Of course your comments questions and observations, let's talk back right here on WBAI New York
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You are listening to radio station WBAI New York the time is 7 o'clock time once again for off the hook
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The very good inventory by the program is off the hook Emmanuel Goldstein here with you joined tonight by Mike good evening Rob T
Firefly good evening Bernie s somewhere greetings from Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania. Okay, great and
We are here tonight
On the eve of
Republican National Convention coverage which starts at 8 o'clock here on WBAI and you know, I I really suggest listening because
Conventions are boring. They really are but they're exciting on Pacifica
if you listen to the commentary and the
The insight you'll learn a lot about the political process here in this country. So by all means
Stick around 8 o'clock until whenever they go to sleep
We'll be covering the Republican Convention and and next week the Democratic Convention, so it's it's it's just so much fun
It's unconventional coverage of the conventions. That's the official slogan
Isn't it?
Well, if you're thinking of going to the RNC convention and and you want wish to go inside the building
Well, first of all, good luck, but assuming you even have a ticket to get in
There are certain things you can't bring in among them
Weapons firearms knives regardless of size
Now the interesting thing though
Is that in the so-called free speech zone or the place where you're allowed to?
Demonstrate as long as you don't say anything of worth
You you can't bring in all kinds of things to that area. You can't bring in balloons or
Signs that have sticks on them and things like that, but because Florida has all of these gun
Rules, you know as far as giving rights to the guns
You can't bring a gun in there so you can't bring a balloon in but you can bring a gun in
That's Florida for you. So if someone brings a balloon, can you shoot the balloon down? Well, I don't know that might happen
They might do that for you. But the point is
Certain rights are respected a lot more than other rights and the First Amendment seems to be the first one shot down
it is true that
Balloons are not mentioned in the US Constitution
No, they're not. There's no balloon Protection Act
Now that's just one item that's not allowed inside the building. Yeah weapons aren't allowed inside the bill. I'm surprised they weren't able to
To get that struck down, but you also can't bring in plastic replicas of weapons
So they don't want to be fooled. They don't want you to bring in a toy gun and have them think that's a real one
They also will not allow explosives or fireworks inside the building
baseballs
Baseballs just listed there for some reason this is explosive debate allowed
I didn't say anything about footballs just baseballs and and apparently you can get a softball in there because it's not a baseball, right?
umbrellas unless they're provided by the Committee on Arrangements or
The 2021 Tampa Bay host committee. This must be a typo. It's 2012. Not 2021
I know I think I know why
Why about the umbrella what's bad luck to open one, right?
well, not only that and they have enough replicants have enough bad luck going for them already, but
umbrellas can be sort of like a
Covert pop-up signs like you could have a big sign on the top of the umbrella that wouldn't be obvious
When you're carrying it in but when you unfurl it you could say something that it could it could send some message
That the the RNC wouldn't want to be sent
Well, you know, I think just by any of us showing up what that'd be sending a message that they wouldn't want to have sent
But regardless, there's more on this list. This is one. I really don't get strollers
Why in God's name are they forbidding strollers from being brought in to the to the Convention Hall? I mean basically
Maybe they're afraid that their intelligence will be will be dwarfed by toddlers who speak the truth
I thought it was them being thoughtful. They don't want any children exposed to their hateful agenda. You think that might be it?
No, I don't think I don't think that's it
you can't bring poles or his sticks and
It's not Polish people poles, you know the metal kind
Coolers can't bring coolers. So you got you got to drink it hot whatever it is laser lights laser pointers
Gee whiz someone told him about that too. You can't bring whole fruit
It's where it says whole fruit not I guess sliced fruit is okay, but whole fruit they got something about against
Well, it's not processed enough for their agenda. Yeah. Yeah, it must be a containers of any type bottles cans spray canisters
I imagine the things that you know protesters in Europe throw at the police that
Basically give off all that noxious. What about pockets? What about pockets? It's a container a type of container
That's well, you have an interesting discussion then with the people at the door if you've tried to get in
aerosols, so you can't bring any aerosol cans of any sort you can't
Yeah, okay, I'm sure you know a lot of things can be defined as containers if we really want to have extended conversations with the
with the guards
But I'm just reading what it says here mace. You can't bring mace into the Republican National Convention
Now, you know, there's a lot of mace around but apparently you can't bring your own
pepper spray
Tasers stun guns similar devices. You can't bring that in
Sharp and or pointed objects such as wit
razor blades
What else scissors knitting needles screwdrivers, etc. You cannot bring a Leatherman
Whistles wait, this is crazy. You can't bring whistles noise makers horns or drums
Unless authorized by convention officials. So the only sounds you'll hear later on are authorized sounds not the kinds of sounds that were
brought in independently
Banners signs you can't bring those in. Mm-hmm. That's that's freedom of speech and they they don't want that
Flashlights unless authorized. Why would they authorize flashlights? I don't quite understand that
Unopened envelopes or packages. So if you're thinking you're bringing your electric bill down there, you better open it first
Don't carry it around. Can you open it at the inspection station?
