Edison medal

In one of the periods of his life Tesla was completely broke and his bill at the hotel had been unpaid for a long time. One afternoon a deputy sheriff arrived at his office and began seizing his furnishings to satisfy a judgement against them. Tesla managed to persuade the officer to grant him an extension. When he had gone, there remained the matter of his secretaries, who had received no salaries in more than two weeks. All that was left was the gold Edison Medal.

"It is worth about one hundred dollars," – said Tesla to the young women - "I want to divide it into two and give half to each."

The two secretaries declined in one voice. They offered instead to share with him the small sums of money in their own purses. A few weeks later, when Tesla was able to pay them, he placed an additional two weeks’ salary in each envelope. Yet on the very day when he offered to divide up the Edison Medal, there had in fact been a little money in the office – five dollars in petty cash. But this he claimed at once for his pigeons, saying he was out of bird seed. He had asked Dorothy (one of his secretaries) to go out and to buy fresh food for pigeons.