IndieGoGo Spotlight: Operation Let's Build a Bleeping Tesla Museum

[wraith808]

I don't do too many IndieGoGo Projects.  Not sure why... exposure maybe?

But they do allow for some more interesting projects than on Kickstarter.  That's a good segue into this one - Operation Let's Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum.

Nikola Tesla was the father of the electric age. Despite having drop-kicked humanity into a second industrial revolution, up until recently he's been an unsung hero in history books. If you don't know who Tesla is, go read this.

Tesla's final laboratory is located in the sleepy town of Shoreham, New York.  It's known as Wardenclyffe and it's where Tesla attempted to build a tower that would provide free wireless energy to the entire earth. Unfortunately, Tesla lost his funding before the project was completed and in 1917 the Wardenclyffe tower was demolished.  Subsequently, the land was sold to a film and paper manufacturer.


However, the land, laboratory, and foundation beneath the tower are still there and very recently went up for sale. And right now a non-profit is trying to buy the property and turn it into a Nikola Tesla Museum. The property is listed at $1.6 million, and this non-profit has received a matching grant from New York State of up to $850k.  This means that if we can raise $850k, New York State will match us for that same amount -- putting the total raised at $1.7 million.

There is currently another offer on the table from someone who wants to purchase the property potentially tear it down or turn it into a retail establishment. There is no Tesla museum in the United States, despite Tesla's extraordinary accomplishments.  If we can outbid this other person and buy the land it will permanently be protected as a historic site and eventually converted into a Nikola Tesla Science Center.

The folks behind this project are a 501(c) non-profit organization and they've spent the past 15 years trying to find a way to save this property.  This IndieGoGo account is linked directly to their bank and all the funds will go directly to them.

Even if we raise the full amount and end up with $1.7 million, this isn't enough to build an actual museum / science center. But it will effectively put the property into the right hands so it can eventually be renovated into something fitting for one of the greatest inventors of our time.

Internet, this is where you come in: HELP ME BUILD A GODDAMN TESLA MUSEUM.


More details about the campaign can be found over here.

All the funds raised from this campaign are going directly to a non-profit group.  Details about the non-profit behind this project can be found on their website: Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe

[40hz]

They should get stage illusionist Marco Tempest to help them promote it.

 

[SeraphimLabs]

Tesla was always bitter about Edison stealing his ideas too.

Everyone learns about Edison in school, but very few care at all about Tesla- even though it was actually Tesla that invented the Induction Motor in widespread use, fluorescent lights were greatly improved by him, and indeed the entire global power grid is built using an alternating current distribution method pioneered by Tesla for Westinghouse at Niagara Falls.

Now having said that, I've been to Menlo Park- where the Wizard himself once worked. Today it resembles an abandoned lot that has reverted to forest, with but a small shed full of things Edison had a hand in inventing serving as a museum aside from the short tower with a giant lightbulb atop it.

Yes it's a historic site, but were it not for the forest full of ruined foundations the 'museum' there it would be no bigger than a common pawn shop.

What would be REALLY fitting is build a (non-functional) reproduction of Wardenclyffe tower, and then use that structure as the museum proper. They'd never be able to unleash the earth-shattering power Tesla would have called upon with it due to RF and EMP risks to nearby facilities, but they'd at least be able to show an inside look of what Tesla's research was really like.

I'm sure there's enough Tesla Coil enthusiasts that would gladly visit the place to put on a show with their homebrew coils. Get enough of them in there and they'd be able to accurately reproduce one of the more infamous Tesla feats- carrying around a lighted bulb with no apparent power source by abusing the EMF of an operating Tesla coil.