Magnifying Illusion - MA Thesis Alessandra Hofmann 2020 by Alessandra Hofmann

Magnifying Illusion 3 2

I sincerely thank my tutor Sébastien Quéquet for accompanying and helping me throughout the whole process of establishing this research. Alexandra Midal, Eleonore Challine and Jérémie Cerman for the valuable advices, ideas and recommendations. I further thank the Nikola Tesla Museum for providing me images of Nikola Tesla‘s photographic work from 1899 to 1900. Lewis Ward, the great-grandson of Tesla‘s photographer Dickenson V. Alley for the effort, time and attention. Gina Cansell, for supporting me with the visual concept and formalization of the layout design. My mother, for the discussions and reflections.

Alessandra Hofmann MA Thesis 2020/2021 MA Space & Communication, HEAD-Geneva Type: Saol Display & Calluna Experimental Photographs: Photo Pool HEAD-Geneva Printing & Binding: Finissimo, Geneva, Switzerland

Abstract Inventor Nikola Tesla, known as a significant contributor to the electrical revolution of the late 19th century, established a strategy of communication which involved the creation of illusions: While Tesla personally struggled to adapt his inventions to a practical and commercial application, the only way he felt secure was to manipulate the audience‘s perception in order to promote his personal ideals. From live demonstrations, photographic manipulations to the written publication, this thesis examines the development of Tesla‘s illusive creations along his biography written by the author Bernard Carlson. The focus therefore lays on Tesla‘s extensive photographic execution in Colorado Springs from 1899 to 1900 where he and his photographer documented experiments on the wireless power transmission. Scenes of electrical light in action were composed and captured resulting in images that transmit a fictional plot. Fascinated strongly by his own experiments, Tesla‘s illusions finally took over his own perception of reality.

Abstract ⁷ Introduction ¹⁰-¹³

1. Strategic Development 1.1 A First Significant Partnership ¹⁴-¹⁷ 1.2 Conjurers of Science ¹⁸-²⁷ 1.3 Motion Versus Stillness ²⁸-²⁹ 1.4 Light as a Protagonist ³⁰-³⁷ 1.5 Unexpected Failure ³⁸-⁴³ 1.6 Manipulative Comeback ⁴⁴-⁴⁹

2. Intensifying Dramatization 2.1 A New Ideal Mission ⁵²-⁵⁵ 2.2 Spaces & Equipment ⁵⁶-⁶³

2.3 Small Magnitude Effect ⁶⁴-⁷³ 2.4 Full Magnitude Effect ⁷⁴-⁷⁹ 2.5 Artistic Effect ⁸⁰-⁹³ 2.6 Illusive Effect ⁹⁴-¹⁰⁹

3. Communication Requires Illusion 3.1 The Century Magazine ¹¹²-¹¹⁵ 3.2 The Awaited Publication ¹¹⁶-¹²¹ Conclusion ¹²²-¹²⁴ Afterword ¹²⁹ Bibliography ¹³⁰-¹³² Image Credits ¹³³

Introduction Lighting up full cities through artificial light was an ambitioned dream manifested by inventors of the electrical revolution during the late 19th century. The dedication of historian Ernest Freeberg on examining the effect of electricity and its impact on Modern American culture reveals how it contributed to transform and shape human life on Earth.1 Electricity was being widely put into practice exploring new possibilities for urbanism, communication, transportation, health to entertainment with the character of constant progression. Freeberg especially remarks the power of electrical light and its potential to manipulate, thus control the human perception.2 It did so by manifesting the magic character of its own artificial light source applied not only by magicians and amateurs, but also by scientists to entertain the wide audiences. Walter Benjamin's personal passion on the 19th century magic spectacle called phantasmagoria, extends his perspective beyond the visual impact of the pre-cinematic experience. He examines the illusive light show in his extensive Arcades Project as a representation of the consumption culture, so was electricity intensively developed to become a product of consumption from the late 19th century onwards. The genesis of such magic spectacle is nevertheless scientific as it firstly required to understand the properties of electrical light and how it could be applied to finally entertain and manipulate. Exploring the impact of electrical light on the perception within the scientific frame was an ambition especially followed by Nikola Tesla. Known as a significant contributor to the electrical revolution,

1 Freeberg. Ernest, The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America. (London, U.K: Penguin Books, 2014). 2 Ibid.

he expressed a special passionate and distinctive attitude towards experimental science. Accordingly, American author Bernard Carlson, professor of science, technology and history at the University of Virginia, examines and interprets Tesla's career with a deep insight into his professional and private actions. Hence, the biography Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age written by Carlson portrays the inventor's overall professional style as highly idealistic, meaning that Tesla strongly relied on his imagination to visualize subjects of nature, science and engineering that became ideals of his inventions. Tesla's ideals were therefore real and valid in his own mind, but otherwise needed to be adapted in order to convince and be believed by the outside world. Tesla in fact had a major personal and professional struggle on communicating and promoting his idealistic inventions in order to adapt them to a practical and commercial application. As the imagination guided Tesla in all his actions, Carlson specifically assumes that the notion of creating illusions became Tesla's main business and communication strategy as a solution to his struggle. Furthermore, Carlson speculates that the strict religious education by his father from whom he received very little value and attention caused psychological problems in his adult life. Tesla, therefore searched for public attention and appreciation, and did so by relying on the illusion. While his ideals were present in his own mind, he otherwise called them ideas to the outside world, ideas which were communicated through illusive creations. As scientists from the electrical age understood and tried to have most control of their own experiments, manipulating the audience's mind for promotional reasons was almost a requirement. A sense of showmanship was needed to popularize and make science more entertaining setting the 19th century scientist as a conjurer. And so, Tesla's reputation grew as kind of a scientific magician through his illusive creations. 11

Nevertheless, one of the most powerful tools by and for the scientist that marked the rapid technological development along the 19th century was the photographic medium. Expert in the history and theory of media Dr. Kelley Wilder studies the natural relationship between science and photography, and how both have always been connected since the emergence of the medium. Tesla expanded his strategy by choosing especially photography in one hand to document his ideal experiments, and on the other hand to create a fixed imagery illusion with the medium. Likewise, the manipulation of the photograph is as old as the medium itself as studied by British art historian Dawn Ades, so that the genesis of illusive trick photography already flourished along the 19th century exploring diverse manipulative techniques. Tesla's photographs might seem that he had every aspect under control, in fact unexpected and unknown situations that also involved photographic accidents were more than normal and make a fixed part of the mediums history as studied by German art historian Peter Geimer. The moment of surprise therefore of not having always full control, especially if the subject photographed was still open for speculation was a fundamental characteristic. In order to communicate photographs, Tesla relied on publishing them in famous American but also European periodicals from The Electrical Review to The Century Magazine. The written form of communication enabled Tesla to not only promote his ideal inventions, but also for him to express his personal feelings. Hence, it served him to create a balance between a certain private and public tension. While with letters to close friends and his personal diary Tesla expressed his private thoughts and emotions, otherwise with public articles he needed to establish his own writing style for promotional reasons. Writing therefore about scientific discoveries still unknown to the outside world, especially about electrical experiments was a tremendous challenge as examined by Professor of English literature Stella Pratt Smith. All actions of commu-

nication by the late 19th century scientists from giving demonstrations, making photographs to writing articles were in no way considered as creative forms of expression. It was a contradiction by itself that inventors who in fact created an invention and communicated it were not perceived as creatives and even less as artists. Thus, I intend to not only reveal Tesla's illusive creations, but much more his creative sensibility and so to manifest his profession likewise as a visual creator, communication and set designer. Those aspects are not considered popular characteristics that mark him, nor did he ever call his experimental and illusive strategy as creative. Therefore, regarding the main case study I specifically interfere with strong ambition his personal Colorado Springs diary establishing a deep photographic analysis and interpretation of his imagery creations. Correspondingly, his diary does only reveal little information about his creative intentions, hence I approach his work with many speculations on his decisions. I further explore Tesla's transdisciplinary strategy which combines the imagery experience with literature revealing his own created writing style. No matter if Tesla gave live demonstrations, photographed light, self-staged with his experiments or wrote in a poetic way, he generally presented himself as an actor and likewise composed scenes which transmit a fictional plot. From a dynamic conjurer to a concentrated scientist, Tesla projected himself into an acting character as well as into the role of a set designer who knew how to create a manipulative atmosphere in space. Even his personal passion for literature further supported him to establish a sense of fiction through his own writing style fusing the reader with his poetic dreams and imaginations.

1. Strategic Development 1.1 A First Significant Partnership

Ever since Nikola Tesla found his passion for one of his first most relevant inventions called the alternating current (AC) motor back when he was a student in Graz, Austria, his lifelong dream to formalize and commercialize it became true around 1887 in New York City. Accordingly, it was an electric motor that ran on an alternating current power system and functioned with a rotating magnetic field. Furthermore, it gained popularity across Europe and the United States because of its benefits for long-distance power transmission. Tesla's ideal on the motor flourished in his imagination by visualizing the vivid motion and functionality of it. Tesla described the moment of visualization in his autobiography: “I started by first picturing in my mind a direct-current machine, running it and following the changing flow of the currents in the rotor. The images I saw were to me perfectly real and tangible.” 3 After several failed attempts to promote his ideals on his motor, Tesla met the two New York businessmen Alfred Brown and Charles Peck who were very impressed about Tesla's ideas on investigating deeper the mechanics of the electric motor. More specifically, they were interested on how heat could be transformed into electricity, and how problems caused by commutators within the motor affected its functionality. While the interest was present, the two men were not yet fully convinced about the commercial potential of the project and demanded Tesla to further precise and perfect it.

Therefore, it was a very important moment that marked the beginning of Tesla's individual career, hence Tesla was fully aware that he needed to impress and convince his potential backers. He did so by creating an illusion through a planned demonstration that based on invoking a story of Christopher Columbus called The Egg of Columbus 4 in order to showcase the rotating magnetic field of his motor concept. The original story involves a demonstration in which Columbus overcomes his critics, King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1492, by challenging them to balance an egg on its end. Columbus succeeded in making the egg stand upright by lightly cracking one end, and consequently gained financial support for his expedition to reach the Indies. Therefore, Tesla transformed the Columbus story by proposing to make the egg stand on its end without breaking the shell. To realize the illusion, Tesla fastened magnets to the underside of a wooden table that secured a copper-plated egg and several spheres as illustrated in picture 1. The illusive effect during the demonstration occurred when Tesla set up all elements before the men entered the laboratory, so that they could only experience a magical effect of the spinning egg without seeing the secret behind it. To combine an illusion with a scientific experiment was a first communication approach, by Tesla which developed over the further years of his career, to capture the imagination and finally to convince people about his creations. Bernard Carlson assumes that: “Illusions were the means by which Tesla negotiated with society and secured the resources he needed to convert his ideals into real machines.”5 Through this event Tesla realized that a sense of showmanship that uses a powerful narrative was required to promote his inventions. As a result of the demonstration, both businessmen decided to support and underwrite Tesla's efforts to develop his AC Motor into a practical device. Consequently, a partnership between the three men developed which formed the Tesla Electric Company in 1887.

3 Tesla. Nikola, My Inventions. (New York, U.S: Experimenter Publishing Company, Inc., 1919), 59. 4 Tesla‘s reference to make the “impossible possible.” Carlson. Bernard, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age. (Princeton, U.S: Princeton University Press, 2015), 57. 5 Ibid, 18.

