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Home / Technical Articles / What happened to forgotten papers of Nikola Tesla?

Lost secrets

After Nikola Tesla died, there was a scramble by the United States government to find all of his papers, notes and research before other foreign powers could find them.

What happened with forgotten papers of Nikola Tesla?
What happened with forgotten papers of Nikola Tesla?

Tesla’s nephew, Sava Kosanovic, reported that before the OAP had arrived, someone else had obviously gone through Tesla’s belongings and took an unknown amount of personal notes and papers.

It was known by the FBI that German intelligence had already spirited away a sizable amount of Tesla’s research several years before his death.

This stolen material, it is thought, would eventually result in the development of the Nazi flying saucer.

The United States was going to make sure that this would not happen again. Anything even remotely associated with the great man was quickly confiscated and lost within the secret networks of pre-World War II America.

Nevertheless, more than a dozen boxes of Tesla’s belongings left behind at hotels like the Waldorf Astoria, the Governor Clinton Hotel and the St. Regis had already been sold to salvagers to pay off Tesla’s outstanding bills.

Most of these boxes and the secrets they contained have never been found. Pretty bad, isn’t it?

In 1976, four undistinguished boxes of papers were auctioned in the estate sale of one Michael P. Bornes. Little is known about Bornes except that he had been a bookseller in Manhattan. This auction took place in Newark, NJ, with the boxes and their contents being bought by Dale Alfrey for twenty five dollars.

Nikola Tesla (coloured photo)
Nikola Tesla (coloured photo)

Alfrey had no idea what was in the boxes when he bought them on a whim. When he later went through them, he was surprised to find what appeared to be lab documents and personal notes of Nikola Tesla.

Some of the lost papers of Tesla had once again resurfaced. However, due to ignorance they were almost lost once again.

Alfrey had little idea of the importance of the papers he now owned. Going through the incredible amount of material, Alfrey at first thought he had uncovered the notes of a science fiction writer. What he read was so incredible that it seemed impossible that any of it was true. Having little interest in what he had bought, Alfrey stashed the boxes away in his basement thinking that he would go through them again later when he had more time.

Twenty years passed before Alfrey would once again find the time to open the strange boxes. Unfortunately, time had not been so kind to the precious contents contained within.

The papers by now had mildewed badly and the ink had faded from the years of neglect in the damp basement.

Alfrey was determined not to let this material disappear forever and started the laborious effort of trying to transcribe the information before it was too late.

However, Alfrey soon found himself caught up in reading the remarkable papers. Tesla’s notes are shocking in their revelations of the scientist’s secret life. A life, that up until this time, had never been mentioned by Tesla, or documented by biographers after his death.

These lost journals revealed that in 1899, while in Colorado Springs, Tesla intercepted communications from extraterrestrial beings who were secretly controlling mankind. These creatures were slowly preparing humans for eventual conquest and domination, using a program that had been in place since the creation of humankind, but was now accelerating due to Earth’s increased scientific awareness.

Tesla wrote about his years of research to interpret the strange radio signals, and his attempts to notify the government and military concerning what he had learned, but his letters apparently went unanswered.

Tesla's financier John Jacob Astor was drowned with the Titanic!
Tesla’s financier John Jacob Astor was drowned with the Titanic!

Tesla spoke in confidence to several of his benefactors, including Colonel John Jacob Astor, who owned the Waldorf Astoria hotel. These benefactors listened to Tesla and secretly funded what was to be the start of mankind’s first battle to regain control of its own destiny. A battle set in motion by Nikola Tesla.

While this information seems absolutely incredible, Tesla did give occasional hints to his predicament in various newspaper and magazine interviews.

Tesla may have elaborated on the subject in an article called:

Talking With the Planets, in Colliers Weekly (March 1901).

[dropcap2]A[/dropcap2]s I was improving my machines for the production of intense electrical actions, I was also perfecting the means for observing feeble efforts. One of the most interesting results, and also one of great practical importance, was the development of certain contrivances for indicating at a distance of many hundred miles an approaching storm, its direction, speed and distance traveled.

[dropcap2]I[/dropcap2]t was in carrying on this work that for the first time I discovered those mysterious effects which have elicited such unusual interest. I had perfected the apparatus referred to so far that from my laboratory in the Colorado mountains I could feel the pulse of the globe, as it were, noting every electrical change that occurred within a radius of eleven hundred miles.

[dropcap2]I[/dropcap2]can never forget the first sensations I experienced when it dawned upon me that I had observed something possibly of incalculable consequences to mankind.

[dropcap2]I[/dropcap2]felt as though I were present at the birth of a new knowledge or the revelation of a great truth. My first observations positively terrified me, as there was present in them something mysterious, not to say supernatural, and I was alone in my laboratory at night; but at that time the idea of these disturbances being intelligently controlled signals did not yet present itself to me.

