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Tesla’s Multi-frequency Wireless
Radio Controlled Vessel
Aleksandar Marincic1 Life Member, IEEE
Djuradj Budimir2 Senior Member, IEEE
1Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia.
2Wireless Communications Research Group, University of Westminster,
115 New Cavendish Street, London W1W 6UW, United Kingdom
Abstract – A review of the Tesla’s contribution to dual-band
wireless radio controlled vessel is presented. The intention of this
paper is to describe multi-frequency remote controlled vessel
using two transmitters and which operate a distant receiver
which comprises two or more circuits, each of which is tuned to
respond exclusively to the signals of one frequency and so
arranged that the operation of the receiver is dependent upon
their conjoint or resultant action.
Index Terms — Nikola Tesla, wireless communications, radio
wave propagation, multifrequency control system.
I. Introduction
Tesla’s patents, published and unpublished notes about
wireless radio wave propagation is less known, and if known
to some extent, it is usually wrongly interpreted. In 1898,
Tesla decided to publicly demonstrate his radio system, again
in a way typical of him, original and attractive. He constructed
model boat that he operated by remote control, using radio
pulses [1]. The boat sailed in a large pool in the great hall of
Madison Square Garden in September 1898, during the First
Annual Electrical Exhibition. It was a sensational
demonstration; however, many had not grasped the essence of
the invention. According to Tesla, that was the first robot, a
representative of the new category of the machines that would
be helpful to humans in a new way, as described in an article
published by “Century Magazine” [2]. Tesla said that he had
been working on the application of radio waves for remote
control since 1893, when he published his basic radio plan.
For the model demonstrated in 1898, which he had
constructed one year earlier, he applied a special technique
with protected message transmission. It is possible that the
two transmitters and special two wavelength receivers
extremely resistant to interferences, are those that he described
in his Colorado Springs Notes [3] and patented in 1903 (Patent
no. 723,188). In archives of Nikola Tesla Museum there are a
number of documents related to multi-frequency wireless
radio controlled vessel.
In this paper, we present a review of the Tesla’s contribution to
multi frequency wireless radio controlled vessel.
II. Wireless Radio Controlled Vessel
Some work on remote control by radio waves Tesla
performed in his laboratory on 35th South Fifth Avenue. When
this laboratory burned down in March 1895 it was a terrible
blow to him and many experiments were stopped until the end
of 1895 when he opened a new laboratory on 46th East
Houston Street. In this laboratory he made, in his own words:
“Striking demonstrations, in many instances actually
transmitting the whole motive energy to the devices instead of
simply controlling the same from distance. In ’97 I began the
construction of a complete Automaton in the form of a boat,
which is described in my original specification #613,809…
This application was written during that year but the filing
was delayed until July of the following year, long before
which date the machine had been often exhibited to visitors
who never seized to wonder at the performances… In that year
I also constructed a larger boat which I exhibited, among
other things, in Chicago during a lecture before the
Commercial Club. In this lecture I treated the whole field
broadly, not limiting myself to mechanisms controlled from
distance but to machine possessed of their own intelligence.
Since that time I have advanced greatly in the evolution of the
invention and think that the time is not distant when I shall
show an automaton which, left to itself, will act as though
possessed of reason and without any willful control from the
outside. Whatever be the practical possibilities of such an
achievement, it will mark the beginning of a new epoch in
mechanics” [4].
The automation boat that Tesla constructed had
"borrowed mind" and formed part of the distant operator who
transmitted orders to it. But, to quote Tesla “I purpose to show
that, however impossible it may now seem, an automation may
be contrived which will have its "own mind", and by this I
mean that it will be able, independent of any operator, left
entirely to itself, to perform, in response to external influences
affecting its sensitive organs, a great variety of acts and
operations as if it had intelligence. It will be able to follow a
course laid out or to obey orders given far in advance; it will
be capable of distinguishing between what it ought and what it
ought not to do, and of making experiences or, otherwise
stated, of recording impressions which will definitely affect its
subsequent actions. In fact, I have already conceived such a
plan “[2].
Putting this reasoning in practice Tesla conceived the
idea of constructing an "automation" which would
mechanically represent him, but in a more primitive manner.
Such automation, in Tesla's words, "had to have motive
power, organs for locomotion, directive organs, and one or
more sensitive organs as to be excited by external stimuli."
The principle he was developing in his first remote controlled
boat was applicable to "any kind of machine that moves on
land or in the water or in the air", and to show this to an
audience he constructed a boat shown in Fig.1. According to
Cheney and Uth, mining engineer John Hays Hammond, Jr.
advanced $10,000 to finance the wireless and robot
demonstration at Madison Square Garden [5].