PICTURE 1

1.2 Conjurers of Science The established partnership between Tesla and his backers was especially important for the early developments of Tesla's individual career because it provided a business mentoring that shaped his idealistic work style to adapt to the market's needs, and functioned as a base for his overall reputation to emerge and grow within the electrical community. Therefore, the mentoring of Brown and Peck helped to establish a business strategy which guided Tesla to file and sell patents, promote his inventions in lectures and articles, and secure crucial professional contacts as potential sponsors. When it comes to the promotional aspect, the strategy of communication always involved the notion of creating an illusion whose content consisted of a “right” mixture between scientific facts and personal philosophical reflections. What Tesla generally strove to communicate mostly in a more philosophical way and regardless of which invention was in one hand the importance and power of nature, and on the other hand to uncover it‘s fundamental principles for life on Earth: “My paramount desire which guides me in everything I do, is an ambition to harness the forces of nature for the service of mankind.”6 Tesla's own desire of what he wanted to transmit and embody as an inventor was nevertheless shaped and guided by the partnership in the beginning of his career to reach both the scientific and popular target group with a commercial po-

6 Tesla. Nikola, Radio Power will Revolutionize the World, Modern Mechanix and Inventions, July 1934, 118.

tential. As a consequence of the executed strategy in front of the electrical community and its publication in periodicals, not only was his reputation growing as an inventor, but he was also perceived as an electrical magician specifically reported by The Electrical Review magazine which revealed the audience's fascinated reaction on one of his first demonstrations.7 Accordingly, his lecture before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) at the Columbia College in New York in 1891, where Tesla demonstrated his new ideal for wireless lamps, was a big success especially because of the illusion he applied to convince the audience: While dimming the light in space and using the combination of zinc sheets and gas-filled tubes, once Tesla moved the tubes they lit up claiming that now the lamps could illuminate without wires in any position and space as illustrated in picture 2. “Mr. Tesla seemed to act the part of a veritable magician. It seemed to make little difference whether the lamps were lying on the table or whether they were connected by one terminal to one pole of the coil, or whether the lecturer took a lamp in each hand and held one to each pole of the coil, in each and every case the filaments were brought to incandescence, to the supreme delight of the spectators.”8 Tesla's magical like demonstration evoked interest in European cities, so that he was invited to present the same type of scientific trick before the Institution of Electrical Engineers in London in 1892: A packed audience including British electrical engineers and scientists experienced Tesla performing with glass tubes that lit up while he was moving. One speculative reporter of the British Journal Engineering described the

7 Carlson. Bernard, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age. (Princeton, U.S: Princeton University Press, 2015), 75. 8 Author Unknown, Alternating Currents of High Frequency, The Electrical Review, 1891, 185.

effect: “The tube glowed with a brilliant lambent flame from end to end and recalled to everyone the idea of the magician's enchanted wand.” 9 American historian and professor of humanities at the University of Tennessee Ernest Freeberg examines the late 19th century as a historic and transatlantic revolution in electrical science and engineering marked by rapidly expanding inventions. Accordingly, electricity was being put into practice especially for electrical lighting, telegraphy communication, and medicine contributing therefore to the overall expansion of the industrial production, cultural consumption and mass entertainment. Thus, Freeberg investigates specifically the major impact of electrical lighting on the development of modern American culture, and how it contributed to shape and transform social and urban life. As soon as electrical lighting enabled to light up private and public spaces, life without it was inconceivable to the extent where the human perception and emotional state could even be manipulated by its effect. Freeberg assumes that: “Electrical lighting has become a tool of social control, a device powerful enough to induce in modern crowds a range of feelings from greed to euphoria to reverence.” 10 Manipulating the human perception by means of illusions was a form of entertainment by itself along the whole 19th century, and could especially be intensified through the application of electrical light. Accordingly, the pre-cinematic theatre spectacle called phantasmagoria which consisted of an illusive projection of historic phantoms through the early magic lantern projector, also benefitted from the electrical light for brighter and safer projections. 11 The phantasmagoria spectacle strove to purely manipulate the human perception through a full sensorial illusion created between the image, the sound and the space. More specifically, by

9 Tesla. Nikola, Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Frequency. (New York, U.S: W. J. Johnston, 1892), 171. 10 Freeberg. Ernest, The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America. (London, U.K: Penguin Books, 2014), 3. 11 Gunning. Tom, Illusions Past and Future: The Phantasmagoria and its Specters. (Chicago, U.S: University of Chicago, 2004), 6.

hiding the real process of the projection, enabling a space of complete darkness, and creating motion effects on images of supernatural apparitions accompanied by unexpected sounds. Hence, it provoked a confusion of the own belief: “The thrill offered by the phantasmagoria involved simultaneity of belief and disbelief, an experience in which the senses contradicted what was known to be true.”12 Not only was it a form of popular theater, but also a representation of the culture's commodity studied by Walter Benjamin. Accordingly, he examines the phantasmagoria beyond the experience of a dream-image of its original spectacle character, but more as an expressive form taken by the creations and products of the 19th century's consumption culture: “The new forms of behavior and the new economically and technologically based creations that we owe to the nineteenth century enter the universe of a phantasmagoria.” 13 To make the impossible possible was an act of magic itself in which the notion of creating illusions was applied by inventors and amateurs both conjurers manifesting and protecting science. British science-fiction author Arthur Charles Clarke who strongly contributed to the popularization of science and its historic studies presumes that: “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”14 Correspondingly, it can be interpreted in a way that magic and technology are two separate characters, so did the conjurer first need to understand nature and it‘s phenomena in order to have full control of it and to finally insert the scientific knowledge into an illusive trick. In this way, modern magic was an act of performing a sensory illusion through experimental science to manipulate and control the audience's perception. Focusing on the public's interest was a mission that the inventor Thomas Edison mastered, someone who also had a special

12 Ibid. 13 Benjamin. Walter, The Arcades Project. (Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S: MIT Press, 1988), 14. 14 Clarke C. Arthur, Profiles of the Future. An Inquiry Into the Limits of the Possible. (New York, U.S, 1973).

relationship with Tesla over years of both their careers. Although Tesla started his early career working as an assistant for the Edison Electric Illuminating Company, the tension between both especially intensified during the late 1880's. Accordingly, both became rivals during a tensed period of time, when inventors were competing on the leading power system of the Unites States. More specifically, the two main systems for the electric power transmission involved the direct current system (DC) which was especially developed by Edison, and the alternating current (AC) system otherwise explored by Tesla. Therefore, the two electric power systems were amongst others especially applied to provide electric lighting in order to artificially light up indoor and outdoor spaces of American cities. Besides the tension between both, Tesla and Edison were nevertheless also executing different professional inventions. Hence, Edison contributed to the early invention of cinema with his kinetoscope film projector, the Edison Studios also produced the first actuality 15 films in 1891 in the United States. The experimental outcomes of the first films produced such as Newark Athlete in picture 3, had the intention to solely entertain the audience without any scientific content. At the same period of time during the early 1890's Tesla otherwise focused on promoting his personal ideal on the electrical lighting through international demonstrations 16, so that he was not involved in the pure entertainment industry of the early film invention.

15 One of the first experimental and non-fiction film genres showcasing real events, places and people of society‘s interest being marked as the pre-documentary genre. 16 New York lecture before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1891, London lecture before the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1892, Paris lecture before the Société de Physique and the Société International des Electriciens in 1892.

PICTURE 2

PICTURE 3

1.3 Motion Versus Stillness It can be speculated that Tesla did not use the film medium to document his ex-

periments or to showcase his demonstrations as a personal approach and choice to control the illusion transmitted in his strategy of communication. As the medium was in its early and experimental state, Tesla most likely did not have the appropriated contacts nor interest to risk his established strategy. More specifically, the way humans perceived an illusion with all senses during that period of time depended amongst others strongly on the sound - verbal communication of the inventor during a demonstration. French psychologist Alfred Binet assumes that: “There exists another artifice that makes the effect of a trick ten times stronger, it is patter, a pleasant little speech through which the spectator’s mind is oriented in the direction most favorable to the illusion.” 17 The full sensorial experience was missing in silent film until sound was applied in the 20th century, thus it might have been another reason Tesla did not expand his communication strategy using the film medium as he relied on giving lectures in the beginning of his individual career. Even though Tesla's live demonstrations provided a sensorial experience of illusions to promote his first inventions, it was not until 1895 when he started to experimentally apply photography to extend his strategy of communication. It may seem contradictory that Tesla further developed his strategy without exploring the film medium although its genesis originated from photography like Muybridge's stop-motion production in 1878. There is no doubt about the richness of motion and sound through the film medium which could have intensified the experience of scientific documentations during the electrical age. When analyzing the first film genres during its advent time in the late 19th

17 Binet. Alfred, The Psychology of Prestidigitation. (Washington DC, U.S: Government Printing Office, 1894), 912.

century, its main and only role was to entertain mass society without emphasizing scientific content: “The fact that the film medium has grown up so largely within the tradition of popular entertainment, has limited very considerably the development of its other uses.” 18 It was not until 1930 and more specifically through the expansion of documentary film making, that the public started to accept wider uses of film. In this way, the popularization of science no matter which medium of communication, depended strongly on the popular understanding and interest in sciences. Thus, it was even a contradiction by itself that media of mass communication from photography, radio to film which were originally products of science, needed to be popularized by scientists until a certain degree not only for society's general understanding, but to make science entertaining. In Tesla's personal case popularizing science meant to transmit an illusion because he most likely believed that the only way to get attention and appreciation was through manipulation in order to finally promote and commercialize his inventions. Accordingly, Tesla could have explored the early trick film genre to create an optical illusion, though there was no production of scientific trick films showcasing electricity as a protagonist until the 20th century. More specifically, Tesla's personal interest from 1894 on was to visually document and investigate his experiments on electric lighting and unexpected phenomena for mainly scientific reasons, thus photography was in his opinion the best means to do so: “A very important matter is to use better means of photographing the streamers exhibiting these phenomena. Photography will be, of course, the best means to investigate it and the first efforts ought to be in this direction.” 19 Thus, the most speculative reason Tesla chose photography without exploring the film medium, laid in his intention to deeply document electrical lighting and not contribute to the pure entertainment industry through film, his purpose was mainly scientific. Photography was the main documentation instrument used by scientists, film otherwise did not support to capture pure scientific content for mass society until the 20th century.

18 Elton. Arthur, Road. Sinclair, The Popularization of Science Through Film. (Paris, France: Department of Natural Sciences, UNESCO, 1949), 2. 19 Tesla. Nikola, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1977), 370.

1.4 Light as a Protagonist

The natural relationship between science and photography reveals that both have always been connected since the medium's emergence in the 19th century to the extent where “neither science nor photography exist in isolation.” 20 Correspondingly, the general role of photography within the scientific field during its advent century was to document highly experimental procedures, and not express neither be part of a creative form of visual expression. Nevertheless, its scientific use went beyond pure documentation as the medium's exploration specifically in laboratories marked the technical and scientific nature of photography to be an experiment by itself. In other words, science photography was a strong experimental medium exploring its own developing potential. From the mid 19th century on it was undergoing a rapid and continuous development on technical improvements through inventions with the intention to always obtain better visual results and user efficiency. By the end of the century the medium's technical state was developed to the extent that a wide range of society could use and apply photography by themselves without being only a professional and expensive medium. As the inventiveness on electric lighting was at its peak by the late 19th century, likewise it was being

applied to science photography not only as an artificial light support besides magnesium flash powder, but also as the main protagonist of its image. Hence, the intention laid in presenting documented lighting phenomena and so in promoting explorations and discoveries. The relationship between the photographic device and electricity also demanded an experimental approach along with an observational and reflective discipline. Marvin Heiferman presumes that: “The observational aspect is present in two layers the one made at the moment and the reflection upon which occurs afterwards.”21 This process of observation and reflection regarding the inventor‘s perception on both scientific and photographic experimentation can specially be noted on Tesla's first photographic project. Thus, Tesla first needed to cause attention and secure contacts in order to obtain the explorative possibility to apply photography as a visual form communication. During the 1890's Tesla made a significant effort to grow his reputation by strengthen his relationship with exclusive contacts as he invited magazine editors and celebrity characters like Mark Twain in his New York laboratory.22 The private invitations had the intention to demonstrate and therefore promote his new ideal mission on the wireless power transmission that lit up gas tubes and phosphorescent bulbs without filament. More specifically, one of Tesla's most important inventions developed in 1891 called the Tesla Coil - a transformer circuit device

20 Heiferman. Marvin, Seeing Science. How Photography Reveals the Universe. (New York, U.S: Aperture, 2019), 8.

21 Ibid, 10. 22 Carlson. Bernard, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age. (Princeton, U.S: Princeton University Press, 2015), 104.

that produced high-frequency currents of electricity, was being applied by Tesla in different forms to conduct amongst others experiments on electric lighting. The private and exclusive demonstrations caused a strong interest on The Century Magazine's associate editor called Robert Underwood Johnson to the extent that he wished to professionally photograph Tesla's ongoing experiments on the wireless lighting. Therefore, Johnson's main intention was to be the first magazine to publish photographs captured by its own phosphorescent light. 23 In this way, The Century Magazine hired the photographer called Dickenson Alley from the studio Tonnele & Co. in New York to collaborate with Tesla on capturing his lighting system. Even though Tesla's first photographic work was an indirect business order by the magazine, it was only a question of time for him as an inventor to professionally and personally apply the photographic medium. This seamless obvious claim can be understood by Tesla's strong visual sensibility specifically his ability to picture images with his imagination since his childhood. The first images captured by Alley and Tesla in 1895 were of phosphorescent light bulbs as shown in picture 4 and different forms of gas tubes in picture 5. Therefore, they photographed the artificial light as the main and only protagonist of the images emphasized by an intense light-dark contrast transmitting a very graphic visual result. Hence, by creating a complete dark background without enabling any visual evidence of how the objects lit up, the representation of light itself already provoked a sense of magic. More specifically, by visually preventing any functional and contextual evidence through complete darkness the light seems to be mysteriously present within a black space. A visual abstraction was created which is less tangible to fully understand by the spectator. Tesla in fact did not claim any intentional created illusion through the produced images. Otherwise, he completely relied on the visual power of electric light composed as the main protagonist and represented through a visual abstraction which can already manipulate the spectator's perception.

