John,
As I understood it, Tesla sold his patents to Westinghouse for a
significant amount of money. Westinghouse later came back to him and
explained that he didn't have the funds to develop the patents, and
Tesla returned the money minus what he owed on his lab.
That sounds like someone more interested in his contribution and
legacy, rather than an issue of financial management. ("Tesla:
Man Out of Tim" by Margaret Cheney).
He died in his room at the New Yorker hotel in midtown. Ironically,
the NYC power company, ConEd, was built upon the technology of his
patents.
-John Bottoms
FirstStar Systems
Concord, MA
On 4/7/2012 11:19 PM, John F Sowa wrote:
Tesla was the paradigm of the rare genius who makes a discovery
that nobody else could duplicate. He also had the good fortune
to team up with George Westinghouse, who built the company to
make his motors and generators. For a while, Tesla was wealthy,
but he was inept at financial management and died in poverty.
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