Fig.1. Remote control boat as in his patent No. 613,809
III. Chicago lecture on remote control
On his trip to Colorado Springs, the place of his new
laboratory, Tesla stopped in Chicago and delivered a lecture
before the Commercial Club under the title “On the Art of
Telautomatics” on May 13, 1899. There he also exhibited to
the public a new six feet long remote controlled boat(Fig.4).
This lecture was announced in the Electrical Review, N.Y.,
dated May 17, 1899. From numerous documents in the
archives of Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade we can see that
Tesla paid much attention to this invention but obviously did
not find time to publish lecture and complete patenting a more
advanced control system. In his lecture Tesla presented his
invention in a very broad way starting with:
“Introductory – the Lecturer’s Aim
….Above all it is my desire to bring to your earnest attention a
novel art which, in its elementary form, I have been fortunate
to evolve and which, in the near future, when it shall have
become generally known and brought to great perfection
through the co-operation of many skilled man, will exercise a
beneficial influence which will be universally felt and which
will materially contribute to the furtherance of the cause of
humanity.
His other themes were like the Dead and the Living
Objects, Birth and Death of Matter, The Down of the Era of
the Atmosphere, etc and at the end one short subchapter was
devoted to remote control:
Fig.4. Second boat with remote control
3. THE ART OF TELEAUTOMATICS
Very few technical advances have created such wide-
spread interest and elicited so animated a comment as this
one. The reason is to be found in the fact that, like the
discovery of gun-powder, it brought on a radical change in
the aspect of those great forces and principles, upon which the
political, and largely also the commercial supremacy of
nations has rested for centuries…
It is impossible to form an adequate idea of the ultimate
consequences of this new and beautiful art, but it is certain
that it will afford a perfect means for attack as well as
defense. By its use harbors may be rendered impregnable to
the attack of the enemy, while torpedoes embodying its
principles will be arms for attack immensely more effective
than any yet invented. In view of this there can be no doubt,
that the invention will be generally adopted in various
countries, all the more readily as the present torpedoes on
warships as well as those in harbors can be transformed into
“Teleautomata” with little expense. What this would mean to
a company owning exclusive rights need not be stated. A
prominent designer is now engaged in constructing a small
submarine vessel, which will be used in practical
demonstrations before naval authorities”.
Tesla’s patent claims did not reflect all what he already
knew at that time about new technique of remote control. His
friends suggested him to omit quite a few things that he
thought important in order not to overload the patent claims.
In a letter to Miessner Tesla wrote:
“I would call your attention to the fact that while my
specification, above mentioned, shows the automatic
mechanisms as controlled through a simple tuned circuit, I
have used individualized control; that is one based on the co-
operation of several circuits of different periods of vibration, a
principle which I had already developed at that time and
which was subsequently described in my patents #723,188 and
723,189 of March, 1903. The machine was in this form when I
made demonstrations with it in 1898 before the Chief
Examiner, Seeley, prior to grant of my basic patent on Method
of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanisms at a
Distance”[4].
In original USA patent No. 613,809 Tesla omitted to
describe his “individualized control” which was a great step
forward in providing safe and protected from disturbance
control, as compared to simple mechanism control he
described in his remote control boat patent. When at a later
date, on July 16, 1900, he submitted patents “Method of
signaling”[1] and “System of Signaling”[1], to protect his
method and system of “individualization”, prior to obtaining
patent he had to clear matter with Fessenden in a patent rights
dispute[6]. This document included statements in favor of
Tesla by his assistant Fritz Lowenstein and secretary George
Scherff. Finally, in March 1903 Tesla obtained patent after
more than five years from the moment he had developed and
experimentally proved the invention of individualization. The
basic invention of “individualized control” is described in
“Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900”[3] on June 27, 1899.
Fig.3. Tesla’s receiver with “AND” circuit as a part of his
multicarrier system
In the archive of Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade,
among documents related to Tesla’s remote control research,
under the title “Improvements in the art of telautomatics”,
prepared in the form of patent application, detailed
explanation of radio control based on multicarrier system is
presented. In this system Tesla proposed to use two (or more)
transmitters of different frequencies which, when both
operate, affect a special receiver responding only when both
signals are received. The receiver is shown in Fig.3 and, at a
later date it was recognized as the first “AND” circuit [7].