23 Ibid, 104.

PICTURE 4

PICTURE 5

1.5 Unexpected Failure

Before Tesla explored techniques on how to create a real photographic illusion, he experienced a photographic accident and a missed opportunity on discovering a huge potential invention. Hence, the accidental experience as an investigation was especially fundamental for him because it contributed to his development with the photographic medium. It helped him not only to learn more about the relationship between photography and his experiments, but most speculatively led him rely and feel more secure with the creation of illusions as the accident afterwards caused him a huge personal disappointment. Therefore, after photographing his first light bulbs and tubes in 1895, Tesla decided to privately investigate rather there was any impact of the electric light on the dry plates that Alley stored in the laboratory. Over a couple of months both Tesla and Alley executed different photographic tests using the light bulbs and tubes as the only artificial light source until they noticed spoiled dry plates that weren't yet exposed. It was not until Tesla heard the news about Wilhelm Röntgen's x-ray discovery in 1895 that he immediately re-observed the spoiled plates, one of his partners described the observational moment of the accident: “Tesla brought it out of the dark room and held it up to the light. There I saw the picture of the circle of the lens, with the adjusting screw at the side—also round dots, which represented the metal wood screws in the front of the wooden camera. Tesla gave one look. Then he slammed the plate on the floor, breaking it into a thousand pieces, exclaiming, “Damned fool! I never saw it.” 24 Tesla missed the opportunity to claim his discovery on the x-ray invention as he realized just a

little late that his experiments on electric lighting not only produced visible light, but also invisible radiation which had a significant disruptive impact on his dry plates. Along the continuous development of the photographic progression and improvements during the 19th century, accidents and disturbances were as frequently experienced and make a natural part of the medium's history. Accordingly, the moment when the photographic material visually revealed itself by means of an accident, it was being considered as an enemy of the own medium. Furthermore, the destruction of an image could occur in a slow and continuous process over time as a natural degradation or chemical alterability by fading away, or in form of a sudden accident occurring before or during the photographic production. As light makes visible everything of life that the human eye is capable to see, it is therefore marked to be the photographic heart, but can otherwise also be the reason of the image's visual destruction. German art historian and theoretician of photography Peter Geimer assumes that light has a double and contradictory effect on the image‘s appearance: “One and the same cause effected the appearance of the image and its dissapearance.”25 Correspondingly, radiation coming from a specific light source just like Tesla experienced, is able to have a disturbing effect on the photographic plate as it moves from its source, passes through solid substances and can be reflected or refracted. The invisible character of radiation can be further understood as science photography involves the transmission of information that the human is incapable to perceive. Hence, the photochemical sensitivity of the dry plate also extended to areas of the light spectrum imperceptible by the visual sense. The emission of radioactive materials acted on photochemical emulsions on the dry plates, without ever

24 Hewitt. Edgar R., Those Were the Days: Tales of a Long Life by Edward Ringwood Hewitt. (New York, U.S: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1943), 199. 25 Geimer. Peter, Inadvertent Images, A History of Photographic Apparitions. (Hamburg, Germany: Philo Fine Arts, 2010), 42.

being seen in this form by the naked eye. Therefore, the photographic documentation specifically within the scientific frame from the mid 19th century on allowed to fix an invisible phenomenon of a light source in the form of a photographic image. The fact that Tesla's radiational disruption on his dry plates happened even before he exposed them even inside the camera device can be interpreted in a way that the effect did not originate during the direct photographic production by the human being. In other words, “The physical impact that disfigured the image was unconnected to its production.” 26 Therefore, the destructive effect that Tesla experienced occurred invisibly from the moment on when the plates and the light source were present in the same space. Thus, the destructive effect on his dry plates did not occur like a sudden striking effect, but the materials were already sensitive to irritations since its origins: “The possible destruction is not an event that suddenly befalls a technological product. (…) The accident is original.” 27 Only during the re-observation and reflection phase when Tesla hold one of the dry plates which was inside the camera device against the light, he noticed the outlines of the lens as a result from the radiational effect on the plate. This kind of “invisible photography” caused by radiation exposed objects in a particular perspective, accentuating certain elements and excluding others, and provided a different way of seeing without being only a simple reproduction of a subject. Even if the photographic accident was a valuable experience for Tesla, it was otherwise a huge personal disappointment for him as he failed to discover a significant invention. Thus, Tesla expressed his feelings about the accidental experience: “Too late, I realized that my guiding spirit had again prompted me and that I had failed to comprehend mysterious signs.” 28

26 Ibid, 40. 27 Ibid, 41. 28 Carlson. Bernard, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age. (Princeton, U.S: Princeton University Press, 2015), 112.

1.6 Manipulative Comeback Tesla's deep disappointment nevertheless soon led him to create a new illusion, this time through the photographic medium. Accordingly, 4 years after the accident in 1899 Tesla published an article in The Electrical Review magazine about his experimental advancements on the wireless power transmission. More specifically, as Tesla further developed his coil invention to operate with stronger voltages it is being speculated that he felt the need to photograph and publish his new experiments. The intention therefore was most likely to provide a visual comeback and so to prevent a weak reputation as a failed inventor. In order to comeback with new mesmerizing images, Tesla privately booked the photographer Alley in 1898 to execute diverse photographs in his New York laboratory showcasing mainly experiments with his advanced coils. Therefore, a further visual element which emphasized even more the “comeback” character was Tesla himself self-staging with his experiments. Correspondingly, picture 6 is speculated to be Tesla's first photomontage, a double exposure technique combining two negatives to one final image, with the most speculatively intention to create a manipulative and illusive image for promotional reasons of his new experiments. Here, Tesla self-stages with his coil in his laboratory as a set where he interacts

with electricity making him look like a fictional hero character capable to have direct physical contact with strong electrical effects. According to the magazine Tesla was moving a glass tube which lit up and created the illusive effect without claiming any photographic falsification: “A long glass tube waved in the hand is lighted to great brilliance by the electrical charges conveyed to it through the body.” 29 This act of self-staging and physically interacting with his inventions for photographic purposes was an intensified visual exploration in contrast to his first photographic work some years before. More specifically, Tesla already explored the self-staging for photography in 1895, nevertheless did not integrate his full body in such an expressive and dynamic way. Therefore, picture 7 is marked to be the first photograph ever taken by phosphorescent light in 1895, enabling specially a mysterious feeling through the partly visible traces of Tesla’s profile illuminated by the artificial light. The way Tesla and the light are centered and surrounded by complete darkness sets him almost like a ghost character. The intention of such portraits was most likely to transmit a more dramatic and emotional character without providing only pure reproduction images of light as a protagonist itself. Nevertheless, Tesla strongly claimed to personally dislike such portraits, but the visual interaction to be a necessity: “I wish to apologize for the frequent appearance of my likeness in these photographs, which is distasteful to me, but was unavoidable.” 30 The illusion marked to be Tesla's main communication motor, is now being created through photographic falsification techniques that shaped even more Tesla's public persona. All the photographic experience that Tesla made until 1899, was a visual investigation and preparation for his major and most famous photographic mission in Colorado Springs.

29 Tesla. Nikola, Some Experiments in Tesla‘s Laboratory with Currents of High Potential and High Frequency, The Electrical Review, March 29, 1899, 197. 30 Ibid, 204.

PICTURE 6

PICTURE 7

2. Intensifying Dramatization 2.1 A New Ideal Mission

Tesla's personal interest in wireless power transmission was at its peak by the late 1890's as he strongly explored the transmission and utilization of electrical power through the use of his coil invention. Therefore, while experimenting further on the practical development of his coil, by 1897 he achieved to establish and patent a system for wireless power transmission. The intensity of his interest was especially expressed by him with such self-confidence to the extent where he claimed in the New York Journal for his system to provide wireless telegraphy communication around the world: “I want to go down to posterity as the founder of a new method of communication. The people of New York can have their private wireless communication with friends and acquaintances in various parts of the world. Your will be able to send a 2000 word dispatch from New York to London, Paris, Vienna, Bombay, Singapore, Tokyo in less time than it takes to ring up “central”.” 31 Having realized the ambition of his own claims, Tesla soon felt the need and urge to extend the capacity of his experiments in order to execute the next most significant step in his career. Accordingly, Tesla's new ideal mission was to carry out an intensive experimental investigation on the wireless power transmission for communication purposes. Therefore, his main goals were to first extend his coil to a new, more powerful

transmitter device, perfect the wireless power transmission from one point to another, and to study the Earth's electrical potential. More specifically, as Tesla always envisioned to directly benefit from the nature's forces for the means of mankind, he believed that the Earth was fully charged of vibrations which could transmit power currents with the support of his extended transmitter device. 32 In order to put his new ideal mission into experimental practice, Tesla relocated to an isolated mountain site known as Knob Hill on the outskirts of Colorado Springs in May 1899 after receiving a personal recommendation of a friend on the area's natural conditions. According to Tesla the high altitude and climate of the region provided him excellent conditions for a clear perception specifically for the visual and auditive sense: “In those regions the organs undergo perceptible physical changes. The eyes assume an extraordinary limpidity, improving vision, the ears dry out and become more susceptible to sound. Objects can be clearly distinguished there at great distances, and claps of thunder can be heard seven and eight hundred kilometers away.”33 These benefits revealed themselves as very important for the upcoming experimental executions. Accordingly, Tesla spent about 8 months in Colorado Springs firstly experimenting the potential of his new transmitter device, and afterwards dedicating his last month in December 1899 to solely execute a photographic documentation of his achievements. All the experiments were documented by Tesla in his personal diary called Colorado Springs Notes which consists of written descriptions, calculations, formulas and images regarding each specific experiment. Accordingly, the diary was never intended to be published by Tesla since he did not write it for the public, but exclusively for

32 Ibid, 134.

31 Carlson. Bernard, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age. (Princeton, U.S: Princeton University Press, 2015), 130.

33 Ibid.

his personal use. Nevertheless, because of its fully and clear completed documentation it is being speculated that Tesla wrote the diary with the wish to leave some evidence behind in case of fire or destruction of his experimental station. By 1977, the year that marked Tesla's 120th birthday, the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade officially published the diary as a valuable historic testimony. According to the diary, Tesla was firstly assisted by his mechanical engineer from New York called Fritz Lowenstein, who under Tesla's direction was in charge to plan and construct the new experimental station and transmitter device with the additional help of local workers. As soon as the constructions were completed by the end of July 1899, Tesla focused on making the new transmitter device operate within the station and thus investigate its full potential. Accordingly, one of Tesla's assistants described his experience on the first experimental effects caused by the transmitter: “Enormous sparks would pour up high. Often the sparks were 15 or 20 feet long, just like lightning. They made a big crash that echoed inside the lab and could be heard from some distance away.” 34 In this way, Tesla immediately recognized the strong capacity in which the transmitter could operate naming it by then as the Magnifying Transmitter. It can be speculated that Tesla also recognized the photographic potential of the enormous artificial sparks created in Colorado Springs as they were significantly stronger and more expressive than the previous effects created in his New York laboratory.

