20 Things You Somehow Missed In The Prestige
15. The Historical Accuracy Of Tesla
For the main part, The Prestige is reasonably accurate in its portrayal of Nikola Tesla although, of course, it is a fictionalised portrayal of a real-life person.
Tesla had moved to Colorado Springs from New York City in 1899 so that he could have more freedom in his experiments, as the expanse of the area meant that he could work with larger conductivity coils. It is also true that he entered into an agreement to supply alternating current for free. An interesting bi-product of his experiments was that he considered that he might have been receiving signals from another planet, although it has been theorised that Tesla was actually receiving signals from Guglielmo Marconi in July 1899.
However, the film takes great artistic license with the reason why Tesla left Colorado Springs; when he pumped ten million volts into the Earth's surface to test the wireless transmission of energy, he burnt out the generator in Colorado Springs, actually causing it to catch fire. He received no further free energy from the city and was forced to leave.
The film, of course, has it that Tesla was driven from Colorado Springs by agents working for his chief competitor (and former employer), Thomas Edison, who burn his facilities to the ground. Ironically, Tesla was later awarded The Edison Medal for Meritorious Achievement in Electricity in May 1917.