I imagine they'll make you open it at the inspection station because yeah
They don't want any any surprises of any sort including a high electric
What if you have an unsealed envelope you put something in it and then you seal it once you're past the guards
They say you can't bring this in. I imagine you can construct your own envelope once you're already in there. So that's all that's my well
No, I mean once you're in there you can create envelopes
I suppose you can also probably
Manufacture a mace if you if you really wanted to technically you could get away with that
If you could figure out a way to do that inside the convention hall
camcorders
Large cameras with lenses over four inches. This does not apply to the media
But then the media probably has no interest in that. Anyway
Voice enhancement devices such as bullhorns. And again, that doesn't apply to media. I
I
Don't know why the media would be using bullhorns
Inside the convention hall, but apparently they can so so you can't have pointed objects. You can't have sticks
I guess pointed sticks are right. I want the sticks are right out. Yeah, you can't you can't have that
So I imagine the bullhorns are the for the Fox News folks who are cheerleading
I don't know
Tune in later and find out
Tripods for cameras again that doesn't apply to the media and finally
Backpacks or carry cases for binoculars or cameras and again that does not apply to to media. We actually got this from
Ron Paul's site. I don't know why Ron Paul is his spreading spreading around all the things. He can't bring it to the convention
I know that
there's there's pretty much a
Battle going on between his camp and the RNC. So it's it's kind of interesting, isn't it?
Emmanuel yes, go ahead. There's one thing that's not banned this year. That was it's a trivia question for our listeners
there's one item that was banned will not it was banned for
delegates and
Party apparatchiks from from using at one
Republican convention in our lifetimes that
There's no such ban in
In more recent years you want to just tell us well, okay, it was cell phones
Okay, so cell phones are no longer banned, but they were banned at one point
I think it was you know, it was either 1988 or 1992 that the RNC
Passed down a strong order that
The delegates and you know people involved with the RNC could not use
Cellphones because they feared they were so easily
This cell phone
Conversation signals were so easily intercepted and listened to that
They didn't want they were concerned about communication security because many of our listeners remember back for the mid-90s
cell phones were analog and you could pick them up with like any kind of UHF radio receiver a scanner even an old TV set and
They did not want to risk the embarrassment or loss of communication security by there are important people using cell phones there
It's not as much of an issue now that their cell phones are digital they're much harder to intercept
Oh, I'm sure there's people around Tampa who are doing that right now
Well, could you possibly bring in an old-fashioned cell phone and and maybe have people pounce on you because it's still
No, in fact, it wouldn't work anyway, because the FCC allowed the carriers to shut down the analog
Portions of their network. Well, no, I wasn't asking if it's still I know it doesn't work
But they might still panic when they see it, you know, that's a good question
I don't know people there would even know what it was. They would just say
They don't know what a lot of things are, but they still ban them. So
All right, Rob
I'm a bit curious if
Getting off a train near the convention is still banned because that could get people in a lot of trouble at one point getting off
A train getting out of the subway near the convention. Oh, you mean when I was here in New York?
You can do that. So they solved this problem in Tampa by just getting rid of the subways entirely
They don't have subways in Tampa, do they? I don't think so
I didn't think they did if they do then what I just said is wrong. Yeah, okay
I understand we have Kyle joining us now from Seattle. Is that right?
