By Ariane Coffin
It was only a month ago that we celebrated Nikola Tesla’s birthday and already he’s popping back into our news feeds. The famous webcomic The Oatmeal announced yesterday the launch of an IndieGoGo campaign to finance the purchase of Tesla’s lab, the Wardenclyffe, with the goal of turning it into a Tesla museum.
The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe (TSC), originally named Friends of Science East, has been in business since 1996 as a non-profit organization trying to share Tesla’s legacy with the world. Comprised of eight board members who share this common passion for Tesla and his work, TSC is the entity which would be receiving the funds from the IndieGoGo campaign. Matthew Inman, creator of The Oatmeal, is contributing his Internet mogul wisdom and strong fan base to help launch the campaign’s popularity.
And the popularity — Inman has brought plenty. On its first day yesterday, the IndieGoGo campaign Let’s Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum collected about $250,000, 30 percent of its lofty $850,000 goal. That $850K, matched by the state of New York, will go entirely towards purchasing the $1.6 million property. After that, it will take a few more million to make the museum a reality. That may look like impossibly large numbers to most of us, but keep in mind that’s a normal, if not low, figure in the museum world. For example, the relatively new California Academy of Sciences cost around $500 million. Think about it this way: The Tesla museum is only one generous multi-millionaire away from success, should the TSC be able to save the Wardenclyffe from being torn down and replaced by the next cookie-cutter strip mall.
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