Fire on Fifth Avenue. New lab on Houston Street, 46. "Ark", radio-controlled. Torpedoes or robots? The machine with "own mind".

The morning of March 13, 1895. It was not yet the hour for the employees to come to the laboratory on Fifth Avenue, and Tesla, who had usually finished the day at dawn, had just returned to his hotel when a horrible news spread through the city: the huge house in which the inventor's lab was located was flaming. In vain were the efforts of firefighters trying to fight the fire, but soon forced to retreat and allow him to devour the floor behind the floor. With every minute, the flames were destroyed by the equipment, accumulated over the years, rare instruments, manuscripts and books. Within a few hours the fire destroyed the results of many years of hard work.

When Tesla appeared on Fifth Avenue, he saw only the charred skeleton of the building and the debris of crippled appliances. The fire not only destroyed all the results of many years of work, but also ruined the scientist, who did not insure his property. In the fire were also lost the letters of the sister and mother's bust, always standing on the table in the office of Nikola Tesla.

It was necessary to have a lot of courage and faith in their strength, so as not to fall in the spirit and not give up the continuation of the work. At the same time, at the still smoking building, Tesla unhesitatingly told reporters of his intention to restore the burned manuscripts, since they are all stored in his memory, as in the safest safe.

- The following latest achievements in the field of electrical phenomena were destroyed in my laboratory. This, first, is a mechanical oscillator; Second, a new method of electric lighting; Thirdly, a new method for wireless transmission of messages over long distances and, fourthly, a method for studying the very nature of electricity. Of course, each of these works, as well as many others, can be restored, and I will do my best to restore it in the new laboratory, "Tesla said in one interview, but immediately, unable to restrain himself, added:" Irrevocably, only Something that had a personal value for me.

A rumor spread through the city, engendered by the widely known struggle of two inventors. The cause of the fire was arson, committed by allegedly bribed Edison laboratory staff Tesla. When this assumption reached Tesla, he publicly denied it, saying that he considered Edison to be too decent a man and a great inventor, so that he could be suspected of such a dishonorable act.

The next morning, the New York San newspaper, in a message titled, "Unhappiness for the whole world," wrote: "The destruction of Tesla's workshop on Western Broadway, with all its amazing content, is more than a personal nuisance." This is a misfortune for the world. " And this really was a misfortune for the whole world.

In the evening on the day of the fire Tesla began to restore his records, and the next morning he found a small room for the laboratory, ordered the necessary equipment and began to work. Soon the inventor was provided with financial assistance "Niagara Falls Company". Through Edward Adams, Tesla received at his disposal 100 thousand dollars, which was equipped on Houston Street, 46 laboratories, and in the autumn of 1895 he resumed his research in full.

The days of hard work began again in search of a principled solution to the task at hand - the creation of such a system in which, with the help of high-frequency electromagnetic oscillations, it would be possible to influence different mechanisms at any distance.

Tesla believed that he himself did not need to develop to the details of all kinds of equipment to use for various purposes the high frequency currents he discovered. Go ahead, continuously discovering new and new consequences from his greatest discovery - the rotating magnetic field and high frequency currents, to give the world more and more new ideas, thoughts, expand the horizons of science, generalizing seemingly disparate and mutually unrelated facts - He set such a task for himself.

Adams, convinced of the tremendous prospects opened by Tesla's works, offered him his son's companions. At the same time, he guaranteed an increase in funding. Tesla categorically rejected this proposal, although it provided him with full material prosperity.

He did not heed Tesla and the advice of his assistant, George Sherf, to complete at least one of his great discoveries with the creation of a device, the distribution of which would yield considerable income and thereby provide material further research.

"At least for the transmission of signals, various information, exchange news," Sherf said. - After all, you already three years ago expressed a completely completed idea of ​​wireless transmission of signals. Your experiences at the Chicago exhibition give every reason to hope for success. Agree with the proposal of Lloyd. Transmit information about the course of international yacht competitions on your system. This will give you sufficient funds for further work. Tesla refused flatly.

"I will not do it," he told his assistant. - Let others if want, are engaged in development of about what I already mentioned in the lectures that have shown for acknowledgment of correctness of the assumptions. I am developing my universal, worldwide system for applying high frequency currents for a variety of purposes, and until it is clear to me in every detail, I will not digress from it for the development of particulars.

Did Tesla later recall this conversation in 1896 with Georg Scherf, when the financial possibilities of the inventor and the scientist were scanty to the extreme? More than once the blows of fate put the development of his ideas in dependence on material conditions. But always he remained true to himself: for no reason to be distracted by particulars, go ahead, overtaking the era.