Therefore, the first experimental experience in Colorado Springs led Tesla to immediately contact The Century Magazine offering a deal to provide exclusive photographs of the new experimental station and intense experiments with the Magnifying Transmitter. The offer was described by Tesla under the specific condition of booking the photographer Alley because of their familiar work relationship: “Friendly motives prompt me to inquire would it pay you to send a photographer here with the object of obtaining material for illustrations to appear at your pleasure in Century. If so, would like very much getting Mr. Alley of Tonnele because of familiarity skill and discretion.” 35 Tesla gave trust to another collaboration with Alley as they experienced a significant photographic development together since 1895. Under the offer's agreement Alley was sent to Colorado Springs in December 1899. According to the diary the photographic execution involved a total of 68 images taken by Alley over 2 weeks which were described by Tesla regarding its content, some technical aspects and sometimes his personal opinion.

35 Ibid, 146.

34 Ibid, 138.

2.2 Spaces & Equipment The first photographic ambition by Tesla in Colorado Springs was to document the interior and exterior spaces along the equipment within the laboratory without yet capturing any experiments. This documental type of image marked as being the less expressive from all that Alley captured was fundamental for Tesla to provide a visual and conceptual balance. More specifically, in order to transmit a more credible and serious character as a scientific inventor he could not only rely on illusive images that manipulated the spectator's mind. This balance between factual and illusive, documental and very expressive was most likely Tesla's photographic strategy in Colorado Springs. The strategy relied on capturing the intensifying experiments regarding the capacity of the transmitter whose voltage values could be regulated from 0 to its maximum potential. Tesla and Alley took the advantage of this regulation in order to control until a certain degree the intensification and so the appearance of each type of photograph. In order to build up the imagery intensification, the interior space of the laboratory, its main equipment and materials were crucial for the photographic atmosphere. Correspondingly, they would reveal themselves as fundamental visual elements regarding the full imagery effect that Tesla might envisioned to transmit. Therefore, one of the first interior photographs picture 8 taken by Alley, shows the main experimental space and several Tesla Coils within the laboratory's building. By specifically photographing this part of the interior, the circular- framed space was highlighted to function on its own, but still made part of the total building. In other words, the laboratory's main space was framed for its experimental use where the

transmitter and several coils operated. This space became the most photographed and thus the most important visual surrounding and interactor of the produced light effects. The several Tesla Coils placed in the center of the image, the magnifying transmitter partly visible on the left, and the copper coated ball on a wooden stand, all consist of a geometric shape so that the objects seem like geometric sculptures. Consequently, the geometry transmits a visual abstraction making the interior space less tangible to fully understand by the spectator. Based on that it can be speculated that Tesla conceptualized and took advantage of the visual abstraction in order to emphasize even more the light effects of his upcoming expressive images. The abstraction is also emphasized by the “clean” space itself, the way the cylindrical-shaped coils were fixed on wooden stands without showing any clear evidence of how power currents could be received or transmitted. In fact, the functionality of all objects was integrated within their own shape, so that it was being fused with the geometry. Therefore, part of the object's “real process” was being indirectly hidden or made invisible by integrating them within the object's shapes. To further emphasize the interior space and specifically its wooden texture, the balance between light and shadow was crucial. According to the diary Tesla described that the interior photograph was taken in the late afternoon when the “light was rather feebly diffused. The plate was as before, 11" x 14" isochromatic.” 36 In order to deal with the feeble condition of daylight, Tesla and Alley relied on using an isochromatic dry plate from the G. Cramer Dry Plate Company specifically to obtain an improved balance

36 Tesla. Nikola, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1978), 321.

between brightness and darkness. The promotional catalogue of the manufacturer assumes that: “The introduction to the Isochromatic Plate is a great improvement in photography. While the ordinary plates are far less sensitive to the yellow, orange and red rays than to the blue and violet, the isochromatic plates render the different color values more true to nature.” 37 More specifically, when the isochromatic dry plate was exposed to light, not the actual colors of the light spectrum were rendered into black and white, but the truest proportion of their brightness. 38 With the manufacture of isochromatic plates in the late 1890's, a wider range of color rays could be rendered which enabled an improved balance between brightness values. By Alley's use of the isochromatic plate the overall interior space especially its wooden texture is generally well visible by its balanced distribution of bright and dark areas. Besides the advantages of the isochromatic plate, in 1889 German photochemist Hermann Wilhelm Vogel generally claimed that “Photography is much less sensitive to feebly lighted objects.” 39 meaning that dark areas were always more difficult to be brightened through the own photographic medium. Tesla and Alley specifically took advantage of the medium's insensitivity to darkness in order to create a strong lightdark contrast, and so to highlight even more the light effects of the upcoming expressive

37 Catalogue of G. Cramer Dry Plate Works, Third Edition. (St. Louis.U.S: G. Cramer Dry Plate Works, 1899), 8. 38 Ives F. Eugene, Isochromatic Photography with Chlorophyl. (Philadelphia, U.S, 1886.). 39 Vogel. H. Wilhelm, The Chemistry of Light and Photography, in Their Application to Art, Science, and Industry. (New York, U.S: D. Appleton, 1889), 65.

images. The photographic insensitivity to darkness was being further studied by Vogel as a natural mistake that came along the use of the photographic medium. 40 This natural “imperfection” can be studied on one of the first exterior photographs picture 9, showcasing the laboratory's building on the field. Clearly the building appears like a darker spot contrasting with the bright sky, so that its wooden texture is almost not visible at all, but even more the sharp outlines of the laboratory. According to the diary, in Tesla's personal opinion the strong light-dark contrast was not an error, but a visual advantage. Tesla believed that the region's natural condition of daylight especially its “pure” atmosphere enabled to obtain a high qualitative imagery result: "This is a very fine photograph showing well the advantage of the pure atmosphere here. Such sharpness of outlines and amount of detail could not be obtained in New York, for instance.

I conclude that the high quality of photographs obtainable in these parts is not much due to the skill of the professionals as to the pure atmosphere and abundance of light.” 41 In this way, no matter if it was daylight or artificial light captured at night, the creation of a significant light-dark contrast was fundamental for Tesla to emphasize certain visual elements, especially to highlight the light effects of the upcoming expressive images.

40 Ibid, 125. 41 Tesla. Nikola, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1978), 321.

PICTURE 8

PICTURE 9

2.3 Small Magnitude Effect As soon as the Magnifying Transmitter was activated to operate, the most speculative intention was to capture a powerful but still small visual effect in order to not reveal its full potential, but to provide a visual intensification. More specifically, this type of image does not yet involve the artificial light to visually dominate and still emphasizes very strongly the space and surroundings as important visual elements. One of the first images captured by Alley of the initial light effects within the experimental space as illustrated in picture 10, shows electrical sparks of streamers from the transmitter on the upper right, several coils and a copper coated ball in the center “responding to vibration transmitted to them.” 42 Photographing sparks of streamers like lightning involved capturing a scene in action where the subject of light was in movement. Correspondingly, the movement of the sparks further involved a certain speed from which they firstly appeared visible in space. In order to capture the moving sparks Tesla described using the “Instantaneous Cramer Isochromatic Plate.” 43 Correspondingly, the American astronomy photographer called Robert James Wallace emphasized the same type of plate and claimed in 1904 that the isochromatic plate introduced a new era to science photography because of its rapidity. 44 Therefore, the photographic dry plates from the G. Cramer Dry Plate Company were especially popular in science photography by the end of the 19th century as

42 Tesla. Nikola, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1978), 321. 326. 43 Ibid, 329. 44 Wallace. Robert James, The Function of a Color-Filter and “Isochromatic" Plate in Astronomical Photography. (Cambridge, U.S: Harvard University Press, 1904), 106.

subjects in motion could be captured with a faster exposure time through the plates that the manufacturer achieved to produce. Consequently, the G. Cramer company released the isochromatic plate in three degrees of rapidity from which its instantaneous model was the most sensitive to artificial light and so provided the most rapid exposure time. According to the own promotional catalogue of the manufacturer, the rapidity enabled through their chemical emulsion on dry plates was one of its strongest features. 45 As the capabilities of photographic materials advanced and improved strongly by the end of the 19th century, its use became significantly faster and easier for the general public to the extent that the manufacturer fully produced dry plates by itself. Nevertheless, British museum curator and art historian Phillip Prodger who contributed to the intense studies on photography, art and science history presumes that: “The photographer increasingly assumed the role of an experimenter, setting up an empirical situation to see what would result.” 46 Therefore, the experimental and observational approach involving unknown results were main characteristics of the instantaneous photography movement of the 19th century whose main intention was to “freeze motion in time.” 47 The term instantaneous along the century could be applied to any subject photographed as long as it contained an element of movement. Prodger further examines the capturing of

45 Catalogue of G. Cramer Dry Plate Works, Third Edition. (St. Louis. U.S: G. Cramer Dry Plate Works, 1899), 4. 46 Prodger. Phillip, Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement. (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003), 45. 47 Ibid, 25.

moving subjects as an unpredictable act which involved the special notion of surprise regarding the visual results obtained. 48 Besides the uncontrollable character, the photographer otherwise needed to decide how to compose a scene in the camera, a scene involving its content and surroundings in which the action should take place. According to Prodger this type of photography involved capturing scenes in action of reality: “It was no less than the vivid and lifelike reproduction of any transaction of real life.” 49 In Tesla's case the electrical sparks acted and interacted with the objects in space as a full created scene which in fact was a reproduction of reality during a specific moment in time. As the appearance of electrical light had a strong visual potential that could even manipulate the perception, Hermann Wilhelm Vogel made sure to claim the general existence of light: “The undulations of light are not a fiction. Not only has their existence been ascertained, but their size has been determined.” 50 Even though light in fact is real it does not mean that it seems real on a photographic image. More specifically, light photographed as a protagonist can seem unreal when for example not harmonizing but contradicting and confusing itself with its surroundings. In other words, the conceptual balance or imbalance in photography between the image's elements can confuse and even manipulate the perception to transmit an indirect illusion even if the image's content is a reproduction of reality. Consequently, it can be speculated that Tesla planned a conceptual imbalance as a visual characteristic in order to present the light effects in a way that it could manipulate the spectator's mind. More specifically, the conceptual imbalance is created from the moment on when the electrical sparks

appeared within the interior space in picture 10. Therefore, the imbalance is specifically present between the artificial sparks that partly appear like natural lightnings and the wooden texture of the building. The human being is normally familiar with lightning from a natural thunderstorm, and not with it being artificially created and trapped in a complete wooden laboratory. As wood is highly inflammable, the creation of powerful sparks within the wooden space strongly provokes a visual feeling of danger and a specific tension. Based on that it can be speculated that Tesla intentionally combined contradicting elements to create a visual tension and extreme provocation in order to emphasize the power of his transmitter. The visual tension naturally makes the spectator speculate about the authenticity of the created scene in action, so that the perception is already being manipulated. Furthermore, the electrical sparks were of such intensity that again a significant light-dark contrast highlights even more the light effects within the space, so that the most expressive character is the light itself and afterwards the interaction between objects forming a “geometric landscape”. Tesla and Alley could only control the visual result of any expressive image until a certain degree, by composing the objects within the space, regulating the voltage values, and deciding how to frame the scene in action. The exact visual result was mostly out of their control. Therefore, by having otherwise full control of the appearance of the space, Tesla described using an additional electric arc lamp as an artificial support to emphasize spatial materials: “(…) ordinary arc lamp placed in corner of building

48 Ibid, 46. 49 Ibid, 3. 50 Vogel H. Wilhelm, The Chemistry of Light and Photography, in Their Application to Art, Science, and Industry. (New York, U.S: D. Appleton, 1889), 58.

