ALS in Croatian, one page, 5.25 x 6, Hotel New Yorker letterhead, November 2, 1937. Handwritten letter from Nikola Tesla, addressed to Milos Tosic of the General Consulate of Yugoslavia in New York, in full (translated): "I am sending $100 in the attachment, thus settling the amount you sent me on the 1st of this month. With thanks, I remain your friend." In fine condition, with some light creasing to the right side. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, hand-addressed by Tesla who marks the envelope as "Personal."
After a lifetime of conceiving revolutionary technological ideas, Nikola Tesla spent his final ten years essentially penniless and secluded at the Hotel New Yorker, occupying rooms 3327 and 3328. Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company paid his rent and a $125 per month 'consulting fee'—possibly to avoid the bad publicity of having their once-star inventor living in poverty. It is no wonder that he was drawn to the Hotel New Yorker: it was the most technologically advanced hotel of its time. The basement held the largest private power plant in the United States, the 41st floor housed a massive telephone switchboard that employed 95 operators, and every guest room was equipped with a radio.
The consignor notes that this letter was sent to his grandfather, Milos Tosic, an officer in the Serbian Army who met Tesla by chance in New York City in 1918 when the latter was feeding pigeons on 5th Avenue. Tosic was making his way to the consulate when he recognized the famed inventor and approached him, striking up a conversation. When Tosic informed a curious Tesla that his uniform belonged to the Serbian military, Tesla explained that he too was Serbian and requested that he inform him of all that occurred to his countrymen during the war. They spoke on the sidewalk for two hours before parting ways.
Tosic returned to New York in 1928 for assignment at the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). He quickly reconnected with Tesla, who had fondly remembered their first meeting 10 years prior, and the pair, for another decade, remained good friends, often having lunch together at the Hotel New Yorker.
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