In his laboratory, Tesla continued to develop all the problems immediately set forth by him in the classic lectures delivered in America and Europe. One of these problems was to find out the nature of those "very special rays" that had amazing properties to penetrate through opaque objects.

Tesla experimented with them a lot and suggested using these rays to study objects that were not visible to the eye. When at the end of 1895 the German physicist V. Roentgen discovered these rays (originally called X-rays) and in early 1896 published the results of his observations in the journal of the Würzburg Physico-Medical Society, Tesla immediately responded to this message. In April 1896, he published the first of ten articles, indicating the possibility of using X-rays to detect and treat tumors and inflammations. In other articles in this series, Tesla dwelled in detail on various cases of future use of X-rays, on the technique of working with them, on precautionary measures when handling the X-ray tubes and Lenard.

The X-ray itself conducted a second series of its famous experiments, using the Tesla resonant transformer to obtain high-voltage currents.

Between Tesla and Roentgen correspondence began, which lasted until 1901. In one of the last surviving letters, V. Roentgen wrote:

"... You extremely surprised me with beautiful photos of wonderful discharges, and I am very grateful to you for them.If I only knew how you achieve such things! With an expression of deep respect I remain on July 20, 1901." B. Roentgen.

Tesla's thoughts were still occupied with the desire to create a universal system for the transmission and use of electromagnetic oscillations, capable of providing electricity consumption anywhere in the world.

In 1896, not far from New York, Tesla built a small radio station and transmitted signals for a distance of up to 32 kilometers. By this time, he increased the frequency of the current at his sending station (reduced the wavelength), bringing it up to 2 MHz - a value previously unattainable. Signals of his dispatcher in New York were taken by ships moving along the Hudson at a distance of more than 25 kilometers. September 2, 1897 for the invention of Tesla in this area were granted two patents for numbers 645576 and 649621. They indicated that one more important step was taken towards the creation of a universal system for the transmission of energy over a distance. Experimenting at his dispatch station, Tesla began developing a scheme for transmitting radio waves to control various mechanisms. The experience he accumulated testified to the full feasibility of this idea. A year and a half passed in the study of those conditions that could provide reliable, trouble-free control at a distance by automatic devices. At the beginning of the next, in 1898, Tesla created the first design of a ship controlled by radio signals at a considerable distance, and tested his model in a laboratory on Houston Street. July 1, 1898, he applied for a patent.

In September 1898 in Madison Square Garden (one of the largest halls of New York) was held an annual electric exhibition. In the center of the hall was a large swimming pool. On one of the walls he was made a mooring, to which moored a small, strange at first glance ark with a long thin metal rod in the middle and metal tubes, ending with electric bulbs at the stern and on the nose.

The thin rod was the receiving antenna, and the Ark itself was the world's first radio-controlled vessel, one of the most important inventions of Nikola Tesla.

The unusual exhibit collected crowds of spectators. With a signal from the control panel, the scientist made the boat sail with various speeds back and forth, did complex maneuvers, lit and extinguished the electric lamps at the bow and stern of it.

The radio signals from the console were received by the antenna mounted on the boat, and then transmitted inside it, where complex mechanisms obediently obeyed Tesla's orders. Special devices, the so-called servo motors, converted electrical signals into mechanical motion.

November 8, 1898 on this invention, Nikole Tesle was granted a patent in the United States, and then in other countries, including in Russia (July 30, 1905 on the application of October 26, 1898). Descriptions of experiences in Madison Square Garden and Tesla's patent filled out pages of newspapers and magazines. They were written about not only in the US, but also in Russia, France and England. Again Tesla became the focus of attention of all electrical engineers of the world. Particularly impressive was the statement of Nikola Tesla, formulated in the final words of the patent. After a detailed enumeration of many cases of possible application of his invention, Tesla wrote: "This invention can be useful in many respects, such vessels or vehicles can be used to establish communications in inaccessible areas for the purpose of studying them or carrying out various scientific, technical and trade tasks ".

A lot of sensational hype was raised around the "Ark" of Tesla, but in certain influential circles the possibility of remote control was appreciated first and only from the point of view of the destructive effect of such automatic weapons. For the first time the idea of ​​the possibility of such an application of Tesla's invention for military purposes was expressed by the scientific editor of the newspaper "New York Times" Woldemar Kempfer. He suggested loading a large boat with dynamite, making it dive, pointing at the target and blowing up the enemy ship. This proposal seemed particularly tempting in view of the military actions between the US and Spain for Cuba and the Philippine Islands, which began the death of the US military ship Maine, which exploded on February 15, 1898 off the coast of Cuba. This catastrophe, the cause of which remained unknown, was used by the American imperialists as a pretext for the outbreak of an aggressive war.

