Nikola Tesla had been very fond of pigeons since he was a child in Croatia till his elderly age in New York, and had made a specialty in treating sick pigeons. He would feed them everyday on his daily ten mile walks, and would also take in wounded pigeons and nurse them back to health at his hotel in New York. He seemed to have had a better connection with them than with most people, one time even delaying himself from a speech he was to give at a ceremony where he was to accept the Edison Award. He was later found feeding his pigeons at a local library near the venue before being persuaded back to give his acceptance speech. One pigeon he nurtured back to health he became very close with. In John O’Neil’s book, The Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla, Tesla was quoted saying:
“I have been feeding pigeons, thousands of them, for years. But there was one pigeon, a beautiful bird, pure white with light grey tips on its wings; that one was different. It was a female. I would know that pigeon anywhere. No matter where I was that pigeon would find me, when I wanted her I had only to wish and call her and she would come flying to me. She understood me and I understood her. I loved that pigeon. Yes, I loved her as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. When she was ill I knew, and understood; she came to my room and I stayed beside her for days. I nursed her back to health. That pigeon was the joy of my life. If she needed me, nothing else mattered. As long as I had her, there was a purpose in my life. Then one night as I was lying in my bed in the dark, solving problems, as usual, she flew in through the open window and stood on my desk. I knew she wanted me; she wanted to tell me something important so I got up and went to her. As I looked at her I knew she wanted to tell me–she was dying. And then, as I got her message, there came a light from her eyes–powerful beams of light. Yes, it was a real light, a powerful, dazzling, blinding light, a light more intense than I had ever produced by the most powerful lamps in my laboratory. When that pigeon died, something went out of my life. Up to that time I knew with a certainty that I would complete my work, no matter how ambitious my program, but when that something went out of my life I knew my life’s work was finished.”
annaxmalina