for the purpose of photography.” 51 Artificial lights have been explored and investigated since the emergence of the photographic medium always with the aim to better improve the “intensity of the light and efficiency in illumination.” 52 Especially by the end of the 19th century investigations on electrical lighting supported the development of science photography mainly involving the fields of medicine, geology and astronomy for educational purposes, but also strongly for the popularization of science. Regarding the exploration on electrical light in the history of photography, in was not until French photographer Félix Nadar firstly employed them for portraits in 1859, and significantly some years later photographed the underground catacombs of Paris in 1861. Nadar's main mission was “to penetrate, to reveal the mysteries of the deepest, the most secret caverns.” 53 Through the support of artificial light, he quicky realized the strong impact of its effect on the human perception provoking an obsessive reaction: “The presence, at dusk, of that than little-used light would stop the crowd on the boulevard and, drawn like moths to light, many curious people could not resist climbing the stairs to find out what was happening there.” 54 Being since then marked as a pioneer in the exploration of artificial lights in photography, Nadar's actions significantly contributed to the development of the photographic medium. 55 Just like Nadar was passionate about revealing a mystery, Tesla likewise envisioned to capture his ideal imagination through photography. More specifically, Tesla wanted to visually showcase how the electrical power transmission could cause an illuminating effect

51 Tesla. Nikola, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1978), 329. 52 Peres. Isabel, Jardim. Maria, Costa. Fernanda, The Role of the Artificial Lights in Scientific Photography of the XIXth Century. (Lisbon, Portugal: University of Lisbon, Faculty of Sciences, 2008), 923. 53 Nadar. Félix, When I Was A Photographer. (Cambridge, U.S: MIT Press, 2015), 86. 54 Ibid. 55 Ibid.

in nature. He did so, by placing 3 electrical lamps which were connected to a wire antenna in the middle of the isolated snow field as illustrated in picture 11, which received power from the transmitter about 100 feet away. Even if the imagery light effect on the field seems small and not expressive, Tesla described in his diary: “the discharge was very powerful, a dazzling brilliancy, literally blinding, and caused a deafening noise.” 56

The visual isolation of the exterior field at night was most likely chosen to transmit a calmer, still mysterious photographic atmosphere. As the interior was marked to be the dynamic experimental space in which the light moved in action, otherwise the exterior space involved the use of a different type of light which was still and contemplative without any movement. Besides the balance between dynamic and calm, the visual provocation between the image's elements can again be noted between the snow and the electrical lamps which were almost in physical contact with each other. Correspondingly, the manipulative effect on the perception does not only occur by means of an “obvious illusion” but is already provoked when the smallest light effects evoke a visual tension with its surroundings.

56 Tesla. Nikola, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1978), 345.

PICTURE 10

PICTURE 11

2.4 Full Magnitude Effect After photographing the initial effects caused by the transmitter in relation with its surroundings, the further most speculative intention was to focus only on the transmitter itself and its strongest potential. Hence, the operation was regulated to its maximum possible state, Tesla describes in his diary: “The excitation of the system was pushed as far as could be done.” 57 While the smaller light effects captured before depended on its surroundings to transmit a certain atmosphere, the stronger light effects otherwise are the main protagonist without depending on other visual elements. Therefore, the main focus of this type of image is the intensity of light itself, so that the conceptual imbalance between the light and its surroundings as analyzed before is not as perceivable anymore because of the visual domination of light. Correspondingly, picture 12 shows the electrical streamers produced by the transmitter dominating almost the full image as the main protagonist. The intense effects were described by Tesla as the strongest created during the experiments: “These streamers were about the longest producible in the present building, measuring from 31-32 feet in a straight line from origin to end.” 58 In order to emphasize visually even more the power of the streamers, a pointed wire was placed directly towards the camera so that the streamers seem to catch the camera device and the spectator might feel being trapped within the own light. According to Tesla the streamers did

in fact cause a physical clash so that he claimed: “One of them reached the photographer Mr. Alley in the corner of the building, while another one struck me as I was operating the switch in another corner. They were so feeble at that distance, that they did not cause any injury or pain.” 59 As the streamers were framed splashing towards the camera, thus seem to penetrate the own eyes of the spectator a sense of visual abstraction causes a manipulative effect on the perception. More specifically, the light intensity and proximity towards the camera reveals its wavelike details, a full penetrating shape transmitting sort of an organic abstraction which dominates the image. Consequently, the light shape seems to take over the full space to the extent that most of general context becomes invisible. The strong light-dark contrast between the main centered light and the surroundings emphasizes even more the hiding of the background space. Therefore, it can be highly speculated that Tesla afterwards took advantage of the penetrating light abstraction in order to mesmerize and manipulate the spectator's perception to actually believe how powerful his transmitter was. According to Tesla the intensity of electrical streamers further caused a visual phenomenon he personally experienced as so called fireballs: “the streamers were very powerful and the spots when they appeared were about an inch, actual fireballs as they appeared to the eye.” 60 The previous director of the Nikola Tesla Museum called Aleksandar Marinčić who is internationally recognized as an expert on Tesla‘s career described such phe-

59 Ibid. 60 Ibid.

57 Tesla. Nikola, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900 (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1978), 330. 58 Ibid.

nomena to be a rare electrical discharge of nature: “Fireballs are considered to be a form of electrical discharge generated during thunderstorms. They are rare in nature, but a fair-sized body of observations has nevertheless been assembled upon which several theories of their origin have been founded.” 61 Therefore, he deeply analyzed Tesla‘s artificial created phenomenon which apparently became visible when the electrical sparks clashed on the wooden floor and broke to luminous spots. Thus, Marinčić recognized that Tesla believed such specific occurrence to be a possible optical illusion until he personally observed and experienced it: “Some hypotheses maintain that fire balls are an optical illusion, an opinion shared by Tesla.” 62 Correspondingly, it can be further speculated that even if Tesla perceived an unexpected optical illusion caused by the intense light effect, he would have fused his personal experience with his strategy of communication which is an intentional illusion. Nevertheless, Tesla clearly mentioned in his diary that the photographic execution did not visually reproduce the phenomenon as intense and authentic, thus did not reveal the same optical illusion which Tesla might have experienced: “On a plate an effect of this kind may be produced by a streamer suddenly bending or turning, but the actual appearance of these luminous spots or points is unmistakable.” 63 Although in Tesla‘s opinion some photographs do not resemble his personal visual experience, it can be speculated that he nevertheless took advantage of the perceived fire balls to emphasize the power of his transmitter. Therefore, even if it seems natural that the functionality of the camera could not replace the reaction of a human eye, the dry plate that Tesla and Alley chose was known to be highly sensitive to artificial light which of course responded to the intense light. Austrian pioneer in the chemistry of photography Josef Maria Eder assumed in 1903 that: “Just as the human eye responds to light and electrical stimuli and even

61 Marinčić. Aleksandar, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900., Aleksandar Marinčić Commentaries. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1978), 432. 62 Ibid 63 Tesla. Nikola, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1978), 333.

a mechanical shock is perceived as a light sensation, so the dry plate reacts to the most varied of physical and chemical stimuli.” 64 The direct relationship between the human eye and the camera as an artificial eye has long been mentioned by historic authors of the visual media involving the study of both their similarities and differences. German art historian and media theoretician Peter Geimer assumes that any technology used as a tool still “lives” a life on its own, being therefore distanced from replacing human senses. 65 In this way, besides the rapid advancements of the photographic medium by the end of the 19th century, the relationship between human and technology otherwise always involved a certain gap between the known and unknown, the conscious and unconscious. Just like Tesla was naturally unable to perceive the invisible rays which spoiled his dry plates, so was the photographic medium on the contrary unable to visually reproduce the phenomenon that he personally experienced. It was never either the human or the photographic device more powerful, but much more a connection between both marked by a “constitutive entanglement of visibility and invisibility, of control and elusiveness.” 66

64 Eder. Josef Maria, Die Praxis der Photographie mit Gelatine-Emulsionen. (Halle, Saale, Germany: Knapp, 1903), 69. 65 Geimer. Peter, Inadvertent Images, A History of Photographic Apparitions. (Hamburg, Germany: Philo Fine Arts, 2010), 42. 66 Ibid.

PICTURE 12

2.5 Artistic Effect Besides photographing the electrical

streamers in a way that it presented its strongest, fullest and even penetrating potential on the perception, the further most speculative intention was to “shape” the light in space in order to refine the imagery composition in action. More specifically, this type of image represents Tesla's and Alley's desire and sensibility to explore further their imagery creativity, and so their own imaginative aesthetics. Most importantly, by refining the full composition between the light and the space, this type of image can be considered as the perfected scene in action which will reveal itself as fundamental for the most expressive image at the peak of the intensifying dramatization. In other words, the refined imagery composition was a crucial visual model for the creation of a fictional plot, so for the final most obvious photographic illusion. In order to refine the imagery composition, Tesla and Alley needed to first deal with the fact that they were not able to fully control the exact appearance of light even less the final photographic results. As an alternative, they otherwise tried to experiment with small functions on the transmitter in order to obtain diverse visual outcomes. More specifically, they benefitted from specific wires on the transmitter that could be pointed forwards or sidewards so that they could refine in which direction the streamers would splash. Correspondingly, just as before they pointed one wire directly forwards and towards the camera, they further pointed two diametrically opposite wires causing the streamers to splash

sidewards as visible in picture 13. Therefore, Tesla described the resulted symmetrical shape of light revealing his personal aesthetic taste or what he considered to be beautiful: “The sparks, passing abundantly above the coil, produce a most beautiful symmetrical figure, which is rendered still more so by the fine texture and sharpness of the discharge paths.” 67 In this way, it can be understood that Tesla had his own aesthetic opinion and taste in photography, thus imagery elements like the symmetry and sharpness to better reveal the fine texture were most likely very important for him to fulfill his visual desire. Furthermore, Tesla also appreciated the visual dynamics of the light's movement itself and strived to clearly emphasize the significant quantity of electrical sparks: “The two wires from the ends of which the sparks and streamers sally forth, glow all along. This is remarkable and indicates the great quantity of electrical movement.” 68 It can be speculated that Tesla and Alley not only decided to point the wires sidewards to achieve a refined and diverse shape of light, but also to emphasize again a visual tension between the wooden material of the space and the intense appearance of light. Nevertheless, the strong lightdark contrast between the background and the streamers still highlights the light as the most important visual element of the image. In order to extend the creative exploration, Tesla and Alley decided to capture the electrical discharge from other objects in order to most likely provide imagery diversity beyond the Magnifying Transmitter. Therefore, picture 14 shows a close-up shot of an electrical discharge between a copper coated ball and a ground plate. Tesla

67 Tesla. Nikola, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1978), 387. 68 Ibid.

described capturing the same scene in action several times with different plates in order to prevent a blurred result, and so to fulfill his visual desire and ambition to obtain imagery quality: “These photographs were taken through about half of the full lens opening, nevertheless the discharge is not sharp for although the focusing was carefully effected. To improve the photographs two more plates were exposed.” 69 Based on this action, it can be speculated how important the photographic exploration was for Tesla as he strived to obtain diverse visual results and was ambitioned to repeat the same process several times. Beyond the improvement, the further intention was not only to obtain imagery diversity, but also to explore how the visual manipulation on the perception could be applied throughout the photographic executions. Consequently, the less dynamic electrical discharge of picture 14 transmits again a sense of visual abstraction between the bright spot of light and the complete geometrical shapes interacting with it. More specifically, the way how the strong discharge seems to elegantly drop like a waterfall from a complete spherical shape to a square plate, makes the scene less tangible to believe because of its seemingly magical occurrence. This magical feeling of how the light is acting and interacting with the geometry is even more emphasized by the complete clean and empty surrounding, revealing no indication or evidence of any functionality besides one wire connected to the copper coated ball. Correspondingly, the visual elements beyond the light itself that surrounded and interacted with it such as the wooden material, the geometry and further the complete isolation were fundamental visual so aesthetic decisions that Tesla took to shape and compose the scenes in action. Since the origins of photography in 1839, the

medium which originated from science was marked to be the faithful companion and servant for the scientist used for documentation to the extent that both were absolutely inseparable from each other. Therefore, the photographic medium served Tesla to creatively document and explore his experiments on the electrical lighting which on the contrary also pushed the medium sometimes even beyond its limits. More specifically, his creativity can be recognized in his experimental approach by “shaping” the artificial light as an expressive protagonist itself without only using it as a support to illuminate subjects. Tesla in fact did not claim any literal creative intention, most likely because there was a tensed debate between the creative and the scientific use of photography by the end of the 19th century. In fact, science photography was not considered to be a creative form of visual expression. French photography historian Denis Canguilhem specifically examines the reception of scientific photography in the 19th century as a massive and sudden progress “from a disinterest to a craze.” 70 The disinterest was especially applied by historians of the time to highlight fine art photography to the extent that they “aimed to clearly separate two uses of photography. On the one hand the creative use of the medium, on the other the common use which encompasses all applied photography as well commercial as scientific.” 71 Furthermore, the disinterest was marked by a strong judgement against science photography claiming it to be vulgar because of its seamless “simple” mechanical recording so it could never replace the

70 Canguilhem. Denis, Le Merveilleux Scientifique, Photographies du Monde savant en France 1844-1918. (Paris, France: Gallimard, 2004), 11. 71 Ibid, 12.

