Tesla and Pupin - Childish Act of Bright Minds
Published in HautLife
Category: Science
Nikola Tesla and Mihajlo Pupin, icons of modern science, fellow countrymen, and close friends, didn’t talk to each other for more than thirty years.
Mihajlo Pupin (1858-1935) was a professor at Columbia University, scientist, grandfather of the modern telephony, known for so-called “Pupin Coils” which extended the range of telephone communication, one of the founders of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) what we today know as NASA, etc.
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was also a scientist, man responsible for “alternating current”, or modern electricity in translation, and wireless communication, among so many other things.
These bright minds, both accountable for our nowadays favorite toys, and endless wireless communication, met in New York sometime in the 1880s. Sharing not only the Serbian language and tradition, but also an enormous passion for science, they became close friends. The two used to hang out together, often killing their Sundays at the Engineers’ Club on Fifth Avenue.
Believe it or not, the most popular game at the time was the thumb wrestling, called “hooking”. According to Arthur Brisbane, a journalist and editor for the New York World, Tesla had huge hands, so nobody could stand a chance against his big thumbs. Anyhow, on one extremely boring Sunday, the “boys” were pulling each other’s thumbs, followed by cheerful ovations of the rest of the scientific bunch. Of course, Tesla won, and Pupin ended up with a broken thumb.
To revenge his broken finger and seriously injured ego, Mr. Pupin organized a group of students that would obstruct Tesla’s next presentation. Ergo, while Tesla was performing one of his scientific experiments, Mr. Pupin and his “gang” were making a very loud noise, whistling, yelling, and thumping. Deeply offended, Tesla spoke no word to this friend for the next thirty years.
“I respect him, but he is insane.”
With this very same sentence, each described the other frequently. Everyone noticed though, Tesla and Pupin didn’t speak to each other, but they spoke about each other, a lot. On that account, many tried to mediate and reconcile quarreling friends, including some notable individuals - Radoje Jankovic, the Royal Yugoslav Consul, Milos Tasic, the Royal Military Attaché, even the head of the Serbian Christian Orthodox Church Nikolaj Velimirovic. No success.
As a matter of fact, the well-known episode over Marconi’s radio transmission sealed the anger. Tesla accused his ex-assistant, Gulielmo Marconi, of stealing the patents, and expected a public support from his friend and fellow countryman Mihajlo Pupin. It never happened. Pupin excused himself by some legal obligation towards the companies involved. He didn’t convince Tesla who believed that a personal profit was the reason and had refused not only the contact, but any help or support from Pupin ever since.
Pupin, on the other side, had tried many times. He made an effort to get involved in Tesla’s scientific projects, to offer help. He even found some companies and individuals willing to fund Tesla’s inventions, but every effort failed as soon as Tesla realized where it came from.
It lasted more than thirty years, until one day in early March of 1935 Mihajlo Pupin, seriously ill, ended up in hospital. His daughter, Varvara, started calling all the friends asking for help. She said that her father was dying and wanted to see Mr. Tesla one last time. Mrs. Natalija Jankovic, a wife of the Yugoslav Consul to New York, remembered the time she arrived at the New Yorker Hotel and found Tesla in his small apartment. Many had already tried to convince him to go to the hospital, unsuccessfully of course. Mrs. Jankovic was just about to be politely rejected as everybody else, but she simply used the old female trick and said, “Mr. Tesla, don’t tell me that such gentleman as you are would refuse a request of a lady.”
Being a real gentleman, Tesla had no choice but to accompany the lady to the hospital. All the witnesses agreed that the two childish scientists were crying and hugging each other. They spent half an hour alone. What they were talking about would remain the secret forever. Soon after, Pupin died.
The details on this strange relationship were recently revealed by Professor Vida Jankovic, a 96-year old daughter of Radoje Jankovic, who was a Yugoslav Consul to New York and a close friend to both scientists, Tesla and Pupin. These memories were saved in the consul’s personal notes and now published in “Planeta’, the Serbian magazine for science and discoveries.
Top Image: Welcomeimages/Originally created by Dickenson Alley, Century Magazine; License: CC BY 4.0
