![ARCHITECTURE - ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL Manuscript planning brief for work under the supervision of Inigo Jones, [c.1631]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-10%252F16%252F25762965-1-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![ADVERTISING POSTERfor 'The Suffragette' newspaper, [c.1913-1914]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-06%252F25%252F25680656-116-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![ILLUMINATED ADDRESS – CLARA CODD Illuminated printed address signed by Emmeline Pankhurst, [1909]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-06%252F25%252F25680656-32-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![MUSIC & RECORDINGS – ETHEL SMYTH Collection of printed music, song sheets and records, [c.1911-1912]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-10%252F09%252F25680656-99-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Lot 1035
TESLA STRUGGLES TO COMPLETE HIS WARDENCLYFFE PLANT TESLA, NIKOLA. 1856-1943. Letter Signed ("N. Tesla"), 2 pp, 4to, New York, February 27, 1909, 4to, to Miss A.D. Hawkins,
25 October 2022, 14:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$24,225 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Client Services (San Francisco)
Client Services (New York)
Client Services (Los Angeles)
TESLA STRUGGLES TO COMPLETE HIS WARDENCLYFFE PLANT
TESLA, NIKOLA. 1856-1943. Letter Signed ("N. Tesla"), 2 pp, 4to, New York, February 27, 1909, 4to, to Miss A.D. Hawkins, on Tesla Laboratory, Long Island, NY stationery, with original stamped cover, and with draft letter to Tesla likely by A.D. Hawkins dated May 1, 1911 on Telsa Laboratory stationery.
Provenance: Anita Drysdale Hawkins, by descent.
"Time and time again in my life I have made such mistakes and I always propose myself not to try to help others when in so doing I imperil myself, but it seems I am incorrigible."
Tesla sends this letter from his offices in the City Investing Building at 165 Broadway although on Tesla Laboratory letterhead with the iconic Wardenclyffe Tower at the top.
In part: "His stay there has called for considerable sacrifices on my part which I should not have made. Time and time again in my life I have made such mistakes and I always propose myself not to try to help others when in so doing I imperil myself, but it seems I am incorrigible.
I have taken upon myself all of Mr. Warren's obligations and your brother need not pay any attention to the bills which might be presented to him, and for which he is in no way responsible.
You will be glad to know that all of my inventions are turning out to be a splendid success and I am positively expecting not only to resume the work on my plant very shortly, but also to bring it to completion, all from my own resources. You may now expect from me favorable news at any moment."
Tesla met with J.P. Morgan in late 1900 in order to convince the financier that he would be able to use his resonant transformer technology (later dubbed the Tesla Coil) to be the first to broadcast messages across the Atlantic. Morgan eventually agreed to put up $150,000 in return for 51% of Tesla's patent rights. Tesla got to work as soon as the funds were dispersed and he hired his friend, the architect Stanford White, to build his new laboratory on land owned by Ohio lawyer and banker James S. Warden just 65 miles from New York City on Long Island. Warden had named his 1600-acre property Wardenclyffe. Construction began in September of 1901. The laboratory consisted of a machine shop, a boiler room, an engine and dynamo room, and an electrical room. 350 feet from the laboratory building was the 187-foot tower topped with a metal hemispherical terminal. Tesla had a 120-foot well drilled to sink a ground connection that connected the hemispherical transmitter at the top and the magnifying transmitter at the tower's base.
"Operating at this level of power [200 kilowatts], Tesla hoped that the magnifying transmitter would be able, via the well below the tower, to 'get a grip of the earth' and set up a stationary current wave in the earth's crust. To conduct these current waves from the secondary of the magnifying transmitter into the ground, Tesla used another large metal shaft that extended from the base of the tower to the bottom of the well, and from there, the waves traveled into the Earth via the sixteen horizontal pipes" (Carlson p 329).
At the same time that Tesla was building his laboratory, Guglielmo Marconi was also working to broadcast across the Atlantic. He had sent the first witness-less message in December 1901 and followed it in February 1902 as he sailed aboard the passenger ship Philadelphia from England to America. He had Morse code messages wirelessly sent to him – and to which he invited the ship's captain and first officer to listen—from his transmitter at Poldhu in Cornwall.
Tesla was still struggling at this point to complete his laboratory because instead of focusing on broadcasting messages, Tesla had a broader goal of also achieving his dream of sending wireless power throughout the world. When he petitioned Morgan for additional funds to continue his project, Morgan, understandably, refused. Tesla spent the ensuing years continuing to revise his plans, while he searched for additional investors and continued to pursue Morgan.
