Tag: The Oatmeal

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Serbian President Unveils Nikola Tesla Monument at Wardenclyffe

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Tesla: The Wizard of ElectricitySerbian President Tomislav Nikolic will unveil a monument to Nikola Tesla on the grounds of Tesla’s most famous laboratory at Wardenclyffe. The ceremony takes place on Monday, September 23, 2013 and can be viewed live online at 12 noon Eastern time for those who can’t be in Shoreham, Long Island.

Nikola Tesla is the inventor and scientist who made it possible for us all to use the electricity in our homes and buildings. After emigrating from Europe and becoming a naturalized American citizen in 1891, Tesla lived mostly in New York City. He had several laboratories in the city, plus worked in Pittsburgh and had a laboratory in Colorado Springs. But his final lab was Wardenclyffe. It was here that he attempted to bring wireless communication and power to the world. And thanks to an amazing crowdfunding campaign in 2012 by The Oatmeal (Matthew Inman) and Jane Alcorn at the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, Tesla’s old laboratory is being turned into a museum and educational center.

To view the livestreaming of the event, go to RememberTesla.com. After registering for the event you get a chance to see a series of videos of the monument and other Tesla Science Center activities. [Thanks to Kevin Wood for donating his time to document this amazing endeavor. That’s him below filming the placement of the statue.]

Kevin Wood Wardenclyffe Statue

Photo from Kevin Wood

See more photos by going to Kevin’s website and scrolling down.

Find out more about the project at the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe website.

I’ve been honored to play my small part in helping to bring Nikola Tesla to the people with my book, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. Please continue to support the Tesla Wardenclyffe project. The property is purchased and volunteers have been actively working on the grounds, but there is so much more to be done to turn the site into a world class Museum and Science Center.

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Tower to the People – Saving Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe

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In a previous post I talked about how Nikola Tesla, though largely ignored in the history books, had caught on as somewhat of a movie rock star. With David Bowie, no less. One of the movies mentioned in that post was an independent film co-written and directed by filmmaker Joseph Sikorski. The movie is called Fragments From Olympus: “The Vision of Nikola Tesla,” and in it “the enigmatic life of electrical genius Nikola Tesla unravels through a posthumous F.B.I. investigation into his particle beam research, including a new super weapon called the ‘death ray’.”

Sikorski and Vic Elefante, Production Supervisor for the film, recently attended the Tesla Memorial Conference at the New Yorker Hotel in New York City. Joe and Vic provided us in attendance with a double treat. First they previewed Fragments, then surprised the crowd with the introduction of a second effort, this one specifically focused on helping to save Wardenclyffe. An homage to the people who have worked so hard to raise the funds and negotiate the purchase of the Wardenclyffe property, the new effort is called Tower to the People: Tesla’s Dream at Wardenclyffe Continues. Check out the trailer:

Joe and Vic and all the others who are working on Fragments deserve tremendous credit for selflessly giving of their time and skills to develop the Tower project. They have collaborated with Jane Alcorn of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, the Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman, and myriad others, to help bring the name of Nikola Tesla back into its rightful place in history.

More on Tesla: Wizard of Electricity.

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12-year-old Kyle Driebeek Inspires the Crowd at Nikola Tesla Conference

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Twelve-year-old Kyle Driebeek first learned about Nikola Tesla when he was only 8 years old. Four years later he is one of the star attractions at the Nikola Tesla Memorial Conference held in New York City January 5-7, 2013. [Day 1 and Day 2] The conference was held on the 70th anniversary of Tesla’s death in the very place that he lived the last 10 years of his life – the New Yorker Hotel. Many luminaries in the field were in attendance including Tesla Science Foundation President Nikola Lonchar, Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe President Jane Alcorn, The Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman, and William H. Terbo, the grand-nephew of Nikola Tesla. But Kyle was the real star.

Kyle Driebeek

Amazingly poised and well-spoken for someone so young, Kyle walked up to the microphone and quickly awed the roomful of Nikola Tesla experts. He related how he first came to hear about Tesla on a History Channel program called Modern Marvels. That same year his 3rd Grade class gave him an assignment to study a famous person. Kyle chose Tesla. For his research Kyle and his family came to the New Yorker, stayed in the very room that was Tesla’s, and toured the property with engineer Joe Kinney. He also went out to Long Island and peered at Wardenclyffe through the fence. It would be the first of many visits to the New Yorker and to Wardenclyffe.

His research continued for a 5th Grade class project. In 2011 Kyle attended the Long Island Tesla Conference and got to stand on the octagonal base of the Wardenclyffe tower. He learned to play the Theremin, the electronic instrument played without physical contact. He smiled as the contributions rolled in during Matthew Inman’s crowd-funding efforts in 2012, an effort that raised nearly $1.4 million and has allowed Jane Alcorn’s Tesla Science Center to purchase the Wardenclyffe property to be made into a museum and educational center. And now here he was an invited speaker at the Tesla Memorial Conference. [You can watch Kyle’s presentation beginning at about minute 37:00 in this video.]

