Nikola Tesla Lab & Museum Saved

[Hum]

The Oatmeal's fundraising campaign to help save Tesla's former laboratory, formally known as Wardenclyffe Tower, is finished. The Oatmeal raised nearly $1.4 million and was able to save the landmark adored by science aficionados.

Matthew Inman, creator of The Oatmeal, announced the good news on Monday.

The Oatmeal's fundraiser saved Tesla's lab, located on a 16-acre plot in Wardenclyffe, Long Island, N.Y., according to Boing Boing. The fundraiser had a set goal of $850,000 but ended hitting a grand total of $1,370,511, with donations from more than 100 countries.

The money was given to a group called the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe and was used to buy the land from the Agfa Corporation.

Mashable reports The Oatmeal's Tesla crusade was the fastest growing campaign on Indiegogo. Inman surpassed the $850,000 goal in less than one week, raising an average of $100 per minute, $6,000 per hour and $145,000 per day.

?This is Indiegogo?s fastest growing campaign, having generated over 50 percent of its funding goal in just 24 hours,? Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin said in a statement obtained by Mashable.

Inman launched the campaign back in August. The land went on sale for $1.6 million, and Inman wanted to secure the funding needed for the nonprofit group to build the Tesla museum. He said that if the campaign was able to raise $850,000, the state of New York would match the amount.

Marc J. Seifer, author of the Tesla biography "Wizard," says that the Tesla museum will not only attract visitors from around the world but also provide jobs and boost the local economy.

?It?ll be a beacon,? Seifer told The New York Times. ?Tesla was an inventor in so many different realms ? aircraft design, robotics, beam weapons, mass communications ? that he?s an inspiration for what true genius really is.? Adding, ?I think people from all over the world will want to visit the site of his laboratory. It?s going to be a tremendous thing.?

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), an innovative physicist and engineer, had a hand in inventing the light bulb, the radio, the transistor and the X-ray, but he never got public recognition for this hard work.

"Nikola Tesla was an unsung hero in the history books," Inman previously told Forbes' Greg Voakes when explaining the reasoning behind The Oatmeal's push for action. "He gave us so much and we gave him so little in return. The fact that there?s no physical Tesla Museum in the United States is a testament to this. Tesla?s rival, Thomas Edison, has multiple sites which honor his achievements, but Tesla?s got some little memorials here and there but no real museum here. This is something that needs to be fixed."

Somewhere in the depths of infinity, Nikola Tesla is smiling. :happy:

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[Farstrider]

Great news! About time something was done for the great man! Good on the "Oatmeal", keep up the good work!

[Dick Montage]

The most ignored genius, philanthropist and outright "decent person".