Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

$900,000 Raised For Buying Tesla's Lab

Posted by Unknown on from the mad-scientists-at-work dept.

icebraining writes "As Slashdot reported earlier, The Oatmeal's Matthew Inman launched a funding campaign to help the Tesla Science Center, a 503(c) non-profit, buy the place of Tesla's final laboratory, the Wardenclyffe Tower in Shoreham, New York. Well, thanks to 21511 contributors, it has already raised $912,080, well above the original $850,000 goal. But it's not too late to help: any money raised above the goal will be used by the organization to build a museum dedicated to Tesla."

12 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Not very shocking. by BMOC · · Score: 5, Funny

    I would expect this endeavor to generate some electricity and buzz.

    --
    I swear they give me mod points to shut me up.
  2. I hope they reinstate the tower by belgianguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While I'm aware that'll probably be the last of their worries, it would complete the location and make it more 'monumental'.

    1. Re:I hope they reinstate the tower by belgianguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh I know, there's probably a whole slew of objections against reinstating the tower with all its original functionality. Not being able to meter it would be one of the least worrisome IMO. While it would be uber-cool, it's probably not possible as the location itself is turning into a museum, not a 'bleeding-edge' lab and it therefore can't be doing dangerous experiments. Not to speak of building code violations, possible negative effects on nearby (modern) electric equipment, additional effects on local fauna/flora etc.

      I'd be very happy already if they could rebuild the tower in looks only, as it looks so otherworldly and adds some uniqueness to the location. Furthermore it'd be visible from pretty far away, giving Tesla that visibility and validation that he had to miss out on for so long.

    2. Re:I hope they reinstate the tower by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Informative
      Basic physics says you can't extract that much energy from electromagnetic fields like that. Most fields diminish with an inverse square law (although magnetic fields actually diminish with an inverse cube for complicated reasons).

      Remember that JP Morgan pulled his funding when Tesla didn't know how to incorporate an electric meter into his system for extracting energy from the aether ("higgs field" is the latest term, I think).

      Ok. First, the notion of an aether was a ubiquitous substance necessary to explain among other things how electromagnetic waves traveled http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminiferous_aether. There was in the late 19th century and early 20th century, the reasonable but ultimately incorrect beliefs that waves required a medium to travel through. Since the main waves people were used to all obeyed that, it seemed reasonable. 20th century physics (especially Einstein's work) removed most of the reasons for thinking one would need an ether. Second, the Higgs field http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_field has nothing to do with this but is, very roughly speaking, an attempt to explain where the mass of elementary particles comes from. There's no way Tesla would have known anything about it. He had neither the math nor the particle physics knowledge to even guess at such a thing. You are essentially combining a variety of different ideas together that have little to do with each other.

    3. Re:I hope they reinstate the tower by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's simply the cult of Tesla. He was very bright and had a lot of good ideas but to say things like "Modern physics has nothing on Nikola Tesla" or "Tesla grokked physics like no one else before or (perhaps) since" simply isn't accurate. If we want to go with the celebrity route, Feynman would be the obvious counterexample to the second statement, especially since Tesla did absolutely no work in many fields of physics at all. But more to the point, Tesla couldn't have grokked things that well since the knowledge simply wasn't there, and because it is very hard for a single human to do everything. Thus for example Tesla never worked with superconductors (although they were known in his lifetime). Similarly, Tesla had as far as we can tell, no overarching ideas about theory that were at all helpful.

      And of course, Tesla came out against special and general relativity. While it is conceivable that GR might have issues, SR is pretty damn well one of the best established theories there is. Tesla was just wrong.

      Tesla was a man. A brilliant man, but a nevertheless, a man and not a god.

  3. Museum? by tanujt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not use the extra money to fund some actual research in electrical engineering? I don't think there's a better way to "honor the memory" of a great scientist/engineer.

    1. Re:Museum? by MozeeToby · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd rather see them make a museum that's actually awesome. Not just "this is what he did and how he did it". I want Tesla coil demonstrations (the kind he used to do with electricity arcing all around the room). I want "build you own X" areas for kids to build cool things. I want smart, exciting people giving smart, exciting presentations about what engineering and technology makes possible. In short, I want a museum that will inspire some small number of kids to follow in Tesla's footsteps.

    2. Re:Museum? by cachimaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Research in electrical engineering in 2050 will be done by kids visiting this museum now and realising how awesome it is.

  4. Oh no! by Antipater · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unfortunately, due to a mysterious "bank routing error", all $900,000 was deposited into the accounts of the estate of Thomas Edison.

    --
    Everything is better with chainsaws.
    1. Re:Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Edison spokesman was heard to say: "Damn you and your 'alternating currency'!" and ran off leaving a stream of patents behind him.

  5. Re:Error in summary by WillgasM · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, they said they would match anything up to $850k. They'll probably be able to get the property for much cheaper since they're able to pay cash. The Current $1.6m bid that they wanted to beat was apparently financed. With some luck, they should already have some funds leftover to start the museum.

  6. A 'live' museum, not a 'dead' one by belgianguy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Tesla was a crazy genius, in that regard I think it would be more fitting to have (at least part) of the museum have live/interactive and interesting things to do and try, rather than just gazing at collectibles and ooh-and-aah-ing at antiquities (how very awesome those still might be). Perhaps a MAKER lab or something or making a bulb glow with wireless electricity, have a Tesla coil play a song on your $MP3_PLAYER. If you read The Oatmeal's Tesla cartoon, you'd already have quite some nice ideas.