Yes. Hey, welcome. I am here. Can you hear me? We hear you fine
We're taking a poll in the station. Everybody seems to be hearing you
You were you were racing around town
Look, I was driving because I had to deliver something. I usually drive if it doesn't fit on my bike
so I was zigzagging across Seattle and it felt like every every turn I made there was a car or
Construction or people lined up. I went on Denny on Mercer on every Street possible
Those are Seattle streets, by the way, one thing and then at the next turn there'd be another thing to avoid it was insane
It sounds like New York almost
Yeah
No, I did not come back the way I planned I'd come back, you know and had to readjust my schedule like five or six
Yeah, and I'm sorry because I you know, this is this is the the danger of cell phones
I I called you before the show to prepare for the show and I never picked up
Yeah, you should never have picked up the phone
I mean you texted me and I was on the BQE and I knew better not to even read it until I got to the
Williamsburg Bridge
but
I
Called you exactly the worst moment, I guess and it was you know
It's always a risk you take when you call people. I thought you were on your tall bike actually and and that would really be
Catastrophic. I think you were delivering Club Mate to various places and you tend to do that on your tall bike from from what I hear
It's quite a sight to behold
But Kyle the reason we're bringing you in here tonight is to tell a story
Yeah, and it's an interesting story because this is something that when did this go ahead happening? I'm sorry
Yeah
We were
Some of the personalities and the connections and I remember that we brought back some Tesla bills
Yeah, like ever since people become more and more interested in Tesla. Well, it's weird
I mean people in the hacker world have always
Had sort of an affinity with Nikola Tesla. I don't think we knew when we went over to Serbia
quite the the historical tie that
that he had there's a there's a
Museum their statues all kinds of things. But yes on the was the 100 dinar bill. There's a picture of Nikola Tesla
And we we actually got a hold of a large amount of Tesla bills and
We started distributing them at our hacker conferences and at our online store and they became very very popular
Of course, we ran out of them pretty quickly
But something that happened was it was this last month that we did this
Interest in different projects and things and we were sort of poking around and we looked into the history a bit
and in fact on on Long Island is
That's that's actually in in Shoreham on Long Island
there is a facility that was Tesla's last known working laboratory and
I wanted to go check it out. And I think you and I just sort of took a trip
I don't know what we were doing that weekend or we were just sort of poking around
That was either the the time we went strawberry picking or the time we went to the shelter Island. I forget which one it was
I think it was July though. It was July and I said Kyle, you know
You really should see this place because it's it's right on the island. We're right here someplace. I know it exists and
It took us a little while to find it. But you know, the street is called Tesla Street. So it wasn't that hard
And and we parked the car and just kind of walked around this this property. How would you describe the property?
Yeah, yeah
It's in Shoreham and it's a big fenced area that is partially overgrown
In fact a good deal of it is overgrown. You can see it from sort of a main route or
roadway
going through sort of a heading north on that fork of the island that you start to get into I think and
Basically, it's fenced in that you can see a
Mix of architecture some of stuff is new. So it looks like a bit of a an office park type thing on one corner
And then there's this old building. It's a little bit further back
It's it's like I want to say like a couple thousand feet back towards the middle of the property
And that's just on one side and you can kind of then Tesla Street is by a fire department
And you can't really go much further back on that side, but there's a loading dock and some other sort of
Distribution center types up and what it is is you're getting a mix of the original building
which I said was a couple thousand feet back and
The previous tenant which actually was AGFA, I believe
Agfa the photochemical company. Okay, and they they were there they took they eventually moved out
But I believe their contribution was to make that into a super fun site
But anyway
we were walking around the area and we got to go and look at the
The main driveway where AGFA had their entrance and you can sort of get a different vantage of the old Wardenclyffe
Laboratory, but it's the only remaining original building. There is that lab?
The rest is sort of a parking lot and as you sort of go around the property you see some of the old AGFA buildings
like for
Perhaps an office on the one corner and then I think on the other corner is like more of a manufacturing
Side and on the back of it has a loading dock, obviously
So the whole place was pretty much not in use overgrown
In fact, it was for sale and we started talking saying wow
Wouldn't this be great if this could be saved turned into a Tesla Museum?
and and and and basically rally that that the computer hacker community the scientists all these people that
really believe that Tesla is an important figure in the history of technology and
We just started brainstorming about that, right?
Back and forth trying to figure out like well, how would they do that?
