine,» he told Liberty Magazine.
Did the Death Ray really exist?
At the beginning of 1939, Tesla’s health was already quite deteriorated and on January 8 of that year he was found dead in his hotel room. At that time, the United States government did not know if the Death Ray was real or they were just ideas that the inventor did not come to conclude. However, it was an extremely relevant issue since it was times of war and the fear that the Germans could have access to this technology put victory over the Axis at risk. For this reason, they decided to confiscate the papers of the deceased Tesla and his belongings.
They did not find among the belongings and papers, solid grounds to affirm that Tesla’s Death Ray really existed. On the contrary, according to the physicist in charge of inspecting the items seized by the FBI, it was only a situation of a «speculative, philosophical and promotional nature». In addition, it did not include «solid and viable principles or methods».
However, many media have cited the special interest of the FBI in finding solid evidence that the Death Ray really existed, especially in the case of Nikola Tesla, the greatest inventor of the century. But to this day the artifact remains a mystery and is considered by many to be a myth, Tesla’s desperate idea. Although, being the words of one of the greatest minds in history, it makes the possibility of its existence still open to doubt.
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