Kyle Driebeek was inspired by Nikola Tesla. The attendees at the conference were inspired by Kyle Driebeek. Like Kyle, we all feel that the world needs to know more about Nikola Tesla’s contributions to science. Kyle vows to help spread the word. And after his inspiring presentation, so will we all.

More on Nikola Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity.

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Tesla Science Center Successfully Buys Wardenclyffe – Will Make It Into a Museum

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Nikola TeslaAn effort to raise money to buy Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe laboratory has been successful. The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, a non-profit group that has been pursuing the property for many years, confirmed that the Agfa Corporation agreed to sell the site to the Center. The Center will now begin developing designs for the renovation of the facility, which is badly in need of repair, and the creation of a world class “museum and educational memorial to Nikola Tesla, an eccentric genius who lit the world with alternating current but died penniless.”

Wardenclyffe was Tesla’s last great laboratory, and where he planned to begin his World Wireless System to transmit both communications (radio) and power without wires. The effort fell short due to design problems and the withdrawal of funding from financier J.P. Morgan. Tesla later came to his benefactor’s defense when others accused the wealthy financier of pulling funding because Tesla’s wireless electrical power ideas would not provide a profit for Morgan. In his autobiography, Tesla noted with respect to Morgan that “he carried out his generous promise to the letter and it would have been most unreasonable to expect from him anything more.” It was not lack of faith in his abilities by Morgan that would end Tesla’s work at Wardenclyffe, it was that “my project was retarded by laws of nature. The world was not prepared for it. It was too far ahead of time. But the same laws will prevail in the end and make it a triumphal success.”

A century later, Wardenclyffe could once again be the focal point for Tesla’s research. The acquisition by the Tesla Science Center and development of a museum and educational center is a fitting tribute to the man who helped bring us the electrical systems we all rely on today.

More on Tesla: Wizard of Electricity here.

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Tesla Backers Raise Cash to Buy Wardenclyffe and Make it Into a Museum

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Nikola Tesla WardenclyffeA most amazing thing has happened in the past week or so. Matthew Inman, who is the creator and creative genius behind a web cartoon called “The Oatmeal,” has hooked up with a nonprofit group called the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, to raise funds to buy the Wardenclyffe property and make it into a Nikola Tesla Museum. In just a few short days, and some really funny begging for cash, the combined efforts pulled in pledges exceeding the $850,000 goal.

As the Oatmeal puts in on facebook:

“Someone jumped in at the last minute and donated $33,333. WE JUST HIT OUR GOAL: $873,169! With the matching grant from NY state, this puts us at $1.7 million raised in 6 days!”

[For those who don’t know, Tesla had an obsession with numbers divisible by three, hence the normally odd $33,333 amount]

Who would have expected that so many people would rush to remember a largely forgotten electrical scientist who died in poverty nearly 70 years ago? But they do. In an article published on the CNN website, Inman explains it this way:

“Tesla is an unsung hero, and there are very few monuments to him in the United States. I feel like that’s something we need to fix,” Inman said. “I made a comic about Tesla on my site. It got the most ‘likes’ on Facebook that I’ve ever seen in my career. Combine (the fact) that I’ve got this army of Tesla fans and the experience and success with my other fund-raiser, I felt like I was the ideal person to step in to control.”

The site is what is left of Wardenclyffe, the “World Wireless” facility built by Nikola Tesla over 100 years ago. He had planned on making it the focal point of wireless communication (radio) and electrical power. Besides the 94-foot by 94-foot laboratory building it featured a “187 feet high tower, having a spherical terminal about 68 feet in diameter.” Unfortunately, funding dried up and it fell into disuse. In 1917 the tower was demolished for scrap and Nikola Tesla became more and more reclusive before his eventual death in 1943.

For nearly 50 years the site would house a film processing company, after which it became a Superfund site, but has since changed hands several times and “has now been cleaned up and is no longer harmful.”

While the money has been raised to buy the property there is still some uncertainty as to whether the seller will agree to the sale. And if the Tesla Science Center is successful in acquiring the property it would still need to raise additional money to clean up and restore it for use as a museum. Jane Alcorn, President of the group, “expects it will be a couple of years before the museum opens, while additional funding and exhibits are arranged.”

Those wanting to donate further to the effort can go the Indiegogo site. Inman’s The Oatmeal can be found on Facebook and his website.

More information on The Tesla Science Center can be found here.

More information on Nikola Tesla: Scientific Rock Star can be found here.

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