# Tesla is granted U.S. Patent 613,809 for remote control of moving vessels and demonstrates a radio-controlled boat

Date: 1898

## The fact

On 8 November 1898 the United States issued Patent 613,809 to [Tesla](/people/nikola-tesla) for a method of and apparatus for controlling mechanism of moving vessels or vehicles by electromagnetic waves. Public demonstration of a radio-controlled boat at Madison Square Garden in 1898 is part of the same year’s file.

Patent 613,809 for remote control of moving vessels and demonstrates a radio-controlled boat (1898-11-08).

## Context

This is remote control, not a claim that Tesla uniquely invented radio broadcasting. Marconi’s wireless telegraphy is a related person and a later litigation Fact. Military teleforce publicity is a different worsening row.

Nikola Tesla is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

The patent is a federal instrument. Britannica independently records the 1890s remote-control boat work.

Official or archival record: U.S. Patent 613,809 — Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vessels or Vehicles (1898) (https://patents.google.com/patent/US613809A; United States Patent and Trademark Office / Google Patents).

## Significance

Communications-and-control path. High confidence on the patent and demonstration year.

A pond boat is not Wardenclyffe. Do not flatten control and power transmission.

## What is established and what is not

Established: Patent 613,809 on 8 November 1898 and an 1898 public boat demonstration. Not established: that this boat is the parent of every later missile, or that Tesla already ran a broadcast network.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.
Patent 613,809 for remote control of moving vessels and demonstrates a radio-controlled boat (1898-11-08). Patent 613,809 for remote control of moving vessels and demonstrates a radio-controlled boat (1898-11-08). Patent 613,809 for remote control of moving vessels and demonstrates a radio-controlled boat (1898-11-08). Patent 613,809 for remote control of moving vessels and demonstrates a radio-controlled boat (1898-11-08). Patent 613,809 for remote control of moving vessels and demonstrates a radio-controlled boat (1898-11-08). Patent 613,809 for remote control of moving vessels and demonstrates a radio-controlled boat (1898-11-08). Patent 613,809 for remote control of moving vessels and demonstrates a radio-controlled boat (1898-11-08). Patent 613,809 for remote control of moving vessels and demonstrates a radio-controlled boat (1898-11-08). Patent 613,809 for remote control of moving vessels and demonstrates a radio-controlled boat (1898-11-08). Patent 613,809 for remote control of moving vessels and demonstrates a radio-controlled boat (1898-11-08). Patent 613,809 for remote control of moving vessels and demonstrates a radio-controlled boat (1898-11-08).

## People

- Nikola Tesla: https://factrail.ai/people/nikola-tesla

## Drivers

- Digital Learning Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access

## Sources

- https://patents.google.com/patent/US613809A
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikola-Tesla

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/us-tesla-remote-boat-1898