By the time the above letter was written, Tesla had been hounded by creditors for several years and had begun to work on other projects such as his bladeless turbine in order to attempt to generate funds to complete his Wardenclyffe plant. Anita D. Hawkins seems, along with her brother Ernest Clymer Hawkins, to have been a friend and employee at Wardenclyffe. The Mr. Warren in question must have also been an employee. As evidenced by his closing lines, Tesla remained optimistic throughout many years of hardship.
The accompanying draft letter to Tesla from A.D. Hawkins gives an account of current conditions at Wardenclyffe Tower and implores Tesla to come out and oversee several matters.
Carlson, Bernard W. Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age. Princeton & Oxford: [2015].
Provenance: Anita Drysdale Hawkins, by descent.
"Time and time again in my life I have made such mistakes and I always propose myself not to try to help others when in so doing I imperil myself, but it seems I am incorrigible."
Tesla sends this letter from his offices in the City Investing Building at 165 Broadway although on Tesla Laboratory letterhead with the iconic Wardenclyffe Tower at the top.
In part: "His stay there has called for considerable sacrifices on my part which I should not have made. Time and time again in my life I have made such mistakes and I always propose myself not to try to help others when in so doing I imperil myself, but it seems I am incorrigible.
I have taken upon myself all of Mr. Warren's obligations and your brother need not pay any attention to the bills which might be presented to him, and for which he is in no way responsible.
You will be glad to know that all of my inventions are turning out to be a splendid success and I am positively expecting not only to resume the work on my plant very shortly, but also to bring it to completion, all from my own resources. You may now expect from me favorable news at any moment."
Tesla met with J.P. Morgan in late 1900 in order to convince the financier that he would be able to use his resonant transformer technology (later dubbed the Tesla Coil) to be the first to broadcast messages across the Atlantic. Morgan eventually agreed to put up $150,000 in return for 51% of Tesla's patent rights. Tesla got to work as soon as the funds were dispersed and he hired his friend, the architect Stanford White, to build his new laboratory on land owned by Ohio lawyer and banker James S. Warden just 65 miles from New York City on Long Island. Warden had named his 1600-acre property Wardenclyffe. Construction began in September of 1901. The laboratory consisted of a machine shop, a boiler room, an engine and dynamo room, and an electrical room. 350 feet from the laboratory building was the 187-foot tower topped with a metal hemispherical terminal. Tesla had a 120-foot well drilled to sink a ground connection that connected the hemispherical transmitter at the top and the magnifying transmitter at the tower's base.
"Operating at this level of power [200 kilowatts], Tesla hoped that the magnifying transmitter would be able, via the well below the tower, to 'get a grip of the earth' and set up a stationary current wave in the earth's crust. To conduct these current waves from the secondary of the magnifying transmitter into the ground, Tesla used another large metal shaft that extended from the base of the tower to the bottom of the well, and from there, the waves traveled into the Earth via the sixteen horizontal pipes" (Carlson p 329).
At the same time that Tesla was building his laboratory, Guglielmo Marconi was also working to broadcast across the Atlantic. He had sent the first witness-less message in December 1901 and followed it in February 1902 as he sailed aboard the passenger ship Philadelphia from England to America. He had Morse code messages wirelessly sent to him – and to which he invited the ship's captain and first officer to listen—from his transmitter at Poldhu in Cornwall.
Tesla was still struggling at this point to complete his laboratory because instead of focusing on broadcasting messages, Tesla had a broader goal of also achieving his dream of sending wireless power throughout the world. When he petitioned Morgan for additional funds to continue his project, Morgan, understandably, refused. Tesla spent the ensuing years continuing to revise his plans, while he searched for additional investors and continued to pursue Morgan.
By the time the above letter was written, Tesla had been hounded by creditors for several years and had begun to work on other projects such as his bladeless turbine in order to attempt to generate funds to complete his Wardenclyffe plant. Anita D. Hawkins seems, along with her brother Ernest Clymer Hawkins, to have been a friend and employee at Wardenclyffe. The Mr. Warren in question must have also been an employee. As evidenced by his closing lines, Tesla remained optimistic throughout many years of hardship.
The accompanying draft letter to Tesla from A.D. Hawkins gives an account of current conditions at Wardenclyffe Tower and implores Tesla to come out and oversee several matters.
Carlson, Bernard W. Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age. Princeton & Oxford: [2015].