Nikola Tesla and drones imagined in 1898, both for deliveries and for combat

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was a genius and a man ahead of his time. He not only managed to change the world with revolutionary inventions like the radio (although it emerged simultaneously in several different countries) or alternating current, but their imagination allowed him ahead of his time predicting the creation of TV or wireless phones.

But he did not stay there, because as has discovered the technologist Matthew Schroyer delving into its patents, inventor, engineer and physicist Serbian also described the current combat drones. He spoke of them as machines or boats that could be remotely controlled, and sow peace in the world thanks to its destructive power.

Nikola Tesla
Image Source: Google Image

In his patent “Method and apparatus for controlling the mechanism of ships or moving vehicles” issued on November 8, 1898, Tesla wrote that his invention would not require cables or electrical conductors. It was therefore of by a boat or vehicle that could be controlled through waves, impulses or radiation would be sent through the land, water or air.

Tesla describes his combat drones

At that time the radio waves were a novelty, were described in 1867, and began to be used for communication in the 1890s Tesla saw in them great potential, and not only to send packages and supplies as drones is Amazon designing, but also as a weapon as UAVs used by some governments.

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In the patent, Tesla wrote that could be used to “carry letters, packages, supplies, instruments, objects or any type of material, and to communicate with inaccessible regions or explore the conditions in them.” To that, he added that it could also be used to “kill or capture whales and other ocean animals, and many other scientific purposes, engineering or business.”

“But the greatest value of my invention is its effect on war and armaments”, also writes Tesla. “Because of your insurance and unlimited destructive power, it will tend to cause and maintain permanent peace between nations”. Peace will not know if they will bring, but the current combat drones have much in common with what more than a century patented the Serbian inventor.