Nikola Tesla Gets Million Dollar Museum For His Birthday, Courtesy of Elon Musk

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    Nikola Tesla is widely renowned for his inventions and their impact on people’s lives today. Today, we can credit inventions from the alternating current to the X-ray to Tesla. In fact, his research in electricity and magnetism impacts essentially every piece of technology we use – including the computer you’re on right now.

    Tesla’s lab at Wardenclyffe in Long Island has long gone ignored, historic as it is. In 2012, museum organizers decided to purchase the lab, cleaning up the neglected residence. Now, two years later, for Tesla’s 159th birthday, the museum is getting $1 million in funding from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. What began as a grassroots initiative stemming from “The Oatmeal” on why Tesla is “the greatest geek who ever lived” has become a revamping of a historical site.

    “We’re happy to be gathered at the laboratory of Nikola Tesla, the person we’ve come to celebrate,” a museum official said, according to Live Science. “Thank you, Elon Musk!”

    “The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, located on the site where Tesla once built a 187-foot (57 meters) transmitter tower to experiment with sending messages and distributing wireless electricity, will feature his inventions and their impact on people’s lives today, museum organizers said. It will also include a hacker lab where people can build prototypes of their own inventions, and an innovation station where entrepreneurs can turn their ideas into real products,” the source detailed.

    Amidst Tesla’s birthday festivities – speeches, flag raisings, pigeon releases – we celebrate the accomplishments of a great inventor and look forward to the work of inventors-to-be.

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