Decades before the modern UFO era, Nikola Tesla believed he had detected signals from another world. After his death, federal authorities secured his research and assigned an MIT scientist, Dr. John G. Trump, to investigate technology that Tesla claimed could destroy aircraft from great distances.

USA HERALD | SCIENCE, NATIONAL SECURITY & INVESTIGATIONS

WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than 125 years ago, Nikola Tesla was conducting electrical experiments in Colorado Springs when something unexpected happened. His sensitive instruments began registering unusual signals that appeared to follow a pattern. Tesla, already one of the world's most accomplished electrical inventors, considered an extraordinary possibility: Could someone, or something, on another planet be attempting to communicate with Earth?

What happened next would become one of the more intriguing chapters in the history of scientific exploration. Tesla publicly discussed the possibility of extraterrestrial communication decades before the modern UFO phenomenon captured America's attention. And when he died in 1943, the federal government moved quickly to secure his technical papers, fearing that some of his inventions might have significant military applications.

One of the scientists selected to examine Tesla's research was Dr. John George Trump, a respected Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) electrical engineer and the paternal uncle of President Donald Trump.

For USA Herald, the historical connection is particularly interesting because it brings together three subjects that continue to generate intense public interest: unexplained signals from space, experimental technologies capable of affecting aircraft, and the federal government's handling of potentially sensitive scientific discoveries.

But the surviving historical documents do reveal important aspects between what Tesla believed he had discovered, and what federal authorities believe he might have invented, and what investigators actually verified.

In 1899, Tesla established an experimental laboratory in Colorado Springs to study high-voltage electricity, wireless transmission, and electrical disturbances in the atmosphere. With specialized receiving equipment, he picked up signals that seemed unlike the electrical activity he usually observed.

Tesla eventually began considering whether those signals originated beyond Earth.

According to the Library of Congress's historical examination of extraterrestrial communication, Tesla's claims attracted widespread newspaper coverage in 1901, when the possibility of intelligent life on Mars was already fascinating the public.

In his February 1901 article, Talking With the Planets, Tesla described his growing suspicion that he had detected a communication originating from another world.

He wrote of the possibility that he had been the first person to hear a greeting transmitted between planets.

His observations anticipated a scientific question that would eventually become central to the modern search for extraterrestrial intelligence: Could electromagnetic signals reveal civilizations elsewhere in the universe?

Tesla wasn’t conducting a documented investigation into UFOs or alien spacecraft in the modern sense. Rather, it involved unexplained electrical phenomena and the possibility of communication beyond Earth.

His later research, however, took a different direction, one that would eventually attract the attention of American military and intelligence officials.

By the 1930s, Tesla was promoting an ambitious defensive weapons concept he called Teleforce. Popular newspapers described it as a death ray, although Tesla's proposed system involved projecting highly energized particles rather than a conventional ray of light.

Tesla claimed the technology could disable or destroy approaching aircraft at considerable distances, potentially creating a defensive barrier around a nation.

The proposal was especially provocative at a time when military aviation was transforming warfare and governments were searching for ways to protect cities from aerial bombardment.

Tesla died without publicly demonstrating a complete, operational Teleforce weapon. Yet his claims were sufficiently concerning that federal authorities examined the possible military implications after his death.

Tesla died on January 7, 1943, at the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan, while the United States was engaged in World War II.

Within days, officials from the Office of Alien Property Records took custody of his belongings and technical materials. The FBI also documented concerns that his research might contain information valuable to foreign governments.

A collection of declassified FBI records concerning Nikola Tesla includes wartime memoranda describing Tesla's electrical experiments, proposed weapons, and concerns surrounding the nature of his scientific papers.

One January 1943 communication discussed claims that Tesla had developed a revolutionary torpedo design and had maintained important electrical formulas and technical plans among his possessions.

That is where Dr. John G. Trump entered the story.

Trump was an MIT electrical engineer with expertise in high-voltage technology and wartime scientific research. He worked with the National Defense Research Committee, which supported military technology development during World War II.

He was also the younger brother of Fred Trump, President Donald Trump's father.

Federal officials assigned Dr. Trump to evaluate Tesla's papers and equipment to determine whether they contained scientific information of military significance.

According to the American Institute of Physics' historical profile of John G. Trump, his work during the war included important contributions involving radar and high-voltage technology.

On January 26 and 27, 1943, Trump participated in the examination of Tesla's technical papers, alongside representatives of the Office of Alien Property and naval personnel.

Video - containing portions of Dr. Trump discussing his review of Tesla’s materials.

The review covered research involving electrical generators, wireless energy transmission, and particle-beam concepts associated with Tesla's proposed aircraft-defense system.

Among the materials examined was documentation of a 1935 agreement involving the Amtorg Trading Corporation, a Soviet commercial organization. The agreement concerned Tesla's proposed method of accelerating charged particles to extraordinary speeds and projecting them over substantial distances.

The existence of that agreement is historically significant because it demonstrates that Tesla's proposed weapon was more than a casual public remark. He had prepared technical descriptions and pursued commercial arrangements involving the concept.

However, in his January 30, 1943, assessment, Dr. Trump concluded that Tesla's later research did not contain new, scientifically workable principles capable of delivering the claimed results.

Based on the materials he says he examined, Dr. Trump found no technical or military reason to keep Tesla’s property in federal custody. Whether all of Tesla’s boxes of research materials were actually released, however, remains disputed.

There is another detail in the declassified record that deserves attention.

Decades after Tesla's death and Dr. Trump's assessment, the Department of Defense expressed renewed interest in Tesla's papers.

A memorandum from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, preserved among the FBI's Tesla records, stated that officials believed certain papers might contain principles valuable to ongoing defense research.

The memorandum was signed by Lieutenant Colonel Allan J. MacLaren, identified as a military assistant for Strategic and Space Systems. It requested access to the material and offered to provide a researcher to assist with its examination.

The reproduced Defense Department memorandum provides an especially interesting historical connection: despite Dr. Trump's unfavorable 1943 assessment, some defense officials subsequently considered Tesla's research potentially relevant to their work.

The memorandum shows that official interest in Tesla’s research persisted despite Dr. Trump’s conclusion that it contained no new or scientifically workable principles.

For USA Herald, that distinction is central to understanding the story. Tesla's observations concerning possible extraterrestrial signals, his proposed aircraft-defense technology, and the government's subsequent examination of his research are documented historical events.

The surviving records do not answer every question about Tesla's unfinished research. They do, however, reveal a more substantial story than the popular legend of a mysterious inventor whose secrets simply disappeared.

Tesla was a pioneering scientist who seriously considered the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence. He later pursued ambitious concepts involving wireless power and weapons capable of affecting aircraft. After his death, the federal government examined those proposals through a scientific review conducted by the uncle of a future American president.

And decades later, defense officials were still asking whether some of his papers might have military value.

But perhaps the most compelling question is whether Tesla’s research contributed to operational systems secretly in use today.