69 Ibid, 347.

sensible hand of a painter. As science photography was not considered to be part of the creative field, Canguilhem otherwise further examines its potential to have significantly served as a visual model for the avantgarde movements along the 20th century. 72 Therefore, she points out that especially the Italian futurism movement had a strong interest in technology and visual media involving aspects of movement and speed. It can be therefore speculated that scientific photographs that involved a fast moving and dynamic subject just like Tesla's light streamers inspired artists along the 20th century. Canguilhem especially examines the “photography of movement” as the scientific studies on the locomotion of animals and humans developed by French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey in the late 19th century which served as a possible inspiration for the art movements. As science photography of movement is marked amongst others as the genesis of cinema, consequently the avant-garde mindset did not refuse it: “The explosion of the 20th century arts rejects nothing of what the universe gave birth and certainly not of cinema and its genesis.” 73 The tensed debate between the artistic and scientific use of photography marked a contradictory problem which defined the end of the 19th century. Contradictory in the sense that scientists could clearly apply photography in a creative way taking great care for the appearance just like Tesla did, artists on the contrary also needed to deal with the scientific functionality and nature of the medium. Dr. Kelley Wilder who is the director of the Photographic History Research Centre at the De Montfort University in Leicester, describes the contradictory problem of the photographic discipline as a tensed question: “Was it to become art, subscribe to artistic vision

and creativity? Or was it to become science, make passively mechanical observations, and contribute to illustrated journals and atlases? As is now clear, it was to become both.” 74 She further assumes that photography became “a science in its own right, and an art in its own right” 75 with a fluent appropriation between both. There is no doubt that the 19th century scientists and their use of photography also involved a creative approach to specifically fulfill desired imaginations. Therefore, Tesla's creative sensibility for the appearance of his images can be recognized in his ambitioned approach of controlling the Magnifying Transmitter until a certain degree in order to obtain diverse shapes of light. Furthermore, the fact that he composed full scenes in action that range from less to very expressive and even repeated some of them several times already reveals his care for the appearance. Not only was photography a faithful tool for scientists, but otherwise science itself served photography more than occasionally: “by stretching the medium, sometimes near to breaking point, in order to fulfill scientist's desires for visions of the universe and all the visible or invisible things it contains.” 76 A scientific photographer had a personal will for visual creation, and likewise this will was also highly debated in the field of arts during the turn to the 20th century questioning ever more if making art required either ability, will or both. Thus, one of the most debated terms in the history of art theory called the Kunstwollen “art will”, aimed to break traditional rules of beauty through scientific basis in order to overcome the purely aesthetic consideration in arts. Accordingly, the term became officially efficient and fully conceptualized during the turn to the 20th century by

74 Wilder. Kelley, Photography and the Art of Science. Visual Studies, Vol. 24, November 5, 2010, 164. 75 Ibid, 166. 76 Ibid, 163.

72 Ibid, 11. 73 Ibid, 20.

the Austrian art historian Alois Riegl who was one of the representatives of the Vienna School of Art History. Riegel describes the concept of the Kunstwollen with a philosophical perspective that is based on the human‘s will to shape the perceived world according to the own imagination: “All human will is directed toward a satisfactory shaping of man's relationship to the world, within and beyond the individual. Art expresses the way man wants to see things shaped or colored, just as the poetic Kunstwollen expresses the way man wants to imagine them. Man is not only a passive, sensory recipient, but also a desiring, active being who wishes to interpret the world in such a way that it most clearly and obligingly meets his desires.” 77 This philosophical approach can likewise be identified on Tesla‘s personal creative strategy which like Bernard Carlson examines was also based on using the personal imagination for the will and desire of creation: “Invention for Tesla was an intricate dance between rigorous thinking and vivid imagination. Thinking and dreaming were part of the creative process for him.” 78 Tesla described in the New York Herald magazine published in 1896 his personal perspective on the imagination: “Your imagination leads you on, from sorrow to joy, from work to play, and all this world is ever present, ever ready for your pleasure and enlightenment, and at your wish and command.” 79

77 Riegl. Alois, Late Roman Art History (Archaeologica). (Rome, Italy: G. Bretschneider, 1985), 401. 78 Carlson. Bernard, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age. (Princeton, U.S: Princeton University Press, 2015), 121. 79 Ibid, 122.

PICTURE 13

PICTURE 14

2.6 Illusive Effect

Besides refining the strong light effect influencing partly its appearance, Tesla and Alley explored self-staging in front of the camera introducing a new visual element of the human figure. Therefore, the most speculative intention by Tesla was to provide at least one type of image which is an illusion by itself in order to promote and popularize his Magnifying Transmitter and its effects in a more emotional way. More specifically, this type of image reveals a new imagery experience by showcasing the human as an acting character who is part of the full scene in action transmitting the notion of a fictional plot. Accordingly, picture 15 shows the illusion of Tesla sitting in between strong electrical streamers looking inside a book while he is surrounded by an isolated wooden space. In order to visually include the human figure within the full scene in action, Tesla and Alley intentionally relied on creating a photomontage which resulted in an obvious imagery illusion realized with the photographic medium. Correspondingly, Tesla and Alley applied the double exposure technique by using the same negative for two different exposures to become finally one image. Tesla himself admitted the illusive creation in his diary explaining the production and his opinion on it: “I did not like this idea, but some people find such photographs interesting. Of course, the discharge was not playing when the experimenter was photographed, as might be imagined! The streamers were first impressed upon the plate in dark or feeble light, then the experimenter placed himself on the chair and an exposure to arc light was made.” 80 Even if Tesla claimed to dislike such trick photo-

graph, his action of self-staging is not a simple representation of himself, but much more a projection of himself into an acting character within a scene in action. More specifically, the choice to act with a book, seemingly pretending to read while intense electrical sparks splash around his body transmits again a sense of tensed provocation. This tension is being emphasized by his body language and facial expression which are calm and completely focused on the act of reading rather than caring about anything else surrounding him. Furthermore, the tensed provocation is also reinforced by the isolated wooden space in which two chairs to his sides are placed mysteriously empty and only partly visible in the darkness. The tensed contrast between the actor, the moving light and the isolated wooden space as a full composed scene intended most likely to highlight the power of the Magnifying Transmitter. Tesla assumes in his diary: “The picture of a human figure was introduced to give an idea of the magnitude of the discharge.” 81 Several further double exposures were executed by changing his position or the camera perspective to create diverse visual options. Not only did Tesla place himself in front of the camera, but also Alley was most speculatively directed by Tesla to self-stage. Accordingly, picture 16 shows Alley sitting in the same scene in action with the only difference to not be acting with an object, so that he clearly did not project himself into the acting role just like Tesla did. Also, picture 17 presents a further photomontage

80 Tesla. Nikola, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1978), 387.

81 Ibid, 333.

showing Alley sitting in the darkness like a mysterious figure behind the electrical sparks without becoming the most important visual element of the image. Consequently, the fictional plot is only transmitted when Tesla put himself into the role of an actor completing the scene in action, otherwise Alley seemed to only self-stage in order to provide visual diversity and quantity of images. Therefore, it can be speculated that Tesla and Alley intended to create several illusive photomontage images to serve as options to choose from for the purpose of communication afterwards. British art historian and professor at the University of Essex , Josephine Dawn Ades who contributed to the historic studies on the photomontage along the 19th and 20th century assumes that: “Manipulation of the photograph is as old as photography itself.” 82 Ades further examines that in the 19th century the photomontage was rather called composite photography involving techniques from double exposures to double printing executed within the experimental context, the term itself was not established and conceptualized until the early 20th century. Correspondingly, it was within the artistic context of the Berlin Dada movement in 1916 when the term was firstly invented to introduce the artist‘s work with photography. 83 Therefore, the photomontage technique of the Berlin Dadaists consisted of cut and pasted images from magazines to become a collage which was used almost as a weapon to express and confront social-political concerns. Established within the artistic frame, Ades nevertheless presumes that the 20th century photomontage “belonged to the technological world, the world of mass

82 Ades. Josephine Dawn, Photomontage (World of Art). (London, UK: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1976), 7. 83 Ibid, 12. 84 Ibid, 13. 85 Wayne. Cynthia, Dreams, Lies And Exaggerations. Photomontage in America. (College Park, U.S: University of Maryland, 1991), 13. 86 Meadows. Arthur Jack, The Growth of Science Popularization, A Historical Sketch. Vol. 144 Impact of Science on Society. (UNESCO, Taylor & Francis, 1986), 341. 87 Ibid.

communication and photo-chemical production.” 84 As the photomontage could be clearly produced by various means of either cutting and pasting, printing sequentially on a single paper, or exposing negatives multiple times just like Tesla and Alley did, the term itself became controversial. American curator and assistant director of The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland Cynthia Wayne assumes that no matter how controversial the definition of the photomontage is, its historic intention was always to manipulate the original image evoking a new idea and so a new reality: “Whether collaged or rephotographed the impact of photomontage lied in its manipulated image which, by conveying a completely new idea can represent the subconscious, falsify reality, alter the truth, and finally, present a new truth.” 85 Not only did Tesla use the manipulative power of the photomontage to transmit an illusion as his personal strategy, but he consequently contributed to the popularization of science by making the images more entertaining rather than purely educative for instance. British astronomer and information scientist Arthur Jack Meadows who found the astronomy department at the Leicester University further assumes that: “Popularization becomes necessary when an area of knowledge moves into the hands of a limited number of specialists, and its contents then become impenetrable to others.” 86 Therefore, the photomontage images created by Tesla and Alley helped to visually make science more tangible and entertaining for promotional reasons, reaching in this way a larger target group of the general public beyond the scientific community. As the popularization of science was increasing by the end of the 19 century, at the same time it caused to decrease the real understanding of science which made it significantly easy for scientists to interfere: “Understanding of science decreased, so it became easier to blind people with science.” 87 Tesla and Alley did so by applying the photomontage in order to highlight the entertainment factor more than the actual scientific experiments which were in fact a true representation of reality. So was the illusion fused with the reality to visually create a new imaginative reality.

PICTURE 15 PICTURE 15

100

101

102

103

PICTURE 16

104

105

106

107

PICTURE 17

108

109

110

111

3. Communication Requires Illusion 3.1 The Century Magazine

In order to publish any photographic execution, Tesla completely relied on famous New York periodicals which were generally fundamental for scientists to promote their inventions. Hence, The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine was one of the most significant magazines to publish and promote Tesla's scientific explorations since 1895 as it contributed to increase his reputation during the peak momentum of his career. Professor of English at the California Lutheran University James Arthur Bond who focuses on the 19th century American literature and print culture studies, examines The Century Magazine as one of the most important periodicals during the late 19th century marked by its “extensive historical series, and innovative American fiction.” 88 Correspondingly, it published non-fictional and fictional series over its development influencing specifically the reader's understanding on history, arts, science, politics, and social reform. Furthermore, Bond examines that the magazine was marked by a strong “conservative nature and its persistent efforts to elevate taste.” 89, as it involved a very strict focus on educating the reader about American morality. The strong conservative and moralistic character was already established in the 1870's

88 Bond, James Arthur, Century Magazine, American History Through Literature 18701920. (Detroit, US: Charles Scribner‘s Sons, 2006). 89 Ibid.

