back to article Elon Musk to fund Tesla museum with 'ONE MEEELLION DOLLARS'

Electric-car mogul Elon Musk has agreed to help fund a museum dedicated to the late scientist Nikola Tesla, to the tune of $1m. Musk, who named his car company after Tesla, reportedly agreed to help support the museum after a phone conversation with web cartoonist Matthew Inman, creator of The Oatmeal. Popular geek Inman has …

  1. Richard Jukes

    Legend!

  2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    How old?

    "July 10, which would have been Tesla's 158th birthday."

    Erm...no. The guy was a genius and invented many things, but immortality wasn't one of them.

    Unless this documentary was accurate...

    Thumbs up to Musk for the spondoolics though.

    1. Psyx

      Re: How old?

      "Erm...no."

      July 10, which WOULD have been Tesla's 158th birthday." - As in, it isn't because he's dead...

      1. Roboiii

        Re: How old?

        It's still your birthday even after you're dead. It indicates date of birth. It still indicates that Tesla was born 158 years ago.

  3. Martin Budden Silver badge
    Happy

    I like this Elon bloke.

  4. Toastan Buttar

    > I like this Elon bloke.

    Me too. A great philanthropical gesture.

  5. A K Stiles
    Paris Hilton

    1 down, 7 to go...

    Now, how to raise the other 7 million... anybody know of any other uber-rich tech titans to tap up?

    (icon: possibly not exactly a tech titan)

  6. phuzz Silver badge
    Joke

    Proof that Tony Stark has a heart.

  7. ukgnome
    Pint

    I used to think that Musk was a massive cock....

    And then he gave his patents away, and built a rocket, and actually turned out to be a decent chap.

    AND NOW THIS! Any donation to open a Tesla museum gets my vote and yet another reason to give the guy a hug.

    If they ran a web campaign to help the funding I would actually give a few quid, I have a massive soft spot for the father of the modern world. This has made Friday a bit better.

    Hey Musk, I'm buying you a cold one -------->

    1. Don Dumb
      Pint

      The Geek of Hearts

      @ukgnome -

      I used to think that Musk was a massive cock....And then he gave his patents away, and built a rocket, and actually turned out to be a decent chap.
      I'm the same, more beer for Musk. I'm guessing many here might have warmed to him. I wasn't keen on him and to be honest I have asked myself lately what it was that turned me off as I can't even remember.

      In any case, seeing how good the cars are, how he is clearly running Tesla very well and then the patent release has really won me over to Elon. He seems to be the reason society needs billionaires - because some of them can do something genuinely useful with their money. This just adds to the feeling that he may have been a bit immature early on but is actually a decent bloke trying to do ambitious things the right way. Let's face it, good or bad, the world would really benefit from most of his projects succeeding, good luck to him.

  8. annodomini2

    Great Marketing

    As seen above..

    $1m is pocket change to Elon.

    So tying his trademarked name with a museum.

    Touche.

    Not that the museum doesn't deserve it, but Musk's aim is for the headline.

    1. The elephant in the room
      Boffin

      Re: Great Marketing

      "Brand Synergy"

    2. David Kelly 2

      Re: Great Marketing

      $1m is pocket change to Elon.

      10 nicely equipped Model S's.

  9. The elephant in the room

    Rattling the tin

    Monochromatic troubadour Jack White must have a spare bob or two, and, apparently, his own Tesla coil. Fundrasers should perhaps call him next?

  10. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

    the late scientist Nikola Tesla

    "scientist"? Tesla was an engineer, inventor, and tinkerer, but at best he dabbled in actual science. I've read a couple of Tesla biographies and I can't recall any actual methodologically-sound scientific research he did, nor any contributions to scientific theory.

    I realize Tesla is one of the patron saints of the Internet, thanks in part to hagiographies by the likes of Inman1 and even more to the usual online groupthink. And no doubt I'll garner some downvotes for daring to challenge his legend. But that legend is hugely inflated.

    That said, sure, let Inman and Musk build a museum for him. It never hurts to get folks excited about engineering and the like. If we can't have Scrapheap Challenge, at least we could have a fun Tesla museum to encourage engineering-inclined kids.

    (In my opinion, Tesla did make one major contribution: demonstrating AC power transmission and getting Westinghouse on board. While HVDC looks better than AC today for long-distance transmission, at the time AC was likely the best way to go. Edison's plan of DC short-distance distribution and small neighborhood generating plants would have worked in cities, but rural electrification would have lagged far behind.)

    1Whose work I often enjoy too. That doesn't make him an expert in the history of science, though.

    1. Roboiii

      The scientific method was in his mind, where he invented the AC motor.

  11. Roboiii

    Can't wait until he gets to duplicating Tesla's whole free power from the atmosphere and wireless power ideas.

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