Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Oatmeal Convinces Elon Musk To Donate $1 Million To Tesla Museum

Posted by timothy on from the carreon-should-donate-too dept.

Ars Technica notes (as does Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman) that Elon Musk has agreed to donate $1 million towards the restoration of Nikola Tesla's old lab as a museum, a project that Inman has been pushing for some time now. And if you happen to get there in a Tesla, you're in luck: Musk is also planning to install one of his company's superchargers in the parking lot. (At the other end of the east coast, you can visit a very different kind of Tesla museum.)

3 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. On his Birthday, even... by bughunter · · Score: 5, Informative

    Happy birthday, Nikola, you crazy bastard!

    --
    I can see the fnords!
  2. There's already a Tesla museum, in Belgrade. by Animats · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Tesla Museum already exists.

    Tesla did great work with AC generators and motors. Most common AC motors today still use approaches he invented. That's his legacy.

    Wardenclyffe, though, is a monument to failure. From his patents, you can read how he thought it would work. He thought the ionosphere was a conductive layer. The Wardenclyffe tower was supposed to punch power through the atmosphere to that conductive layer, so that signals and maybe power could be received elsewhere.

    The ionosphere does not work that way. Tesla's tower would have done nothing useful, although with 200KW at 20KHz going in, it probably could have lit up fluorescent lamps and gas tubes for some distance around. Since the location is now surrounded by a housing subdivision, rebuilding the tower and powering it up would annoy the neighbors.

  3. Re:conflict by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_response

    Jesus does he come off like a stupid asshole in his counter-response.