112

by its predecessor magazine called Scribner's Monthly whose editorial department strongly reinforced American concerns from a religious and moral standpoint, and restrained to print fictional content. It was not until 1881 when the magazine's name changed and received a new editor in chief called Richard Watson Gilder who was known as a poet, and significantly contributed to transform the magazine's conservative character until a certain degree. Bond describes the aim of Gilder to reinforce especially the value of aesthetics by the magazine: “He shifted the emphasis away from a strict moral focus to more of an aesthetic aim. Gilder had keen editorial instincts, and his recruits quickly became some of the most noteworthy writers and artists to contribute to periodicals.” 90 Gilder‘s strong visual inclination was influenced by his wife Helena de Kay Gilder who was an illustrator and oil painter as well as his membership in diverse New York art clubs. According to some personal letter books by Gilder revealing his editorial work at The Century, the success of the magazine laid in its visual engravings and illustrations: “If anyone were asked what more than anything else had contributed to the success of the magazine, he would answer, its superb engravings and the era it introduced of improved illustrative art.” 91 As the visual experience through images of illustrations and photographs was a fundamental intention by the editorial team, they strongly relied on the woodblock engraving technique in order to print illustrated images. Therefore, initial sketches were transferred on an engraved wood surface and locked into a type form in order to print

90 Ibid. 91 Gilder. Richard Watson, Letters of Richard Watson Gilder. (Boston, U.S: Boston Houghton, Mifflin, 1916), 100.

113

the illustrations on a steam press. Associate professor of English and history of print and media communications at the North Carolina State University Paul Fyfe assumes that the 19th century illustrative experience “effectively made the illustrated newspaper the progenitor of mass media.” 92 It was not until the development of the halftone techniques in the late 19th century that periodicals could print photographic images at scale. Since then the technique has always been used “to print a credible simulation of a photograph.” 93 In order to realize the simulation, a photograph needs to be exposed onto a sensitized metal plate through a screen of tiny dots, which is then being chemically processed. During the chemical process acids take away light areas and leave dark areas resulting in a relief plate whose raised areas can be inked and used to print. Gilder and his editorial team were especially strict about choosing the imagery content and quality for printing along the authors: “Century readers were no doubt drawn to the magazine‘s moral and aesthetic elevation of taste, which the editors carried out by printing only those contributions that met their high standards of quality and respectability.” 94 Even if Tesla's photographic work with Alley was not considered to be artistic but scientific, the visual potential of electrical light and how Tesla and Alley captured it in a very expressive even manipulative way, evoked most speculatively a strong visual interest on Gilder and his team. More specifically, since Tesla demonstrated his light experiments in front of exclusive contacts including some members of the magazine in 1895, the visual impact of artificial light already convinced the editorial team to publish Tesla's

92 Fyfe. Paul, Ge. Quian, Image Analytics and the Nineteenth-Century Illustrated Newspaper, Journal of Cultural Analytics, October 25, 2018. 93 Ibid. 94 Bond. James Arthur, Century Magazine, American History Through Literature 1870-1920. (Detroit, US: Charles Scribner‘s Sons, 2006).

114

first photographic work. Furthermore, it is being speculated that Gilder chose to publish Tesla's work since he aimed to include a wider range of national and international authors. Accordingly, one of Gilder's business letters revealed his goal: “It is intended to include all writers of the country, giving equal rights to foreign authors. Our idea is to try to bring the matter before the public especially its moral aspect.” 95 Nevertheless, Tesla's ambitioned promises regarding his experiments in Colorado Springs caused a tensed and equally ambitioned reaction by the magazine to the extent that Tesla claimed a pressured relationship between him and the magazine. The claim was found within a testimony in behalf of Tesla in the United States Patent Office: "The Century began to press me very hard for completing the article which I have promised to them (…).” 96 In this way, not only did The Century Magazine require imagery quality by Tesla and Alley to meet their aesthetic standards, but also a powerful written article which Tesla promised in order to accompany the visual experience of his images.

95 Gilder. Richard Watson, Letters of Richard Watson Gilder. (Boston, U.S: Boston Houghton, Mifflin, 1916), 100. 96 Author Unknown, Testimony in Behalf of Tesla, Interference No. 21, 701. (New York, US: United States Patent Office, 1902).

115

3.2 The Awaited Publication Tesla's promised photographs along the written article about his Colorado Springs experiments were finally published by The Century Magazine in June 1900. Accordingly, the article named The Problem of Increasing Human Energy written by Tesla consists of 36 pages and presents 10 photographs from which 9 were exclusively made in Colorado Springs. Therefore, the publication of the article was a fundamental moment in Tesla's career in order to promote and convince the world about his Magnifying Transmitter invention on the wireless power transmission. Tesla's own confident thoughts regarding the importance of the publication were found in a testimony in behalf of him: “I knew that the article would pass into history as I brought, for the first time, results before the world which were far beyond anything that was attempted before, either by myself or others.” 97 Furthermore, Aleksandar Marinčić examines the momentary success of the article caused especially by Tesla's writing style which significantly differs from that of his personal diary: “The article really did create a sensation, and was reprinted and cited many times. The style he uses in describing Colorado Springs research differs greatly from that of the diary.” 98 While the article evoked strong interest in the popular press across America and Europe, within the scientific community otherwise it was greeted with skepticism. A letter to the Popular Science Monthly periodical reveals:

97 Ibid. 98 Marinčić. Aleksandar, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900., Aleksandar Marinčić Commentaries. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1978), 19.

116

“The public should be protected from such wild speculation passing for scientific fact.” 99 Correspondingly, Tesla's writing style of the article mixes both personal philosophical ponderings and scientific extrapolations to create most likely again a balance between fictional and factual sentences to accompany the images. More specifically, in can be highly speculated that Tesla intended to involve a written balance to control the communication of his diverse images that also range from less expressive to very expressive. Consequently, a full strategy between the written and the imagery composition was created which involves an intensifying tension to finally manipulate the truth, and so to convince and promote. Therefore, the strategy can be especially examined by 3 main stages of the article in which the tension develops. During the first stage of the article, the most speculative intention by Tesla was to simply capture the attention of the spectator and to mesmerize the perception poetically in order to evoke interest. Tesla did so by introducing an artistic effect type of image like picture 13 and accompanied it with philosophical thoughts on humanity's relationship with the universe. Tesla wrote: “Though we may never be able to comprehend human life, we know certainly that it is a movement, of whatever nature it be. The existence of movement unavoidably implies a body which is being moved and a force which is moving it.” 100 In this way Tesla used the word movement in a philosophical context to connect with the visual experience of the moving streamers in the picture. Hence, he presented his transmitter and its powerful effects in a way that it should be considered relevant for human life on Earth. Tesla further pushed the philosophical writing style in the first stage to the extent that it becomes very poetic, and the reader

99 Author Unknown, Science and Fiction, Popular Science Monthly, 1900, 66-77. 100 Tesla. Nikola, The Problem of Increasing Human Energy. (New York, U.S: The Century Magazine, 1900), 1.

117

starts to dream with Tesla‘s personal passion on science and arts: “The cheering lights of science and art, ever increasing in intensity, illuminate our path, and marvels they disclose, and the enjoyments they offer, make us measurably forgetful of the gloomy future.”101 What Tesla in fact did was to find creative ways of how to write about electricity, specifically about his Colorado Springs experiments which were completely new to the popular reader. Therefore, professor of English literature at the Fort Hays State University in Kansas, Stella Pratt Smith examines and analyses the conceptual approaches of electricity in the 19th century literature. She assumes that: “How electricity was written about shaped not just public perceptions of the phenomenon, but also the development of scientific understandings about it and its potential applications.” 102 Correspondingly, even if by the end of the 19th century electricity was nothing new, it was nevertheless a difficult subject to write about involving the communication of new experiments unknown to the outside world: “Writing about electricity was especially problematic, for it meant describing something that had never been visualized or depicted before, it was open to speculation by all.” 103 Tesla applied a philosophical and even poetic writing style about electricity to reinforce his expressive images, most likely to distance the reader from his and her own reality to experience a new reality which was Tesla‘s own ideal world, so an illusive world. Smith further examines that the power of electricity was used by scientists in literature in order to cause a significant effect on the reader: “In terms of physical matter by scientists, it was perceived to distance man from the otherwise “natural” world of direct, known experience.”104 In this way Tesla benefitted from the visual and written power of electricity to manipulate the reader's perception and understanding. Nevertheless, during

the second stage of the article Tesla's writing style changes extremely from philosophical to factual in order to most likely to create a balance to the very poetic beginning. Hence, he presented the small magnitude effect type of image like picture 10 in order to describe deep principles of physics and science. Therefore, the factual character can be examined in his direct way of describing and analyzing the action occurring in the image: “The picture shows a number of coils, differently attuned and responding to the vibrations transmitted to them through the earth from an electrical oscillator.” 105 Correspondingly, Tesla chose most likely a less expressive image combined with factual and direct written information to create a balance to the more emotional beginning of the article. It is exactly the mixture between the factual and philosophical writing style that Tesla combined to pretend to educate but much more to entertain. Rather than being only one single genre communicated by scientist, Smith assumes that it was much more a combination of diverse styles that defined science literature in the late 19th century: “I suggest that interchangeability was an integral part and even characteristic aspect of the writings.” 106 Smith therefore examines that real scientific development influenced fictional novels, and otherwise fiction likewise inspired science: “Scientific research on electricity drew on fictional concepts, just as non-fiction incorporated narrative or anecdotal techniques, and real scientific developments were integrated and explored in fictional works.” 107 Based on that it can be speculated that Tesla was inspired by fictional novels and applied its techniques or language to create his own writing style, especially because his philosophical approach was very poetic. More specifically, since Tesla frequently invited

101 Ibid. 102 Smith. Stella Pratt, Transformations of Electricity in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Science. (New York, U.S: Routledge Taylor & Francis, 2016), 1. 103 Ibid. 104 Ibid, 2.

105 Tesla. Nikola, The Problem of Increasing Human Energy. (New York, U.S: The Century Magazine, 1900), 26. 106 Smith. Stella Pratt, Transformations of Electricity in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Science. (New York, U.S: Routledge Taylor & Francis, 2016), 3. 107 Ibid.

118

119

the American author Mark Twain in his New York laboratory, Twain's fictional novels on major adventures inspired most likely Tesla's wild imagination and fantasy. During the third and last stage of the article Tesla made a strong effort to promote and literally sell his invention. Therefore, he presented the photomontage picture 17 in which Alley is visible in order to claim the powerful operation of the Magnifying Transmitter: “Electrical effects of any desired character and of intensities undreamed of before are now easily producible by perfected apparatus of this kind.” 108 Which such ambitioned choice of words Tesla increased the tension for the reader to believe and be convinced about his invention. Accordingly, this tension is especially reinforced by the chosen photomontage in which the human body contrasts with the strong light effects presented nearly at the end of the article. Tesla was so convinced about achieving the wireless power transmission through his transmitter in the real material world, hence he even claimed that no proof demonstration was necessary: "That communication without wires to any point of the globe is practicable with such apparatus would need no demonstration, but through a discovery which I made I obtained absolute certitude.” 109 Therefore, the article was the only way for Tesla to promote his work in Colorado Springs since he did not want to make any

Bernard Carlson assumes that: “The consequence of not performing additional distance tests or demonstrating his system for witnesses was that Tesla was subsequently hard-pressed to convince others about the value of his system. Tesla was unable to provide hard data showing whether his system worked.” 110 Tesla seemed to be trapped in his own ideal world to the extent that he admitted losing sometimes the perception of the truth for being fascinated by his own experiments: “fascination, paralyzed the scientific mind, and thus hampered independent inquiry. Every new phenomenon which was discovered was made to fit the theory, and so very often the truth has been unconsciously distorted.” 111 Therefore, Bernard Carlson finally assumes that Tesla's ideals, thus his personal illusion on the wireless power transmission took over his own perception of reality. Hence, Tesla failed to create a balance between his private ideals and the intentional illusion as a communication strategy for the public: “Tragically, with wireless power, Tesla became intoxicated by the beauty of his ideal but distracted by his illusions; he did not find a balance between the two.” 112

further tests or demonstrations to the outside world.

108 Tesla. Nikola, The Problem of Increasing Human Energy. (New York, U.S: The Century Magazine, 1900), 29. 109 Ibid, 31.