[dropcap2]T[/dropcap2]he changes I noted were taking place periodicallyand with such a clear suggestion of number and order that they were not traceable to any cause known to me. I was familiar, of course, with such electrical disturbances as are produced by the sun, Aurora Borealis, and earth currents, and I was as sure as I could be of any fact that these variations were due to none of these causes.

The nature of my experiments precluded the possibility of the changes being produced by atmospheric disturbances, as has been rashly asserted by some. It was some time afterward when the thought flashed upon my mind that the disturbances I had observed might be due to an intelligent control.

[dropcap2]A[/dropcap2]lthough I could not decipher their meaning, it was impossible for me to think of them as having been entirely accidental.

[dropcap2]T[/dropcap2]he feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another. A purpose was behind these electrical signals.”

Decades later on his birthday in 1937, he announced:

I have devoted much of my time during the year past to the perfecting of a new small and compact apparatus by which energy in considerable amounts can now be flashed through interstellar space to any distance without the slightest dispersion.
(New York Times, Sunday, 11 July 1937.)

Tesla never publicly revealed any technical details of his improved transmitter, but in his 1937 announcement, he revealed a new formula showing that:

The kinetic and potential energy of a body is the result of motion and determined by the product of its mass and the square of its velocity.

Let the mass be reduced, the energy is reduced by the same proportion. If it be reduced to zero, the energy is likewise zero for any finite velocity.” (New York Sun, 12 July 1937, p. 6.)

Why is it that there has been little written about Tesla’s belief that he had listened in on alien radio signals? Perhaps the truth has been kept secret…


Photos from the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia

Instruments used by Nikola Tesla in his laboratory experiments.
Instruments used by Nikola Tesla in his laboratory experiments.

Device used to demonstrate the Rotating Magnetic Field of Electricity
Device used to demonstrate the Rotating Magnetic Field of Electricity

Egg of Columbus - the iron egg stands and spins in the rotating magnetic field
Egg of Columbus – the iron egg stands and spins in the rotating magnetic field

Remote control boat built by Tesla and displayed in Madison Square Garden in 1898
Remote control boat built by Tesla and displayed in Madison Square Garden in 1898

Huge Tesla Coil in the Tesla Museum
Huge Tesla Coil in the Tesla Museum

Tesla Electric Motor - one of the ten greatest inventions of all time
Tesla Electric Motor – one of the ten greatest inventions of all time

Resource: The Lost Journals of Nikola Tesla – T. Swartz (Get this book from Amazon)

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Edvard Csanyi

Electrical engineer, programmer and founder of EEP. Highly specialized for design of LV/MV switchgears and LV high power busbar trunking (<6300A) in power substations, commercial buildings and industry facilities. Professional in AutoCAD programming.

17 Comments


  1. Sarah
    Mar 09, 2021

    I am uncomfortable sharing my full name so I will not. But anyway . . . . . . . . . I LOVE PORTAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I agree to several of these comments.


    • Sarah
      Mar 09, 2021

      It’s great.


  2. Robert James Phillips
    Feb 21, 2021

    AMAZED!!!! THIS IS JUST WHAT HUMANITY NEEDS!!!
    Fresh minds to commit to new projects that use the discoveries which have been lovingly created by Geniiuse Minds.

    Not to cower away and hide these Beautiful Concepts…,but to truly use them for the positive path of Human Evolvement.
    I Pearsonally have seen energy fields which without this insight,would seem outlandish or in some cases down right looney tunes.
    We Have an Opportunity to teach others like this!…We have The Right To this knowledge.
    Somehow,There is information for all of Mr Tesslas inventions from a certain System and I Am Pearsonally so Greatful I could just EXPLODE!!!! THANKS PORTAL!!!!


  3. Robert
    Jan 14, 2021

    Cool story, bro.


    • Sarah
      Mar 09, 2021

      Agreed


  4. Helen Costner
    Jan 10, 2020

    I have been overwhelmed by the readings of Nicola Tesla. He was such a brilliant man that it’s disturbing to think people were so inconceivable ignorant and used his thoughts as b.s. I admit I don’t understand a lot of the scientific stuff but he was a human being with thoughts that common people were robbed from understanding. Thank God this man lived.


    • Linaya Hahn
      Jul 23, 2020

      This article “just happened” to be sent to me today by a friend. I am assembling any of Nikola Tesla’s ideas, projects, papers, and inventions to put in a new Nikola Tesla Museum in Boulder, CO. Please let me know if you have anything for the Museum.


  5. Walt Stephens
    Feb 26, 2019

    Who says Tesla was a nut? He had superior intelligence! he was different, NOT crazy! besides, there is a very thin line between genius & insanity. & yes, a genius can be also insane, but where is the proof? I’m SURE Westinghouse Claimed Edison was crazy. But where would Westinghouse be without Edison?
    They were rivals. Westinghouse trumped Edison, but does THAT make edison crazy? I think NOT!


  6. YOUSSEF
    Oct 18, 2018

    TESLA IT S A Unusual phenomenon


  7. Jay
    Dec 19, 2016

    Kuku? You mean coocoo?

