Photo: Wikipedia
Yesterday, CNN offered up a modern American success story about a project that started out with a small, possibly strange, dream:
Currently, the building [which housed scientist Nikola Tesla’s laboratory] and surrounding land sit idle and are up for sale. Matthew Inman, the creator of Web cartoon “The Oatmeal,” is joining forces with a nonprofit group, The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, to help preserve the facility as a science center and museum honoring “the father of the electric age.”
And so they started a campaign called “Let’s Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum” and within 5 days the project had raised $750,000 toward it’s goal of $850,000 – which would be matched by a New York State grant which would allow the foundation to buy Tesla’s laboratory to turn it into a museum dedicated to the man who was about 100 years ahead of his time, but died broke and in debt.
Even Inman is sorta shocked at the success of the campaign:
“What I expected to happen was we’d raise 20 or 30 grand and trickle over for the next six weeks. I didn’t expect to average $27,000 per hour (in the first few days),” he said. “That was insane.”
The money would go just to buying the program, but the building would need to be restored an a museum established, which would take a few more years and some more money, which will be raised separately, as of now.
What do you think of these grassroots on-line fundraisers?
Would you visit the Tesla museum?
Who is your favorite under-appreciated scientist?