120

110 Carlson. Bernard, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age. (Princeton, U.S: Princeton University Press, 2015), 146. 111 Tesla. Nikola, The Problem of Increasing Human Energy. (New York, U.S: The Century Magazine, 1900), 27. 112 Carlson. Bernard, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age. (Princeton, U.S: Princeton University Press, 2015), 195.

121

Conclusion Tesla's idealist style as an inventor always involved the concern of how to communicate and promote his personal ideals to the outside world. The first significant partnership of his individual career in 1887 helped him to establish a strategy of communication which reinforced the notion of manipulation itself by creating illusions for promotional reasons. Tesla did so by firstly giving live lectures and trick demonstrations in front of the electrical community during the early 1890‘s to the extent that his reputation grew as a scientific conjurer. While using the visual power of electricity which by itself already manifested a magical character in the 19th century, Tesla contributed to popularize science for it to become more entertaining than educative. It was not until 1895 when Tesla extended his strategy of communication by choosing only the photographic medium to document and communicate his major ideal on the wireless power transmission. The natural question arises why Tesla in fact did not explore the film medium, as it can be speculated that he did not want to risk his illusive strategy. His ideal on the wireless power transmission was too specific and so did not fit into the purely entertainment industry of the moving image. Tesla otherwise found himself much more secure while exploring photography together with Dickenson Alley capturing the first significant images of electrical light bulbs and tubes in 1895. The photographic experience between both also involved a photographic accident in which Tesla's experiments with electrical light turned out to be destructive and hence spoiled the dry plates through invisible radiation. While failing to claim his discovery on the x-ray invention, the accidental experience much more proved to Tesla himself that manipulation was the best means for promotion. Deeply disappointed by his missed opportunity, Tesla executed 122

his first speculative photomontage in 1898 transmitting a photographic illusion as a significant “comeback” reaction in order to prevent the reputation of a failed inventor. Having found his confidence back, Tesla extended his ideal on the wireless power transmission with the strong ambition to provide wireless communication around the world, so that he relocated to Colorado Springs in 1899 to put the most important invention of his career into practice. With the created Magnifying Transmitter Tesla produced intense electrical effects, thus conceptualized a major photographic strategy in order to compose and shape diverse scenes of light in action. The strategy followed the path of creating less to very expressive images with the most speculative intention to provide a visual balance between the factual and illusive imagery experience. While the illusion is not obviously perceivable and literally present in the less expressive images, otherwise the created photomontage results of Tesla and Alley exaggerate even a fictional plot. Tesla finally relied not only on diverse photographs to transmit an illusion, but he intentionally combined them with his personal writing style publishing one of his most significant articles in 1900. The notion of the illusion was therefore extended by mixing philosophical and factual content in the written form to accompany and reinforce the imagery experience. In his own ideal world Tesla felt more than free, ambitioned and passionate to create whatever he imaged even if he had no clear scientific evidences because he felt no necessity to provide them. Tesla much more believed that the world needed to be adapted to his ideals and not vice versa. From the live demonstrations, photographic executions to his own established writing style, Tesla embraced his creativity to create the right illusions. He put himself into the role of an actor and creator expressing his own aesthetic taste and style especially regarding the scenes he composed in Colorado Springs. The fact that he was very focused on combining the right materials and geometric-shaped objects, composing them in a “clean” space and so hiding any real process to create just the right imagery effect already indicates his sensibility as a spatial creator. Furthermore, the scenes of light in action that he composed transmit a fictional plot through

123

Tesla's acting role combined with the contradicting subjects to evoke further a visual tension and provocation. The dramatization of the fictional plot hence reaches its visual peak through the photomontage results of Tesla and Alley self-staging. Therefore, with or without the human figure being visible in the images, Tesla created basically in his own science-fiction set for photographic purposes. Thus, just like the 19th century science photography inspired some avant-garde movements like the Italian futurism, Tesla's resulted images could have influenced the geometric landscape of the 20th century science-fiction film sets like Aelita Queen of Mars by Yakov Protazanov or L'Inhumaine by Marcel L'Herbier. Tesla clearly put himself into the role of a set designer creating his own scenography style which fuses complete geometric abstraction and organic lightnings artificially created. Therefore, just like film sets needed to be designed and composed, Tesla executed the same in a real context in which the electrical light in fact was in full action. Tesla as an imagery and spatial creator used also literature to express his thoughts and emotions, but also to fulfill his own writing style for promotional reasons of his inventions. In this way, he and other designers of the 19th century just like William Morris or novelist Edith Wharton applied writing techniques to express concepts and explanations of design or their own creations. The written form of communication no matter if through poems, private diaries, fictional novels, real scientific information or mixed styles just like Tesla did was a tool and passion setting the designer likewise as a writer. So that the 19th century designer-writer fused matters of design with literature in their own distinctive way. While Tesla used his diary in Colorado Springs to document his experiments through many calculations and formulas, for the public article he otherwise changed intentionally his writing style to reach the public reader. Therefore, Tesla as a designer-writer knew how to control his writing style between private and public occasions. In this way, writing for Tesla was also a personal way to control his personal ideals and the ideas transmitted through illusions to the outside world.

124

125

126

127

Afterword

Experimental photographs were conceptualized to interfere between the main text and Tesla's images. The intention is to make the reader perceive the imagery experience within its own “space” without being simultaneously influenced by the main paragraphs. It is a personal approach to give images their own value and “air to breath” on pages, distancing themselves from a pressured text-image relationship. Therefore, the interference represents a personal interpretation on Tesla's shaping of artificial light in full abstraction as well as the exploration between visibility and invisibility of his unconscious states that resulted in surprises. The abstract images showing light as a protagonist undergo a transformation in its appearance along the chapters until embracing the red color as an intentional color choice for the dramatization. The artificial light has been captured in its moving state with a longer exposure time as a reflection on Tesla's moving electrical light. Likewise, the paragraphs have their own space and explore geometric to dynamic shapes transmitting an idea of balanced and imbalanced movement like Tesla's controllable and uncontrollable moments. In this way, the paragraphs also become images through their own shape.

128

129

Bibliography Monographs

GEIMER. PETER, Inadvertent Images, A History of Photographic Apparitions. (Hamburg, Germany: Philo Fine Arts, 2010). GILDER. RICHARD WATSON, Letters of Richard Watson Gilder. (Boston, U.S: Boston Houghton, Mifflin, 1916).

ADES. JOSEPHINE DAWN, Photomontage (World of Art). (London, UK: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1976). AUTHOR UNKNOWN, Testimony in Behalf of Tesla, Interference No. 21,701. (New York, US: United States Patent Office, 1902). BENJAMIN. WALTER, The Arcades Project. Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century (1939). (Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S: MIT Press, 1988). BINET. ALFRED, The Psychology of Prestidigitation. (Washington DC, U.S: Government Printing Office, 1894). BOND. JAMES ARTHUR, Century Magazine, American History Through Literature 1870-1920. (Detroit, US: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006). CARLSON. BERNARD, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age. (Princeton, U.S: Princeton University Press, 2015). CANGUILHEM. DENIS, Le Merveilleux Scientifique, Photographies du Monde savant en France 1844-1918. (Paris, France: Gallimard, 2004). Catalogue of G. Cramer Dry Plate Works, Third Edition. (St. Louis. U.S: G. Cramer Dry Plate Works, 1899). CLARKE C. ARTHUR, Profiles of the Future. An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible. (New York, U.S, 1973). EDER. JOSEF MARIA, Die Praxis der Photographie mit Gelatine-Emulsionen. (Halle, Saale, Germany: Knapp, 1903). ELTON. ARTHUR, ROAD. SINCLAIR, The Popularization of Science Through Film. (Paris, France: Department of Natural Sciences, UNESCO, 1949).

GUNNING. TOM, Illusions Past and Future: The Phantasmagoria and its Specters. (Chicago, U.S: University of Chicago, 2004). HEWITT EDWARD R., Those Were the Days: Tales of a Long Life by Edward Ringwood Hewitt. (New York, U.S: Sloan & Pearce, 1943). HEIFERMAN. MARVIN, Seeing Science. How Photography Reveals the Universe. (New York, U.S: Aperture, 2019). IVES. F. EUGENE, Isochromatic Photography with Chlorophyl. (Philadelphia, U.S, 1886). MARINČIĆ. ALEKSANDAR, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900., Aleksandar Marinčić Commentaries. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1978). MEADOWS. ARTHUR JACK, The Growth of Science Popularization, A Historical Sketch. Vol. 144, Impact of Science on Society. (UNESCO, Taylor & Francis, 1986). NADAR. FELIX, When I Was A Photographer. (Cambridge, U.S: MIT Press, 2015). PRODGER. PHILLIP, Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement. (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003). PERES. ISABEL, JARDIM. MARIA, COSTA.F ERNANDA, The Role of the Artificial Lights in Scientific Photography of the XIXth-Century. (Lisbon, Portugal: University of Lisbon, Faculty of Sciences, 2008). RIEGL. ALOIS, Late Roman Art History (Archaeologica). (Rome, Italy: G. Bretschneider, 1985). SMITH. STELLA PRATT, Transformations of Electricity in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Science. (New York, U.S: Routledge Taylor & Francis, 2016).

FREEGERG. ERNEST, The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America. (London, U.K: Penguin Books, 2014).

130

131

TESLA. NIKOLA, Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900. (Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nikola Tesla Museum, NOLIT, 1977).

WILDER. KELLEY, Photography and the Art of Science. Visual Studies, Vol. 24, November 5, 2010, 163-168.

TESLA NIKOLA, Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Frequency. (New York, U.S: W. J. Johnston, 1892).

WALLACE. ROBERT JAMES, The Function of a Color-Filter and “Isochromatic" Plate in Astronomical Photography, The Astronomical Journal, March 1908, 106-124.

TESLA. NIKOLA, My Inventions. (New York, U.S: Experimenter Publishing Company, Inc., 1919). VOGEL. H. WILHELM, The Chemistry of Light and Photography, in Their Application to Art, Science, and Industry. (New York, U.S: D. Appleton, 1889). WAYNE. CYNTHIA, Dreams, Lies and Exaggerations. Photomontage in America. (College Park, U.S: University of Maryland, 1991).

Image Credits Picture 1: Tesla‘s Egg of Columbus. (New York, U.S: The Electrical Experimenter, 1919), 774. Picture 2: Experiments with Alternate Currents of Very High Frequency and Their Application to Methods of Artificial Illumination. (New York, U.S: Electrical World, 1891), 18-19.

Articles AUTHOR UNKNOWN, Alternating Currents of High Frequency, The Electrical Review, 1891, 185. AUTHOR UNKNOWN, Science and Fiction, Popular Science Monthly, 1900, 66-77. FYFE. PAUL, GE. QUIAN, Image Analytics and the Nineteenth-Century Illustrated Newspaper, Journal of Cultural Analytics, October 25, 2018, 1-25. TESLA. NIKOLA, The Problem of Increasing Human Energy, The Century Magazine, June 1900, 175-211. TESLA. NIKOLA, Radio Power will Revolutionize the World, Modern Mechanix and Inventions, July 1934, 42-119. TESLA.NIKOLA, Phenomena of Alternating Currents of High Frequency, The Electrical Review, March 6, 1891, 296-300. TESLA. NIKOLA, Some Experiments in Tesla's Laboratory with Currents of High Potential and High Frequency, The Electrical Review, March 29, 1899, 195-294.

132

Picture 3: DICKSON K. WILLIAM, Newark Athlete. (West Orange, New Jersey, U.S: Edison Studios, 1891). Picture 4-5: ALLEY. DICKENSON V., Tesla‘s Oscillator and Other Inventions. (New York, U.S: The Century Magazine, 1895), 924-925. Picture 6: ALLEY. DICKENSON V., Some Experiments in Tesla‘s Laboratory with Currents of High Potential And High Frequency. (New York, U.S: The Electrical Review, 1899), 197. Picture 7: ALLEY. DICKENSON V., Tesla‘s Oscillator and Other Inventions. (New York, U.S: The Century Magazine, 1895), Provided by the Nikola Tesla Museum. Picture 8-17: ALLEY. DICKENSON V., TESLA. NIKOLA, (Colorado Springs, U.S, 1899), Provided by the Nikola Tesla Museum.

133

134

135