Press Release
Coral Gables, FL, USA, April 24, 2026 — A holograph page from a Nikola Tesla scientific manuscript from 1907, signed in full and containing Tesla’s bold vision of a world in which warfare is rendered virtually obsolete, is the expected headliner in One of a Kind Collectibles’ internet-only auction, online now at www.OAKauctions.com and ending Thursday, April 30, at 8pm Eastern Time.
Officially titled Tesla, Einstein & the American Presidency: Rare Autographs & Historical Documents, the auction showcases an exceptional array of scientific, presidential, literary and aviation material spanning centuries of American and international history. Offerings in the catalog pertain to items signed by some of history’s brightest luminaries, including Tesla, Albert Einstein, Charles Lindbergh, numerous past US Presidents and Declaration signers.
The Nikola Tesla signed manuscript is arguably one of the most audacious weapons concepts ever committed to paper. It is the concluding page of Tesla’s working draft for “Tidal Wave to Make War Impossible,” an article he authored that was published in English Mechanic and World of Science on May 3, 1907. Tesla autograph letters and manuscripts are extremely rare.
Tesla describes, in precise engineering terms, a remotely operated vessel weaponized to harness the destructive force of ocean swells against an enemy fleet. The concept was not metaphorical: Tesla calculated that wave action could drive a submerged vessel downward from a height of 75 feet in something approximating free fall, generating an impact force of 60,000 tons against the hull of a warship.
That force, he wrote, was eight times the recoil of the broadside of any battleship then afloat. The vessel, once committed, would sink beneath the surface, never to rise. The weapon was to be guided entirely by remote wireless control: no crew, no pilot, no human presence aboard. It was, in the clearest possible terms, the world’s first conceived remotely operated weapon of mass naval destruction, designed more than a century before such systems became reality.
Also up for bid will be colonial treasures, including a Roger Sherman triple-signature on a 1756 counterfeit prosecution; aviation, including Orville Wright and a Lindbergh TLS; space highlights, to include Apollo astronauts Shepard, Aldrin and Collins, plus Gargarin; literary lots, including Mark Twain and Charles Dickens; and sports items, like Yankees and Joe DiMaggio.
To learn more, or to register and bid now for the April 30th auction, please visit www.OAKauctions.com.
