Although he held more than a hundred patents, and was undoubtedly a greater scientific thinker than his rival, Tesla lacked Edison's business acumen and was unable to profit from his discoveries. He developed a pattern of tapping his connections in the "New York 400" whenever he needed financing and poured each cash infusion into his work until it was gone.

Sponsor Message.

After his mid-forties, Tesla's attention swung toward ever more outlandish and improbable scenarios, such as receiving communications from Mars or envisioning a mysterious "death beam" that would protect the nation from any form of attack.

In his waning years he developed an intense fondness for the pigeons he routinely fed, growing especially attached to a white one that seemed to exemplify his sublimated ideal of the feminine archetype. He was crestfallen when it died.

At age 86, on January 7, 1943, Tesla died alone in his New York hotel room, probably while sleeping; the maid discovered his body the next day. He was eulogized by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Fiorello LaGuardia, the Yugoslav government, and numerous luminaries from the sciences.

Tesla remains a vital--though mysterious--figure in the popular imagination. His scientific discoveries, especially in the field of electromagnetism, but in other areas as well, have earned him lasting fame and abiding interest. As the prototype of the solitary genius, he is sometimes regarded as significant to the twentieth century as figures such as Sigmund Freud, Alfred Einstein, and Alan Turing. But he is also sometimes depicted as a kind of mad scientist, and some of his more bizarre pronouncements have been used to support pseudoscientific and occult theories.

Tesla's sexuality--whether it was sublimated in the pursuit of science or simply very well-hidden from an intolerant society--is but one among many mysteries associated with this fascinating figure.

The founder of psychoanalysis and the discoverer of the unconscious, Sigmund Freud initiated a fundamental transformation in the self-understanding of Western men and women, including especially the role of sexuality.

Transylvanian paleontologist Baron Franz Nopcsa made significant contributions to the fields of paleontology, geology, ethnology, and evolutionary biology, and aspired to become King of Albania.

An important advocate for the poor and oppressed and one of the most influential women in the world, Eleanor Roosevelt had throughout her life strong attachments to women, some of them probably resulting in sexual intimacy.

One of the greatest scientists of his generation, computer pioneer Alan Turing was also a victim of cold war homophobia.