Morgan and Tesla’s ill-fated partnership
Nobody is claiming that JP Morgan always makes profitable investments. One such instance is the disastrous collaboration he started with the contentious American inventor Nikola Tesla. One of the interesting facts about J.P. Morgan is that he lent Tesla $150,000 (about $5 million today) to build the world's first transatlantic wireless communication system.
In 1900, Nikola Tesla persuaded Morgan that he could create a transatlantic wireless communication system that would function better than a wave-based wireless telegraph system. This system was eventually built at Wardenclyffe. Guglielmo Marconi later gave a short-range radio demonstration. Morgan consented to provide Tesla with $150,000 ($4,885,800 in 2021) in exchange for holding on to 51% of the patents to create the system. Tesla decided to build up the facility as soon as the contract was finalized to incorporate his concepts for wireless terrestrial power transmission and create what he believed to be a more competitive system.
Tesla started a series of tests on what he called "wireless terrestrial power transmission" rather than adhering to the original strategy. Morgan instantly turned off the money faucet because he didn't appreciate his partner's novel ideas. Morgan refused to pay for the adjustments because it saw Tesla's changes as a breach of the agreement. The Wardenclyffe project was abandoned in 1906 and never put into action due to a lack of funding.