Speculating on the invention of Tesla, Kempfer hoped that his, Kempfer, proposal interested in the Pentagon. Not counting the wishes of the inventor himself, Kempfer used all the possibilities to propagate his project of using automatically controlled submarines. Tesla immediately declared a categorical protest, although he transferred his invention to the disposal of the US government. In journal articles he wrote:

"My invention is not a torpedo, but the first representative of a race of robots who will perform all the work for a man." Robots are suitable for both war and peace, but precisely because of their extraordinary destructive possibilities, it will make all war senseless. "

In those years, Tesla did not understand that automation, based on his inventions, could save mankind from destructive wars only when it became the property of the peoples themselves. The next few months Tesla devoted to developing the idea of ​​a remotely controlled machine that could reproduce all human actions. Deep study of the structure of the nervous system and the brain in humans and higher animals helped him improve the machine. Tesla himself described the history of these works in 1900 in an article summarizing his first searches in this field:

"... I decided to create an automaton that, like myself, would react to external stimuli, but more limited." Such an automaton must have the ability to move, that is, have a mechanism for movement, to direct movement to one or more organs that receive External irritations.I believed that this machine can perform all the movements of a living being, for it will possess all the basic organs of the animal.

For this it is necessary that such an automaton possess some element analogous to the human brain, controlling its actions or operations in any case, which can be presented as if it had knowledge, reason, judgment and experience. However, this element is easy to create in it, giving it your own mind. Thus, a new invention and a new technique appeared, for which a new name was proposed - "teleautomatic", which means a technique for controlling the movements and actions of automata remote from a distance. "

Tesla comprehensively developed the main provisions of this new technique. In order to be able to control different automata or parts of one machine without causing the action of others, it is necessary to configure their receiving devices for different frequencies sent from one central station. This shows that Tesla, with remarkable perspicacity, understood the importance of radio-selectivity, which other inventors in the field of radio were not yet appreciated to the proper extent.

After Tesla found out all the conditions under which it was possible to transmit radio signals to control the actions of automata and to remove possible interference, he went further in creating even more complex mechanisms. Later the scientist wrote:

"The simplest, already described way, knowledge, experience, judgment, in short, the mind of a distant operator would be embodied in such a machine that it would be able to act reasonably." She would behave like a blind man, receiving all the instructions to the ears. Now the apparatus is endowed with a "borrowed mind," since each of them represents, as it were, a part of the operator that conveys its reasonable orders to them, but this area is just beginning to develop!

I intend to show that, no matter how impossible it seems now, it is possible to create an automaton endowed with "one's own mind," by which I mean that he, being left to himself, responding to external stimuli affecting his sensitive organs, independently From the operator will be able to perform various actions, as if he had a mind.

He could act according to the orders given in advance. He could distinguish between what should and should not be done, and be able to accumulate experience and record impressions that would undoubtedly have significance for his subsequent actions. In fact, I already have a detailed plan for this machine.

Although I created this invention many years ago and explained it to my visitors in the laboratory, it was only recently known, much later than I improved it, and naturally caused sensational responses. But the true meaning of this new technique is not understood by the majority and the tremendous significance of its basic principle is not appreciated.

As far as I could judge from the numerous comments that appeared after the demonstration, the results I obtained were then considered unrealizable. Even those few who were inclined to consider my invention feasible, saw in him only an automatically moving torpedo, whose purpose was to blow up battleships with dubious success.

However, the technique that I developed is capable not only of changing the direction of the vessel's movement. It provides means for fine-tuning all the innumerable manageable movements, as well as the actions of the entire sum of the organs of any machine, regardless of their number. "

Indeed, at the end of the 19th century it was difficult to believe in the possibility of this. The creation of complex managed automata capable of performing logical operations on a pre-programmed program, accumulating experience and independently making adjustments to programs was considered unrealizable even in the 1930s. But Tesla for many years persistently continued to improve sophisticated automata, as close to their action as possible to human actions.

Of course, for the full success of Tesla's plan, the efforts of a large team of scientists, engineers and technicians of various specialties were necessary. It is known that the creation of modern robots is the result of the achievements of mathematics, physics, mechanics, radio and electrical engineering, and logic. For one scientist the solution to all these problems was unbearable, but, nevertheless, the tremendous importance of Tesla's work in this area should not be forgotten.