Like gosh, you know, there's got to be some tie-in to preserve the history to let people check it out
But also like what if somebody used it for something really bizarre or something sort of hackery?
You know because we're seeing a lot of really creative use of space and stuff like that in the community in the past couple years
Especially with hackerspaces stuff. We just debated we talked back and forth and we even we took a bunch of photos
I actually still have them for processing. I have to go process some of the ones I took of the architecture
and then we also got a little information from the realtor like we
Photographed some of the old signs and stuff because we really wanted to know like hey
Maybe we could
Organize this information and pass it along and and maybe somehow this place could be saved because the story was just it was just this
Odd moment where you know, there's all this interest and here it is in New York
in sort of our proximity and
You know
Why not go check it out and see if if we could spread the word and get people to get involved with it
but
Honestly before we could even really do anything
I mean, I still have the film to be developed like we haven't really done much on it yet
all these other people started getting together and
What's happened is they've they've raised more than enough money to take over the facility. Well, let's let's let's
Explore this a little bit. Obviously, we we couldn't really continue with this
We had a conference to put on and all kinds of distractions, but it was always in the back of our minds a couple of weeks
Ago, I started finding out about something called and this is what it is called operation. Let's build a goddamn Tesla Museum
That is really what it's called. And and basically the the intro is
Got something like this Nikola Tesla was the father of the electric age
Despite having dropped kick humanity into a second Industrial Revolution up until recently
He's been an unsung hero in history books
If you don't know who Tesla is
Research it on the internet and you'll find it all kinds of interesting things
his final laboratory is located in the sleepy town of Shoreham, New York the former site of the
Nuclear power plant that didn't get built or finished. It's known as Wardenclyffe
And it's where Tesla attempted to build a tower that would provide free wireless energy
To the entire earth not not Wi-Fi wireless energy to the entire earth. It's it was quite a
Quite a goal there. Unfortunately, Tesla lost his funding before the project was completed and in
1917 the Wardenclyffe Tower was demolished
Subsequently the land was sold to a film and paper manufacturer
however
the land laboratory and foundation beneath the tower are still there and very recently went up for sale and
Right now a nonprofit is trying to buy the property and turn it into a Nikola Tesla Museum
I was blown away when I saw this Wow
Someone actually is thinking of doing exactly what we were discussing not not two months ago
But you know, it just seems so
Impossible the property was listed at 1.6 million dollars, you know, not exactly spare change you have hanging around
but this nonprofit
popped up
They received a matching grant from New York State of up to eight hundred fifty thousand dollars
And what that meant was if they could raise eight hundred fifty thousand dollars all of a sudden
They would have 1.7 million because it would be it would be doubled
Okay, so great. All right, you don't have to raise that much money only to raise eight hundred fifty thousand dollars still quite a daunting
task but then something amazing happened word got out on the Internet and
Not only not only did they meet the goal
They far exceeded the goal and it's still it's still coming in and there is all this enthusiasm now and
It's just simply incredible
it's it's a testament to what you can do on the Internet if you get the word out if the right people step up and
do something and
Now it's quite possible that that that dream we had just seeing this abandoned property could turn into reality
We have on the phone with us the head of what is known as the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe
Jane Alcorn joins us from Shoreham, New York. Jane. Are you there? I am. Hello. Well, uh, greetings
Did you hear Kyle's story about how we first saw the place?
That matched kind of what how you became introduced to it
Actually, we didn't just pop up. We've been around for about 17 years trying to save that property. Oh, wow
Well, we just heard about you two weeks ago. I know everybody's heard about us
So nothing it's been quite a journey
We started out as a small science museum in our local high school and
The high school needed the classroom spaces we were using and we were growing as a science museum and I knew about Tesla
Just a little bit
I knew he had worked in that little laboratory down the street from where I once lived and I thought well
That's a great place for science museum. Let's move our museum there
but it was a site that was undergoing the cleanup as you mentioned earlier and
so we we moved the museum that we had begun into another space in another town and
I stepped off that board and I've been
since then trying to
Find a way to save that property
So 17 years you've been working at this what changed recently to make it suddenly explode into this
What seems to be a tremendous success?
