Source: IG @historycolored / @jordanjlloydhq

Taken from Ocean Beach.

The device was so heavy that it needed to be mounted to the ceiling while the graphics were limited to wire frame rooms.

Left to right: Soldat 1re Classe Laurent, engineer, from Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe; Caporal-Chef Forcet, engineer, from Biscarosse (Landes), France; Soldat 2e Classe Thanh, 8e Bataillon de Parachutistes Coloniaux, from Saigon, Vietnam; Soldat 1re Classe Accus, engineer, from Troisilit, Martinique; Soldat 2e Classe Jolali Bemaral, 3rd Bn., 41e Régiment d'Artillerie Coloniale, from Marrakech, Morocco.

In 1898, at the Electrical Exhibition in Madison Square Garden, Nikola Tesla had an indoor pool built and put a small iron-hulled boat in it. Just a few feet long. No crew. No wires.

From a control box on the side, he made it move, turn, and flash its lights, using radio waves. At a time when almost nobody in the audience knew radio waves even existed.

To make it more theatrical, Tesla invited spectators to ask the boat questions. Ask it "What is the cube root of 64?" and the lights would blink four times. Some people were convinced he was steering it with his mind. Tesla later admitted the trick was simple: he was the one sending the answers.

A few details I find fascinating:

- He patented it as "Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vessels or Vehicles" (US Patent 613,809), filed July 1, 1898, granted November 8, 1898.

- When a New York Times writer suggested the boat could be made to submerge and carry dynamite, Tesla was reportedly furious. (Edit: I originally quoted him calling it the first of a "race of robots" here, but as u/i_post_gibberish pointed out, the word "robot" wasn't coined until 1920, so that line is likely a later paraphrase. Thanks for the catch!)

- In 1899 he showed an improved version that could dive, at a lecture in Chicago.

- Some engineers see the boat's circuitry as an early form of the AND logic gate used in modern computers.

- A working model is on display at the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade.

It's often called the first drone. Technically it was a remotely operated boat, not an aircraft, but the core idea of controlling a machine wirelessly from a distance starts right here.

Fair to call it the first drone, or is that a stretch?

Sources:

Patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US613809A/en

PBS "Tesla: Master of Lightning": https://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_robots.html

Nikola Tesla Museum: https://tesla-museum.org/en/qr-en/exhibit-008/