Fifteen years later Tesla returned to this issue and in an unpublished article described the history of his work on the creation of controlled automata. In it he also told about an unsuccessful attempt to interest his invention various departments, financiers and industrialists. "The idea of ​​creating an automaton of my own theory occurred to me a long time ago, but I did not start working on it until 1893, when I started my research in the field of wireless communication.In the next two or three years I designed a number of automatic mechanisms operating at a distance , And showed them to visitors to his laboratory.However, in 1896 I designed a full machine capable of performing many operations, but the implementation of this work was postponed until the end of 1897. This machine is depicted and described in the Century Magazine for June 1900 and in others Periodicals of that time.When it was first shown in 1898, it caused such a sensation as none of my other inventions.

In November 1898, the main patent was obtained for this new technique, but it happened only after the chief expert arrived in New York and got acquainted with my car; The description seemed implausible to him. I remember that when I later came to Washington with the intention of proposing my invention, the official I turned to when I listened to me broke out into laughter. At that time, there were not even the weakest prospects for the implementation of my proposal.

Unfortunately, in this patent, following the advice of my attorneys, I pointed out that the adjustment is carried out by means of a single circuit and a detector of a known type. This was done for the reason that the patent for my selectivity system had not yet been received. Actually, the management of my boats was carried out through the interaction of several chains, and interference of any kind was completely excluded.

In the same period, another large boat was constructed. It was controlled by a loop antenna with several turns, mounted in a housing, waterproof and submersible. This device was similar to the original one, except for some features that I introduced into it: for example, incandescent lamps, which were a visible confirmation of the operation of the machine, and others.

However, this machine, which was controlled within the field of view of the operator, represented only the first step in the development of the "teleautomatics" technique. The next logical step was the application of automation to devices located outside the limits of visibility, and then at very large distances ... "

The ships built by Tesla, operated by radio, sailed to the open sea 25 miles from the control station, performed all maneuvers required by the operator, and then safely returned to the New York harbor.

The successful solution of this difficult task allowed Tesla to proceed to the creation of an even more sophisticated apparatus, controlled by radio. In 1900, he worked on a project of an aircraft equipped with a jet engine.

"Such a machine, maintained and operated solely by reaction, can be controlled either mechanically or wirelessly by installing the appropriate instruments.You can run a flying machine into the air and cause it to fall almost exactly at a given point that can be thousands of miles away But we do not think to stop at this, "Tesla wrote in the same unpublished article.

There seem to be even more interesting and more complex projects controlled by radio and flying vehicles developed by Nikolay Tesla in those years and then improved by him during the First World War, but he did not have the habit of recording the course of his calculations and drawing drawings of the invented design, While the whole invention did not become absolutely clear and no patent description of it was created. It can be assumed that many inventions of this kind, made by Tesla in different years, will remain unknown, for they died with him, unless in his rough papers stored in Belgrade, documents prepared for obtaining the relevant patents are eventually found.

What significance did these works of Tesla have for the development of that field of science and technology, which only later acquired great importance and became widely known as "engineering cybernetics," is evident from the fact that it was precisely under the influence of the ideas of "teleautomatics" that automatic machines were created, For example, the electric dog of John Hamond (1910). This artificial dog on wheels followed everywhere behind the owner, moving with the help of a motor controlled by a light beam entering the device through lenses that represented eyes, then passed through selenium cells and turned into impulses of movement. Hamond also built a yacht that sailed without a crew, leaving the sea from Boston harbor and returning to it on the signals of the operator, broadcast by radio.

Tesla even more approached modern concepts of cybernetics in another note, which apparently dates back to the thirties.

The whole course of the development of modern electroautomatics confirms the correctness of the assumptions made by Nikola Tesla. It is equally important to note that it was Tesla who was the creator of a variety of remotely controlled automatic equipment.

Modern radio-controlled sophisticated assault rifles, missiles, torpedoes, submarines, unmanned aerial vehicles and many other devices of this kind are the result of the continued work of Nikola Tesla, his tireless works, which attracted the attention of subsequent inventors. And although the name of Tesla, as one of the founders of all modern teleautomatics and cybernetic machines, is not always mentioned in the literature, the historical truth is that it is to him more than anyone that the world owes the birth and progress of many of the most important trends in modern technology. But Tesla could not limit himself to these inventions. To create a control system for such automata at any distance, anywhere in the world, with little energy consumption and using the phenomenon of resonance, is the task set for them in the end of 1899.