"I exhibited some of my newest inventions at the World's Columbian Exposition. It was a celebration to commemorate the four-hundred-year anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The theme or centerpiece of the fair was a large water pool, which represented the long voyage Columbus had taken to the New World.
" and designed the World's Columbian Exposition. It was their vision of what an ideal city should be. The fair also served to show the world that Chicago had risen from the ashes of the , which had destroyed much of the city in 1871.
"The exposition took place on more than six hundred sprawling acres, featuring nearly two hundred new buildings of predominantly neoclassical architecture, and , and people and cultures from forty-six countries. More than twenty-seven million people attended the exposition during its six-month run. It was truly a site to behold!
"Dedication ceremonies for the World's Columbian Exposition were held on October 21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not actually opened to the public until May 1, 1893. The exposition continued until October 30, 1893.
"I have a newspaper article here about the exposition. It describes events that took place on October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day. On that day, the article states, the exposition set a world record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 716,881 people to the event."
Mr. Edison handed the newspaper article to me.
"Both Tesla and I wanted to win the bid to light the World's Columbian Exposition. We both realized that whoever won the bid would soon light the world. I was backed with money from J. P. Morgan and General Electric while Tesla was financially backed by Westinghouse. General Electric Company's first bid to light the fair was $1.8 million. That bid did not go over well. J. P. Morgan and I submitted a second bid for $554,000. We found out later that Westinghouse and Tesla had submitted a bid proposal to light the fair for $399,000. Westinghouse and Tesla won the bid to electrify the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago with alternating current.
"Tesla originally planned on using our GE bulbs for the fair, but I, still miffed about losing the bid, would not sell the bulbs to him. Unfortunately they came up with a more efficient double-stopper lightbulb to use. It was a key event in the history of AC power. At the fair, Tesla was able to demonstrate a series of electrical effects in a lecture that he had previously performed throughout America and Europe. This included using high-voltage, high-frequency alternating current to light a wireless gas-discharged lamp.
"At the time of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago was an exciting, crowded and bustling city. In the 1890s, about a thousand trains a day entered or left the city. Anonymous deaths were a frequent occurrence. The newspapers back then stated an average of two people a day were killed at the city's rail crossings. Horses bolted and dragged carriages into crowds, stepping on and then rolling over people. Fires took a dozen lives a day. Diseases like diphtheria, typhus, cholera and influenza were prevalent.
"And there were many murders. During the Chicago World's Fair, the rate of murder rose sharply throughout the nation, but especially in Chicago, where police found themselves without the manpower or expertise to manage the volume. In the first six months of 1892, the year prior to the opening of the fair, the city experienced nearly eight hundred violent deaths.
"Chicago was also one of the largest cities known for slaughtering and packaging pigs and cattle. The scent of blood in the air from the slaughterhouses was prevalent when I stepped off the train in May 1893.
"The World's Columbian Exposition, by contrast, had such a unique, pristine air about it . . . a fantasy world. It was what everyone dreamed the world should be like . . . so different from the real Chicago. Amazing new inventions and products were introduced to the world at the exposition such as the magnificent Ferris wheel and products such as Cracker Jacks, Juicy Fruit gum, Quaker Oats, Cream of Wheat, and one of my favorites, chocolate bars introduced by Milton Hershey.
"The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition devoted a building solely for electrical exhibits and called it the Electricity Building. In its theatorium visitors in Chicago were able to listen to an orchestra playing at that very moment in New York. Some of the inventions that I had patented and that were on display in the Electricity Building seemed to be quite popular with the public. Visitors could watch moving pictures in my kinetoscope. I also displayed my metal cylinder that could store voices. 'A man in Europe talks to his wife in America by boxing up a cylinder full of conversation and sending it by express,' the Rand, McNally guidebook said.
"A poster next to the exhibit of my phonograph featured a handsome young man with the words 'A lover talks by the hour into a cylinder, and his sweetheart hears as though the thousand leagues were but a yard.' My electric chair, the first-ever built, was also on display in the building.
"I entered the grounds of World's Columbian Exposition the first day it was open to the public and walked directly toward the building devoted to electrical exhibits. One very large room had been built specifically for Tesla. His equipment was set up in the middle of the room, and seating was provided all around the room for the public to view the demonstrations. Two hard-rubber plates covered with tin foil were suspended within the room. The plates were about fifteen feet apart and served as terminals for the wires leading from the transformers. When the current was turned on, the lamps or tubes, which had no wires connected to them, were made luminous.
"Tesla demonstrated the principles and safety of alternating current. He would amaze the crowd by allowing hundreds of volts of electricity to run from one finger across his body and out his index finger on his opposite side. The hundreds of onlookers gasped as electricity arced around the stage from brass post to brass post as though Tesla was God himself with some superior power over lightning and nature. I could see that Tesla's demonstration produced much wonder and astonishment from the crowds.
"I had come to Chicago with the intent of killing Tesla, but, after I saw his amazing demonstration, the thought occurred to me that perhaps we could actually work together. For the first time I realized that Tesla was the only man in the world who could help me accomplish my lifelong goal. I knew I had to convince him to work with me.
"Tesla had a reputation for poorly managing his finances. Whenever he acquired any money, he would proceed to invest it on some type of invention or new patent, and then he would be penniless once again.
"After Tesla's demonstration, I approached him.
"'Nikola, do you think there is somewhere you and I could speak in private?' I asked.
"Tesla, always very suspicious of me, hesitated for a moment then said, 'Sure, come with me.' We walked into a small room that was inside the same building. Tesla shut the door.
"'Your demonstration today was very impressive,' I said. 'I know the crowds really enjoyed the show. I realize you and I haven't always gotten along, but I would like to propose something to you today.'
"He remained expressionless. Then he began to speak. 'Thomas,' Tesla said, 'thank you for coming today. I appreciate your kind words. But as far as a proposal from you, why would you ever think I would trust you? Don't you remember you still owe me fifty thousand dollars?'
"I replied, 'Nikola, I have an idea for a new device that will change the world. I will give you your fifty thousand dollars in cash tomorrow to prove to you that I am sincere. Then, over the next few years, I will fund and purchase a laboratory for you. I will spend a total of five hundred thousand dollars for the building and for your equipment.'
"I went on to explain, when he was in his new laboratory, he would have room for his high-voltage, high-frequency experiments.
"'Most important of all,' I said, 'we will register as coinventors on the patent for my device, because I am unable to perfect it without you.'
"Tesla put his hand on his chin as if he was considering the proposal.
"'If you agree to these terms,' I said, 'I will have my lawyer draw up the papers tomorrow.'
"'I will agree,' he said, 'but the contract must state that I will have my fifty thousand dollars in cash by the end of the week and that I will be in my new well-equipped laboratory no later than July 1899. If not, the contract will be broken.'
"'That sounds fine,' I replied.
"We shook hands. I started walking out to leave and then I quickly turned back around toward Tesla.
"'Oh, Nikola,' I said, 'I have one more request. You know how I like being a showman and how I like to see my name in the press?'
"Tesla looked down at the ground, shook his head and said, 'I think we are just about to end our partnership.'
"I quickly replied, 'No, no. It's nothing serious. I just don't want to let the press know that we have decided to work together. The newspaper articles are so much more fun to read when the press and the public believe we are bitter enemies.'
"'Then enemies it is!' he said. 'You had better get out of here by the back door so people won't see us together. I'll show you where it is.'
"The fifty thousand dollars in cash was in Tesla's hands the next day.
"On June 15, 1899, Tesla performed his first experiments in his new Colorado Springs laboratory."