Thread by @izakaminska

🧵Today is Nikola Tesla's birthday🐦‍⬛, July 10. It's also my birthday ... woo hoo. So I've decided to commemorate the day with a longish Twitter thread about the Tesla brand you've never heard of, plus a whole bunch of related curios. Full story is here: the-blindspot.com/its-july-10-so…

1/ Until Elon Musk pumped up the brand value of Tesla, it's fair to say Nikola Tesla's discoveries in the field of electromagnetic engineering and physics had for most of the 20th century been overshadowed by those of his contemporary Thomas Edison.

2/ Despite his many accomplishments, Tesla passed away in 1943 at the age of 86, alone and reportedly penniless, in a room he had rented at the Hotel New Yorker in Manhattan. teslasociety.com/hotelnewyorker…

3/ Everything of value — papers, diaries etc — was scooped up by the Office of Alien Property. These items, contrary to FBI claims for decades, were later analysed by specialist U.S. authorities for possible military or defence applications - something only confirmed in 2018 when… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

4/ An unexpected twist to the tale is that among those brought in to analyse Tesla's possessions was a certain John G. Trump, the paternal uncle of Donald J. Trump, who at the time identified himself as a technical aide at Division 14 of NIRC at the Office of Scientific Research… https://t.co/EIOUGqGQo1twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

5/ Trump's surprising conclusion was that while the work leftover by Tesla hinted at new ways of transmitting power in a wireless way, it "did not include new sound, workable principles or methods for realising such results".

6/ But the OSRD itself was no ordinary outfit. The US government had set it up to "coordinate scientific research for military purposes" in its war effort against Nazi Germany during WW2. It was also a non-military organisation, headed instead by private sector entities, notably… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

7/ Bush reported only to President Franklin Roosevelt throughout the appointment, and it was under his watch that the OSDR's most notable and secret projects, such as the Manhattan Project, came to life.

8/ Trump, for his part, went on to become a prominent name in the field of radar technology, applying his work to the war effort in the UK at the Telecommunications Research Establishment at Great Malvern, where he studied V1 and V2 rocket defences.

9/ A curious aside is that the secret radar system he developed for the British also gave rise to one of the most famous and successful wartime disinformation campaigns ever: that eating carrots helped allied forces see in the dark (and not any new technology based on sensors or… https://t.co/hZKPrHhYgVtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

10/ Trump's work was commendable enough to earn him direct recognition by both the UK government (he received the King's Medal for service in the cause of freedom) and the US government (receiving the Certificate of Merit, awarded to him by Harry Truman). (Third from left, top… https://t.co/vylxYVZKy7twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

11/ Safe in the knowledge that Tesla's belongings were unlikely to be weaponised, the Office of Alien Property eventually decided to release the property to a distant relative of the inventor. He, allegedly, took them back to the eastern bloc.

11/ But not everything was necessarily as it seemed. The declassified files also show that at least one special agent remarked that the relative in question, Sava Kosanovich, did not appear to be very well-liked by Tesla:

12/ Letters signed by J. Edgar Hoover also revealed concerns about both the inventor's and Kosanovich's potential communist leanings. The latter, it was noted, had appeared on the stationery of the Central and Eastern European Planning Board for Czechoslovakia, Greece, Poland and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

13/ The documents also reference that Tesla's rent at the New Yorker hotel may have been paid by the Yugoslavian or Czechoslovakian governments directly for years.

14/ As fascinating as all this is, however, it’s only a side story. Because this isn't just a tale about missing Tesla papers or secret death ray weapons. It’s also the story of the postwar communist roots of the Tesla brand itself. Introducing you to the Czech Tesla company.

15/ What's in a name? You wouldn't think that intellectual property and communism go together. But as the 2023 Apple TV film Tetris has highlighted, nothing could be further from the truth.

https://t.co/8lWrHZ2mMH
twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

16/ For those who haven't seen it, Tetris tells the story of the last-minute scramble by Nintendo just as the USSR was breaking down to secure the global distribution rights to the blockbuster computer game Tetris so that it could be bundled into their Gameboy handheld console… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

17/ The game itself was invented by Alexey Pajitnov while working at the Computer Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the help of a teenager called Vadim Gerasimov.

18/ Gerasimov later recounted on his personal website the oddness of doing business during that transient twilight period when the USSR's historic non recognition of intellectual property rights was suddenly and abruptly beginning to thaw. https://t.co/a6nxwptEf6vadim.oversigma.com/Tetris.htm

19/ The organization in charge of importing and exporting computer technology in and out of the USSR was Elorg. And, as the Apple TV film beautifully illustrates, there was great profit to be made in picking up the USSR's undervalued assets while it was breaking down, but only if… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

20/ But the USSR, obviously, was not the only one that relied on similar structures. Most Eastern bloc countries had similar state-run enterprises and monopoly controlled import-export agencies. Czechoslovakia was one of them.

21/ How the Czechs bagged Tesla: Speak to any middle-aged Czech or Slovakian and ask them about Tesla and chances are it's not electric cars or Elon's futuristic Tesla logo that springs to mind, but rather the far more elegant and iconic styling of the Czechoslovakian company… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

22/ It too depended on its own version of Elorg, the import-export agency known as Kovo. "Kovo was a gateway to abroad," as I was told by those in the know. It was only through Kovo that Tesla goods could be marketed abroad at international trade fairs and such the like.

23/The true origins of the Tesla company go back to 1921, when it was known as Elektra. It was later bought by Philips in 1936, and operated as such until the end of WW2 when eventually it was nationalised. By March 1946, it had been decided the company would be renamed Tesla as… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

24/ According to Wikipedia, the rebranding ceremony took place at the Mikrofon Factory in Strašnice and was attended by government ministers from Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Macedonia, a clear nod to the inventor's heritage since he had been born in a small town in what is now… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

25/ But the heartfelt feelings for Tesla weren't to last. When the USSR officially broke off relations with Yugoslavia in 1948, the Nikola Tesla connection was deemed a little too awkward. The official line became that 'Tesla' was an abbreviation for TEchnika SLAboproudá, which… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

26/ Regardless, the Czech Tesla soon enough became a monster of a corporate enterprise in the former communist bloc, manufacturing everything from TVs, radio receivers, transistors, integrated circuits, speakers, gramophones, cassette recorders, CD players and even fancy, err,… https://t.co/x6M5BuwWestwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

27/ When I personally came across the Czech Tesla earlier this year, I became fascinated by the story. Something really resonated. Perhaps on some subconscious level the iconic brand had imprinted itself on my mind by osmosis from my travels to communist Poland. Either way, I… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

28/ And then, as if by magic, an amazing opportunity to expand my research presented itself. Entirely unrelated I was invited to attend a CBDC conference in Prague with a chance to get up close and personal with some Czechs who might actually be in the know about these strange… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

29/ Upon arrival, it only took a few inquiries before my well-connected hosts introduced me to the softly-spoken Petr Matejcek, a partner at the organization that today controls the Tesla trademark. Here he is:

30/ We sat down for a coffee and he graciously told me everything I wanted to know — from Czech Tesla's history and its command over the Tesla brand to its international payment ambitions and even some fascinating details about its ongoing relationship with Elon Musk. He also… https://t.co/GqwipLlmpptwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

31/ For more on what he told me, especially with respect to the Trump-esque genius of creating a licensing empire based on identity, which ironically enough links straight back to cutting-edge stealth aircraft radar detection systems in use in Ukraine, consider breaking into my… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…