Nikola Tesla’s N.Y. lab to be restored
by The Canadian Press
The father of the alternating current and rival of Thomas Edison imagined a world of free electricity
MINEOLA, N.Y.—A New York laboratory once used by visionary scientist Nikola Tesla will be restored thanks to a six-week Internet crowdfunding effort that raised $1.3 million.
The rival of Thomas Edison imagined a world of free electricity and conducted experiments in the early 20th century at his Wardenclyffe laboratory in Shoreham, about 65 miles east of New York City.
Volunteers on eastern Long Island had struggled for nearly two decades to raise money to acquire the property with little success—until they encountered an unexpected benefactor this summer. Seattle cartoonist Matthew Inman started promoting a fundraising effort on his website, theoatmeal.com.
Within hours of posting an appeal last August on the fundraising site Indiegogo.com, donations began to accumulate by the hundreds of thousands.
Decades after Tesla abandoned the site in 1917, it was home to a photo chemical processing plant. In 1993, officials determined that the area’s groundwater had been polluted with cadmium and silver. The current property owners, Belgian-based AGFA Corp., which wasn’t linked to the pollution, worked for years to decontaminate the site.
State regulators deemed the remediation complete this year.
In addition to the $1.3 million raised, the science centre also has an $850,000 state grant to help it purchase the property. It was listed this year for sale at $1.6 million, but a real estate official handling the sale said that figure was negotiable. Any leftover money from the property purchase will be used to help develop the envisioned science centre.