Well, it seems to me that it's all about timing
we we found a person who could
promote our
need to save this property and the importance of it and
that was Matthew Inman also known as the oatmeal and Matthew had gone through a
couple of events in his life recently that
Made the timing right for him. He had been involved in a crowdfunding
Event based on a problem he had with his own web page and that brought him a lot of attention and he has
hundreds of thousands of followers, so he was able to raise
200 and about 220 dollars in two weeks
Two hundred twenty thousand dollars, excuse me in about two weeks for a cause that he was promoting and
Following that he had a wonderful
comic on his he's an internet comic and
He had a wonderful comic called why Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived
So not only did he have that experience with the crowdfunding
But he also was recognized as a big Tesla fan with many many followers
we put out a plea because what was happening here is that we had received a grant in
2009 from New York State and it's not really a matching grant. It's a
Reimbursement grant so we had to raise
$850,000 spend it on the property on purchasing this land and then we'd be reimbursed
And we have one year left to access that money. So it was really getting critical that we raise
$850,000 which is why that was our goal
and
There was additional interest in that property because it had just been
The cleanup had just been approved. So now it was a free and clear piece of property that could be sold by AG for Corporation and
People were starting to inquire about it
and we got a little frightened that it could be bought out from under us and we'd never have the opportunity to turn it into
the showplace and
Memorial to Tesla that it ought to be
so so now
After all of this publicity on the Internet you
Not only raised the $850,000, but you you exceeded it. You know what it's up to now
Last time I looked it was one million one hundred and sixty six thousand dollars. That's really incredible
and do you
What's the next step then? Do you make an offer on the land or I know you still have another month of raising funds to go
Is there more money that that should be raised?
Absolutely. This will only
Purchase the land and once you purchase the land, you can't let it just sit there
it's important that we begin the process of renovating restoring and
Protecting the property in the laboratory. So it's absolutely critical that we continue to raise the money so we can begin that process
we need to make sure it's secure from vandalism and further deterioration and
We need to be able to begin
getting the experts in who can tell us the best ways to protect the laboratory and
To renovate the other buildings to make it a science center
one of the
things that has also happened along with that is we've had some wonderful supporters for a lot of a
Lot of this history and of recent years in the last two years, I guess
we've had a
Filmmaker who's intent on making a film about Tesla and he's been looking for funding for his film
But as part of his budget, he's been pitching the idea that
a million dollars of
His operating budget would go towards saving Wardenclyffe and he's here with me. I thought you might like to meet him as well
his name is Joseph Korsky and the film is called fragments from Olympus and
You know, he's going to try to help us raise additional money through his funding that will help us to save those buildings
And turn them into a real Tesla legacy. I welcome to off the hook Joe
Thank you for having us and thanks for you know, really exposing this important piece of history to all your listeners
Absolutely. It's I still can't believe it's actually happening
it was so recently that we were just walking around thinking that this would never happen as one of these dreams and
We we find you guys from hard work
Making this happen and it seems like so many people agree that there should be some kind of a museum to Nikola Tesla
And there isn't any in the in the United States at all. I understand there's one in in Belgrade
Kyle we aware of that when we were in Belgrade. There was a Tesla Museum there
Yeah, we should
But yeah, this would be the only one of its kind in this country. So absolutely
But maybe you guys could could tell us
For the benefit of listeners who might still not really know who Nikola Tesla was. Why is he so important? I
think that
Just the fact that people are listening to radio
Is evidence of one of his main contributions to this to the world?
