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.His record of accomplishmentwhich promised still greater achievements in the future,his pleasant personality, his high moral standards ofconduct, his celibate manner of life and his manner ofsubordinating himself to his work, his boylike enthusiasm,were factors that caused him to be admired not only byMorgan but by all others who knew him well.Morgan made inquiries of Tesla concerning his financialstructure.There were, in those days, a limited number ofstrong financial groups who were playing a terrestrial gameof chess with the world's economic resources; thediscoveries of a genius like Tesla might well have aprofound effect on the destinies of one or more of thesegroups, and it would be well for an operator in this fieldto know more of the inventor's commitments.Undoubtedly, itwas a source of surprise and satisfaction to Morgan when he173 learned that Tesla was a lone operator and now entirelywithout funds needed to carry on his researches.Morgan knew well the inestimable value of Tesla's polyphasealternating-current system.The Niagara development was aMorgan enterprise, and gigantic plans were being builded onits already proven success.The man who laid the scientificand engineering foundation for this new and profitableindustrial electrical era was broke and engaged indeveloping a new source of power distribution.He hadsupplanted Edison's half-mile power pygmy with a gianthaving a thousand-mile range, and now he was working on asystem which experiments had shown could distribute powerwirelessly to the ends of the earth with but a smallfraction of the losses of the Edison system in distributingpower by wire for half a mile, and could even send currentaround the earth cheaper than his own alternating-currentsystem could distribute it at a distance of one hundredmiles.The economic implications of this developmentstaggered the imagination.what effect would it have on thechess game being played by the world's financial groups?would the new wireless-distribution-of-power system fitinto the existing economic and financial structure? Couldit be usefully applied without derangements of greatermagnitude than the benefits it would produce? If it wereadopted for development, who would be best suited tocontrol it? Could it be controlled in a practical way whenany spot on earth would be an outlet for an unlimitedreservoir of power for anyone who cared to tap it with asimple device? How could compensation be collected for theservice rendered?These were some of the most obvious aspects of Tesla'sworld power system that would instantly present themselvesto the practical mind of Morgan.In addition, Tesla wasproposing a world-wide broadcasting system for distributingnews, entertainment, knowledge, and a host of otherinteresting items.Morgan could well understand thepractical aspects of wireless communication in which acharge could be made for transmitting messages from pointto point, which was a part of the Tesla system--but, to theinventor's way of thinking, only a minor part compared tothe more important broadcasting and power-distributionsystems.174 A Morgan would understand that ingenious minds could workout some method for placing such world-wide services on apractical profit-paying basis; but this whole new Tesladevelopment had a fantastical aspect that was upsetting toso-called "practical" minds not accustomed to thinkingfirst-magnitude thoughts.The new system might prove moreimportant than the polyphase system which went as a record-breaking bargain to Westinghouse for $1,000,000.Westinghouse was then the most powerful competitor of theEdison system which Morgan had backed, and particularly ofthe General Electric Company whose financing Morgan hadarranged.Although Westinghouse secured a monopoly, meanswere found for causing him to share it, by a licenseagreement, with the General Electric Company, so the Morgancompany had equal opportunities to exploit the rich market
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