The Archive

The true stories behind every drawing, written from the patents themselves. Start with the tower, then follow the ideas in the order Tesla patented them.

The rest of the story, in order

Six patents from the years before the tower, in the order Tesla received them.

2026Science Gifts for Dad: Patent-Art Shirts With a Story Behind ThemFor the dad who reads the history books, fixes things himself, or still talks about his science teacher: a shirt printed with a real invention, and the story to go wit...Read the story
2026Gifts for Tesla Fans: Real Patent Drawings Instead of Generic MerchThe best gift for a Nikola Tesla fan is something Tesla actually made. These shirts carry his real patent drawings, restored from the original filings.Read the story
2026Gifts for Electrical Engineers: Which Tesla Patent Shirt Fits Which EngineerLooking for a gift for an electrical engineer? Match them with the Tesla patent closest to their own work: power, radio, controls or high voltage. Here's how to choose.Read the story
2026The Flat Spiral: Tesla's 1897 Coil Transformer Patent (U.S. 593,138)U.S. Patent 593,138 is Nikola Tesla's 1897 electrical transformer wound as a flat spiral, a refinement of the high-voltage coils behind his wireless experiments.Read the story
2026The Secret Signal: Tesla's 1903 Patent for Private Wireless Messages (U.S. 725,605)U.S. Patent 725,605 is Nikola Tesla's method for keeping wireless messages private by using several frequencies at once, so a receiver responds only to the right combi...Read the story
2026The Cold Circuit: Tesla's 1901 Patent for Chilling Electrical Circuits (U.S. 685,012)U.S. Patent 685,012 is Nikola Tesla's idea for making electrical oscillations stronger by chilling the circuit to extreme cold, cutting resistance, patented a decade b...Read the story
2026Waves in the Earth: Tesla's Earth Resonance Patent (U.S. 787,412)U.S. Patent 787,412 is Nikola Tesla's proposal to use the earth itself as a resonant conductor, setting the planet ringing with electrical waves so energy could be dra...Read the story
2026Wireless Power Through the Upper Air: Tesla's 1900 Patent (U.S. 645,576)U.S. Patent 645,576 is Nikola Tesla's design for sending electrical energy between two tall terminals through the thin upper atmosphere, with no wires. Here's what it ...Read the story
2026Tesla's Radio-Controlled Boat: The 1898 Teleautomaton Patent (U.S. 613,809)In 1898, Nikola Tesla steered a model boat by radio in front of a crowd at Madison Square Garden. U.S. Patent 613,809 is the patent behind it, one of the earliest desi...Read the story
2026Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower Patent (U.S. 1,119,732), ExplainedU.S. Patent 1,119,732 is Nikola Tesla's patent for the apparatus behind Wardenclyffe Tower, his unfinished plan to send messages and power without wires. Here's what i...Read the story