He is considered the father of radio by the United States Supreme Court
When Marconi who we all look at as or many of us have until now
Looked at as the father of radio when he sent his signal across the Atlantic. He was using 17 of Tesla's patents and
So Marconi did have an accomplishment. He did send that signal across the Atlantic. However
Tesla had already done radio signals in 1898. He had demonstrated
Robotics remote control and radio
Along with the logic gate used in in computer languages in one little invention called the tele automaton
And he had demonstrated it at Madison Square Garden
It it was a boat like
vehicle and he was able to use the very first demonstration of robotics and remote control and
Demonstrating that vehicle and it was really a transmitter and receiver which is radio
So there was a court case Tesla was trying to assert his
His precedence in radio and the Supreme Court agreed with him
Unfortunately, their decision came several months after he had died, but he still is the father of radio
Now, I know a lot of people
Say that Thomas Edison deserves the credit
I know that was there was quite a bit of contention between the two of them. Can you outline that a little bit? Sure
Tesla and Edison actually had a working relationship
when Tesla first came to America and
He worked in Edison's lab for a while. Maybe about a year, but
Edison was a promoter of DC
electricity and
Tesla had devoted his attention to
alternating current and he'd been able to come up with a very efficient way of
transmitting it and so
Tesla and Edison were involved in what is called the war of the currents
George Westinghouse bought Tesla's patents and he and Tesla
eventually were able to persevere and come out on top in this war of the currents and
alternating current is what we use today throughout the world to transmit electricity and
Part of that is due to Westinghouse and Tesla harnessing Niagara Falls
With alternating current and also they lit up the
1893 Chicago Exposition
which was the World's Fair its time and
they again used the alternating current and it was
Quite a quite a feat to be able to do that. He he ushered in the electric age, really
Wow, hey Jane, yes, I got this is Bernie S in Philadelphia
I just wanted to ask you and Joe first
I want to ask you about his film, but I also want to ask you
Do you think there's a potential for if you get enough funding for building a replica of the Wardenclyffe Tower?
Which was supposed to beam electrical energy
around the world for people to use
Wirelessly, and I just wanted to remark also that I think one of the reasons that Tesla lost funding for that amazing project
Which he successfully demo demonstrated from one mountaintop to another somewhere
The reason he lost funding for it is because his bank's financial backers realized there'd be no way to meter the
Electricity usage with a power meter so you could be built. So they're like well screw that we can't we can't make a lot of money
So what about this film and do you think the tower could be rebuilt?
Well, it couldn't be rebuilt the way Tesla built it. It was 187 feet
high when he had it constructed and
That's about 18 stories and the building and zoning codes of Brookhaven town where Shoreham is located would not permit that
however, we would love to be able to build a replica tower a
Scale model of it as large as we possibly could if the funding were available and the zoning permits
We'd like to be able to do that. I think that would be a wonderful attraction
Everyone would want to see Tesla's tower, even if it weren't in full scale
I think it would still be a wonderful thing to have well about the height of the Hotel, Pennsylvania 18 stories
Oh, wow. Well, that's something to consider the middle of
but you know, it's something many of us have been to hacker gatherings and camps and
The Tesla coil that people set up at some of these things. That's always a big attraction people always
Line up to see that. I don't know if any of you guys that were at the European conferences remember this
Yeah, I mean, yeah, there's there's Tesla coils are very popular among hackers
We've seen them at the Maker Faire as well where they're used to make music
Yeah, wasn't I put in the Faraday cage and one of those I have dim recollections. I think you were. Yes. Yeah
It was something else
A replica from HBL demonstrated a portable Tesla gun that he built
And he gave a brief talk about that
Well now what is a Tesla gun do for the benefit of listeners who might be afraid of such a thing?
it puts out a lot of jewels of electricity in the form of a sort of a violet bolt and
You can see it if you hold a grounded object and he was demonstrating it and I actually held
something that was grounded and I was able to see this arc and
Yeah, completely portable running on a
cordless drill battery
Now Joe, I know we were talking about the the film project
Are there is there more than one film project going on involving Tesla?
well in Hollywood, there have been six or seven for the last 40 years and
In various stages of development, but mostly sitting on a shelf mostly because the genre
usually
Traditionally has not been very profitable a biopic
That's a period piece with a lot of special effects in Hollywood dollars translates to a lot of money and usually not a big
viewership, so
Hollywood not wanting to take a lot of risks with their money or you know when they use that type of budget or banking more
On you know comic book heroes things that they know they're guaranteed a return for
Our approach is much different we're going to get a an epic look for an independent budget
so we're going to keep our our film budget low and
And and still try to keep the the production quality high
So what is your ETA as far as completing that project? Well
Actually what started this whole?
great campaign by the oatmeal was after
We had actually included the saving of Wardenclyffe in our film budget so before we even would shoot a frame of film
We would have donated a million dollars to Jane's organization to purchase the property
we actually had a letter of commitment for all the funds, so we were ready to go and
unfortunately
our
Investor had a sudden illness and our deal got put on hold at the same time
There were some people interested in buying the property so we started putting out
You know some more appeals to find some other other investors to come in
Jane put out appeals on Facebook and fortunately
Matthew Inman of the oatmeal
responded and started this amazing campaign and
You know that part is history so as far as us though it
obviously
We were hoping to begin shooting in late fall, and we had to abandon those plans
And we're trying to pull together funding to to begin shooting in in
winter of now winter early
2013
Jane I have a question for you about the property itself
Yes
Have you ever have you ever had the opportunity to to explore inside the facility and and check it out?