    Personally I do not think Tesla was crazy at all. He was advanced in intelligence. What is truly crazy is all the brainless followers all over the world who henpeck people who are superior since humans hate what they don’t understand. Humans are an extremely destructive species. An anomaly such as Tesla comes along and humans attack their weaknesses, not entirely unlike the story of Jesus. People blame Jews for the demise of Christ but really it is human nature to attack anyone who does not conform to the norm. This happens in every walk of life.

    But anyway my point is that anytime a genius comes along, he gets ridiculed, run off, or ripped off. Then it takes decades or a century for their ideas to be accepted and heralded once the truth prevails, if it even does at all.


  8. steven gee
    Aug 24, 2016

    He has created the modern world yet all some people see is the kuku-
    this is the ultimate problem with why Tesla will never be respected like einsteinn even if he could
    unify the the world physics equation of everthing He was on the right track also including gravity and electro magnetism. What is more kuku is that people did not take
    this guy seriously. Have a look at his inventions they are simply out of this world considering the era
    , and knowlege known at that time. Noone took his notes, ideas, because this is the ultimat issue when mankind is faced with genius? they kick them, shame them, allienate them, and focus on the kuku?
    this guy is the real deal, not just a head full of equations but makes, imagines, and creates. Even now he is put down and my heart hurts for him as i realise people even now after how comfy he has made our lives will never give him the benifat and respect he is owed and it would appear people still make fun of his kuku knowing the primative treatment options for mental issues a that time. Well knowing what he knew would make anyone go kuku when you live on the edge of discovery and genious as he did. He even now is refered to as an electrical engineer/inventor. Not very sexy. Well he was also highly schooled in physics, which is how is able to do what he did. Maybe we could start with a title worthy of his greatness and ty to recover his theorys that were taken and misplaced. Something is not right and when we look into it I can see that this man was taken advantage of by it would seem most people he came into working with. The truth would be good instead of the small talk of kuku. Let the people who wronged this man out ofthe dark. The people who ultimatly robbed him and blackmailed him. Their deserves to be more light shinned on his discoverys to see if they had merit. He knew to much to be left out of history like he has, wheres the legacy? This guy even now is being disrespected in my opinion and wronged. We need to complete the works he started including wireless electrical transmission would be a start? Lets teach our kids about this man. He is far too interesting to be forgotton about at his hotel, broke, alone and living with mental illness.


  9. adam miller
    Jun 17, 2016

    to bad there was no internet for him to just upload all of his notes at the time so that everyone could have access,only issue i have with him receiving an “alien” signal is that if there were such signals, i highly doubt they would be analogue, and it would not be a language we could recognize anyway


    • Lee Williamson
      Oct 05, 2016

      The signals would not be “analogue.” What makes you say that? The signals were electromagnetic energies. Perhaps Tesla’s methods of reception were “analogue,” e.g. conducting antennae to receive the pulses connected to some metallurgic emf meter. Who said Tesla understood them? Tesla was highly intrigued by them and studied them hoping to gain some sliver of understanding. Did you know that many years later the U.S. sent out a golden records with the Voyager that included recordings to try and depict life on Earth? THAT was analogue. EMF is specifically NOT analogue. At any rate the signals he received have been determined to some degree of certainty to be electromagnetic radiation from planets within out solar system.


  10. ULHAS VAJRE
    Nov 15, 2015

    REALLY INFORMATIVE ARTICLE. LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ARE PRESENTED IN THIS ARTICLE, GOOD TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GREAT SCIENTIST AND INVENTOR. THE ENTIRE ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING FRATERNITY IS GRATEFUL TO THIS GENIUS, WHO HAS HAD GIVEN THE WORKING HORSE, ELECTRIC MOTOR TO MANKIND..


  11. juju
    Nov 01, 2015

    okay i think i understand why US hides his documetns. this ridiculous conspiracy theory, actually proves that he was abit kuku, or kcoocoo, not exactly right in the head, yes?
    but since the public so much have high esteem of tesla, more people will freak out and consider his crazy babbling as truths.

    thank god someone there has still some sense.


    • jack
      Aug 06, 2018

      yes, he may have been crazy. but his inventions DID WORK, weather or not people believe it obviously he wasn’t that crazy if the governments of the world really did try and get his things in secret. doesn’t that strike you a bit odd? why you they do that if he wasn’t telling some sort of truth… and without tesla we would not have cellphones , tv, or cars. so yes he was crazy but he was not just a crazy old man he actually left all his inventions as his legacy because he very well could’ve just said F it society is not ready for these inventions and then just destroyed them but he didn’t. and they wouldn’t of kept his anti gravity proportion system a secret until modern times if there wasn’t some sort of propaganda involved, I mean believe what you want but just cause you think tesla was a nut case doesn’t mean he was one. peoples personal opinions are very different that proven scientific facts.


  12. fariedrj
    Apr 18, 2013

    great article

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