Tesla's laboratory will be turned into a museum - with the help of crowdfunding almost a million dollars was collected

The campaign on IndieGoGo , initiated by Matthew Inman, the creator of theoatmeal.com , successfully achieved a goal of $ 850,000 just six days after the start. There are still 38 days to raise funds.

The Wardencliff Laboratory , located 60 miles from Manhattan, was put up for sale a couple of years ago. Nikola Tesla worked in it from 1900 to 1917. On its territory was built the famous Tesla tower - the world's first wireless telecommunications tower, which Nikola Tesla planned to use for international communications, broadcasting and wireless transmission of electricity. Due to problems with financing this project was not able to be completed. John Pierpont Morgan - originally the main sponsor of the project - curtailed funding, fearing that Tesla will be able to make free electricity available to all. In 1917, the tower was demolished.

The plot of the serpentine under the laboratory and the building itself with all the equipment is estimated at 1.7 million dollars. New York State authorities pledged to contribute half of this amount if the crowdfunding campaign is successful. All money in excess of the required 850,000 will be used to restore the laboratory and create a museum.

Matthew Inman is a big fan of Nikola Tesla. A great comic strip was recently published on Oatmeal about Tesla’s life and work. The great scientist, who is often called the "father of electricity", had a hand in almost all discoveries and inventions in this area of ​​the late 19th - first half of the 20th century. Many of his ideas are far ahead of their time. Unlike Thomas Edison - a talented and aggressive businessman who had almost no education, and did not shun the rather dubious methods of competition and, as they would say today, PR - Tesla could not even secure a prosperous old age. He died in poverty in a New York hotel room at the age of 86.
')
Tesla devoted his whole life to work. Inman calls him "the greatest geek of all time." Tesla kept a very careless record, many of his discoveries and experiments were not recorded on paper, which gave rise to many of the most incredible rumors. Despite the aura of mystery around his experiments and an attractive appearance — a crowd of female fans sought his attention — he remained a bachelor, fearing that relationships with women might interfere with his work.

Despite the fact that Tesla lived and worked in the United States, there is still no museum dedicated to him. Such a museum is only in Serbia, in Belgrade. Now, by the online community, justice will be restored.