Did you know …
That Nikola Tesla was afraid of the sea? It’s true!
We can’t be certain of the root of Tesla’s thalassophobia (word of the day!), but it seems likely that it developed over an 8-day period while working in Thomas Edison’s laboratory. Upon arriving at work on October 6, 1884, Tesla discovered that his desk was enclosed in a large cage made of wood and rope. On the desk was a cheese sandwich. As he entered the cage to investigate the cheese sandwich, the wooden door shut and locked behind him and Edison stepped out from behind a rubber plant, laughing.
Edison had built the cage over the weekend by scaling up plans for a common lobster trap. He refused to release Tesla for more than week, spending those eight days calling him “my stupid little lobster,” and periodically threatening to dump the cage into the sea. Edison even went so far, on at least two occasions, to have the cage (and its Tesla) carted to the banks of the Hudson river and set overhanging the edge of a quay.
By Friday, Edison had become bored with his prank, and returning to work after a long weekend, he was surprised to find a thirsty and disoriented Tesla still in the cage on the following Tuesday. He released the Croatian inventor, and Tesla would never again willingly visit the sea (although Edison would bring him there in a trap several more times.)
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