Signed Nikola Tesla Manuscript on Warfare to Auction

A page from a Nikola Tesla scientific manuscript from 1907 signed in full and containing Tesla’s vision of a world in which warfare is rendered virtually obsolete will headline One Of A Kind Auctions' April 30 Rare Autographs & Historical Documents auction.

The Tesla document is the concluding page of Tesla's working draft for his Tidal Wave to Make War Impossible article published in English Mechanic and World of Science on May 3, 1907. He precisely describes a remotely operated vessel weaponized to harness the destructive force of ocean swells against an enemy fleet. It is accompanied by an original large-format silver gelatin print depicting an elderly Tesla standing in a corridor, hat and cane in hand.

“This is the concluding page of his working draft," said David Gindy of One of a Kind Collectibles, "written in his own hand, describing what is essentially the world's first conceived remotely operated weapon, a precursor to modern drone warfare by over a century."

Other highlights include:

• an Albert Einstein signed and inscribed copy of his book Relativitätstheorie (1920) in original wrappers
• an extra-illustrated two-volume first edition of Rufus Wilmot Griswold's The Republican Court; or, American Society in the Days of Washington (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1855) inlaid with original autographs, documents and period engravings of the Founding Generation and containing the signatures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, John Dickinson, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton
• an autograph letter signed by William Livingston, a Declaration signer, as Governor of New Jersey, dated Jan. 3, 1788, announcing that the State Convention of New Jersey has unanimously ratified the federal Constitution
• James Joyce’s personal first edition copy of his Finnegans Wake, signed by him and in the original first-issue dust jacket
• a complete 1927 Gene Tunney-Jack Dempsey 'Long Count' fight ticket signed by George Getz, along with a 1923 Dempsey-Firpo dinner card and a Jack Dempsey signed autograph
• an archive of typed agreements, corporate documents, and financial material tied to comedian Buster Keaton’s early 1930s independent film production efforts in Florida
• a rare Josiah Henson autograph of the author, abolitionist and minister (1789-1883) who fled from slavery and founded a settlement for fellow fugitive slaves in Ontario, believed to have inspired the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin
• an original cabinet photo of Harriet Beecher Stowe in profile, signed in the lower border in black ink with an inscription to Plymouth Sunday School, taken by photographer George Hastings in the late 1880s
• a New York City mayoral banquet invitation signed by aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, dated June 14, 1927, three weeks after his historic solo trans-Atlantic flight
• an autograph album signed by former US President James Buchanan, all the members of his Cabinet, and other US government leaders gathered in Washington, D.C. between 1857-1859