In the poem “Fragments of Olympian Gossip” which was thought to have been composed in the late 1920’s Tesla criticized Einstein:
“Now a long haired crank, Einstein by name,
Puts on your high teaching all the blame.”
In 1931 on Nikola Tesla’s 75th birthday he was featured on the cover of Time magazine. Time requested a comment from Einstein to which he politely responded with, “As an eminent pioneer in the realm of high frequency currents… I congratulate you on the great successes of your life’s work.”
When Albert Einstein was asked how it felt to be the smartest man on Earth, he replied, “I wouldn’t know. Ask Nikola Tesla” It was short and to the point from Einstein. However, given the nature of their relationship this was just a clever, sarcastic remark and not a compliment.
Later in 1935 when speaking with The New York Times, Tesla was critical of Einstein stating that his theory of relativity was “a beggar wrapped in purple whom ignorant people take for a king” and “a mass of error and deceptive ideas violently opposed to the teachings of great men of science of the past and even to common sense…”
Tesla continued “…the theory wraps all these errors and fallacies and clothes them in magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying errors… its exponents are very brilliant men, but they are metaphysicists rather than scientists. Not a single one of the relativity propositions has been proved.”
Both of them were great man; one of the greatest that ever existed; geniuses and inventors who shaped the future! Certainly there was some kind of rivalry between them, but then, there is between all great minds. That’s a big part of what drives us to be better and, in return, do great things for the world!
