Tesla's inventions Earthquake Machine One of the most fascinating, mysterious, and controversial of Tesla's inventions was his earthquake machine. A small oscillating device which he claimed could bring down an entire building of any size given enough time. He used the machine in his lab and almost destroyed the entire building. The device was tiny but when timed at the perfect frequency could add a little more energy to the wave of flex to the building with each little vibration. Tesla was terrified of what the device could potentially be used for, and decided to take a hammer and destroy the device. He ordered his assistants to claim that they had no idea what could have caused the shaking and the tremors.