Original poster: Gregory Morris <gbmorris@xxxxxxxxx> Tesla list wrote:
Original poster: "Harold Weiss" <hweiss@xxxxxxxxxx> Hi All,I was over on the Mythbusters forums answering a question on Tesla's death ray and this thought occurred.What if Tesla's latter insanity was caused by mercury? We know he handled it a lot during his experiments in lighting, RF, and for his death ray/particle beam.Old time hat makers used to use mercury for tanning beaver pelts used in top hats. This gave us the term "Mad Hatter". Mercury was found to be the cause of their insanity.This would explain many of his wilder "scientific" claims around and after Wardencliffe.David E Weiss
Hi David,That is certainly an interesting thought, and perhaps one which would require further investigation. I have certainly heard of this type of poisoning affecting the minds of well-known people in the past, and I even think I remember hearing something about Napoleon's suffering from lead poisoning late in his life.
It seems to me, however, that Tesla had suffered questionable experiences as a child, such as are explained in his autobiography, "My Inventions". The "flashes of light" he claims to have experienced, his nightly interactions with imaginary people, along with various other phenomena lead me to believe he had the precursors to mental illness at a young age. I also recall that his father was known to have lively debates with himself, which may be indicative of a family history of such unfortunate illnesses, or maybe not.
I am certainly no expert, but hopefully this will spark some interesting debate.
Greg