In material prepared for patent specification Tesla described
multi-frequency remote controlled vessel. Figure 4 illustrates
the multi-frequency wireless radio controlled vessel. A multi-
frequency remote controlled vessel using two transmitters and
which operate a distant receiver which comprises two or more
circuits, each of which is tuned to respond exclusively to the
signals of one frequency and so arranged that the operation of
the receiver is dependent upon their conjoint or resultant
action. The proposed, but unfinished and uncommitted patent
Tesla opened with the words:
Be it known that I, Nikola Tesla, a citizen of the United
States, residing at the Borough of Manhattan, in the City,
County and State of New York, have made certain new and
useful improvements in Methods of Controlling Automata
at a Distance, of which the following is a specification,
reference being had to the drawing accompanying and
forming part of the same.
In Letters Patent granted to me, bearing the number
613,809, I have described a novel art, for which the name
"Telautomatics" has been suggested, and the purpose of
which, is to control, from a distance and without artificial
connection, translatory movements as well as operations of
component devices or organs of individualized automata.
In order to secure the most satisfactory results in its
practical applications, a number of requirements should be
fulfilled, to wit:
(l) The agent or energy employed for control should
be in the form of impulses or oscillations of the requisite
character and intensity;
(2) it should be transmitted to the automaton by
effective methods and appliances;
(3) it should be collected in properly designed and
organized receiving apparatus, efficient both in its quanti-
tative and qualitative performance;
(4) the transmitted controlling impulses should, be
non-interfering as well as non-interferable;
(5) the distant operator should be enabled to deter-
mine the position and course of the automaton with unerring
precision….
Fig. 4. Multi-frequency wireless radio controlled
vessel
The subject of this application is an improvement in-
tended to meet the last of the above named requirements and,
briefly stated, it consists in the employment of a beam or
beams of light or radiant energy, as will be hereinafter fully
explained.
Calling again attention to the appended drawing, Fig. 4
represents, diagrammatically, an automaton which, in this
special instance, will be assumed to float in the water, being
either entirely submerged or only partially so, as indicated. It
comprises two vessels or hulls A find B, rigidly connected by
hollow flat bars a a. The lower and heavier vessel A is
supposed to contain a reservoir of energy, such as a storage
battery, and an electric motor or motors operating a propeller
C and a rudder or fin F’, thus giving to the automaton the
desired translatory movement and direction. A device 0,
normally inactive, is furthermore provided which may be
released or brought into effect at will, either by a special
operation of the controlling mechanism or by impact against
an obstacle. The upper lighter vessel or float B carries in its
hold the individualized receiving apparatus controlling the
working of the automatic engine in obedience to the impulses
of the transmitter… To indicate a definite plan, I would refer
to that which I have minutely described in the first of the
patents here quoted and which can be readily adapted to the
purposes of my present invention by any skilled expert.
Indispensable in this connection is a lamp or reflector R,
throwing a beam of light or radiant energy in the direction of
a distant object D, which the automatic engine, on its peaceful
or destructive mission, should reach without fail. The beam is
supposed to be parallel to the long axis of vessel A, but need
not be necessarily so, provided that it fulfils the essential
requirement, which is to enable operator of guiding the
automaton, from a great distance if need be, surely to its
mark, avoiding all the limitations, errors and incertitude,
heretofore inevitably attendant to such an attempt…
III. CONCLUSION
In this paper a short review of the Tesla’s wireless radio
controlled vessel has have presented. A multi-frequency remote
controlled vessel using two transmitters and which operate a distant
receiver which comprises two or more circuits, each of which is
tuned to respond exclusively to the signals of one frequency and so
arranged that the operation of the receiver is dependent upon their
conjoint or resultant action has been described. Tesla built such a
model but did not patent it, although he had prepared manuscript for
it. Part of this manuscript that has been found in the archives of
Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade is presented in this paper.
We thank Nikola Tesla Museum for permission to use some
unpublished documents used in this paper.
References
[1] Nikola Tesla; Dr. Nikola Tesla -Complete Patents, Vols. I and II.
Milbrae, CA: Tesla Book Co. 1979, Library of Congress Catalog
Card 79-67722), patent No. 613809.
[2]Nikola Tesla; “The problem of increasing human energy”,Century
Illustrated Monthly Magazine, June 1900.
[3]Nikola Tesla; Colorado Springs Notes, 1899-1900, Nolit,
Belgrade, Serbia, 1978. (published by the Nikola Tesla museum,
Belgrade, Serbia, [available at the UEC Library, 345 East 47 Street,
New York, NY 10017]).
[4] Letter of Nikola Tesla to Benjamin F. Miessner, Sept. 29,
1915 , Nikola Tesla Museum Achieves, Belgrade
[5] Margaret Cheney and Robert Uth: “TESLA Master of
Lighting”, MetroBooks, 2001.
[6] Testimony in behalf of Tesla, Interference No. 21,701,
United States Patent Office, New York, 1902.
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alternating currents and their application to wireless
telegraphy, telephony and transmission of power”, Sun
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