From the other side of the fence
I've been on the property a couple of times and one of those times Joe came with me with
his cameras, so
We do have some footage of the inside interior
You do Wow Wow so is the lab itself is it is it somewhat intact are there like relics and and interesting things in there?
layout
Unfortunately it has been used for the last
Maybe four decades as
office space for the
Agfa production for their their film production
Enterprise there, I think it was once two very large rooms one that Tesla used as a display space
For his equipment and his inventions and the other was a workspace
With a glass blowing lab and lathes and and works
You know normal kind of workshop
Space and all of that has been divided up into little office spaces. So
The building is intact
The brick original structure is there. It's got original windows that have been boarded up to protect them at our request
so cleaning it out and gutting the
Additions on the inside isn't really a big issue
We think we can get it restored to the way Tesla had it pretty close anyway
Once we have the money raised that will allow us to do that
So yes, we've been inside
but one of the sad things is that there's been a lot of vandalism over the years and you see that in
Joe's film he put together a public service announcement, which you can see on our web page
So anyone who is interested in seeing what it looks like inside can get some view of it by going there
It's interesting looking to look at yeah, it's interesting
I mentioned the vandalism because when Kyle and I were out there
we went to one of the entrances that had a guardhouse and apparently the guardhouse had been vandalized and
The papers from inside have thrown all over the place and we saw some of these papers on the ground
we picked it up it was kind of creepy because
the guard who was
Guarding that property all night long would have to write literally write in pen for every hour
Three o'clock and all is quiet and there's a whole notebook of that phrase over and over again
It's like straight out of The Shining
So that's that's the kind of thing that was going on
But yeah that got that got vandalized but the question of the inside of the building
Being restored are there pictures of how it was when Tesla was operating it?
And do you think it could be restored to something along those lines?
Fortunately, yes
Fortunately, there are pictures of the interior and you can see what it looked like with his inventions on display
and there's also a photograph that shows what the workshop area looked like with the sunlight streaming in and
That will certainly be a part of our guide to making this
Look as it should
You know, we we won't be able to make it exactly because of course that's not possible
But we're going to try to be true to Tesla and true to the building
There are some interesting things in there still
There's a big tank and where we haven't been able to explore it carefully enough to find out what that was for
We don't know if it was part of the generating system that Tesla had when he was working there
but
You know because it's been all cut up into lots of little rooms
It's kind of hard to see what what's there?
We have had people from the New York State Department of Parks
arrested recreation and historic preservation come with us and
view the property and they
agree with us that it should be on the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places and
We hope to do that once we acquire the property now Jane
Um, I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about why I mean
It's it's very sad that Tesla died basically penniless and forgotten in the early 20th century
But um, and I remember even as recently as when I went to school, I wasn't taught about Tesla
It was all Edison and Marconi and so on
What do you think is the is the source of basically this resurgence that Tesla is having among?
Geeks like us
well, I think that
people recognize Tesla now are starting to
because
We all sit at our computers or we're busy with our work and we work hard. We don't always get acknowledged and
I think people can identify with the dilemma that Tesla felt when he was working hard and he wasn't acknowledged
So there's that one little, you know identification kind of aspect to it
but I also think that we're starting to realize the
Impact that Tesla has had on our lives and until now it wasn't really apparent
The kinds of things that he did was so important, you know, we used a lot of our
The inventions that were commercialized by other people but had their origins in Tesla's research and invention and
nowadays with the advent of
Communications that we have all the wireless communications in the computer communications
we're able to share the information that we know so much more rapidly and
Knowledge of Tesla is starting to leak out and people are starting to recognize what he did
Just the the logic gate from his
1898 tele automaton that's now part of computer languages and
His vision of wireless communication. He thought that we would be able and I'm talking about over a hundred years ago
he was talking about sending pictures words and sound wirelessly and
Those were his dreams and no one had thought of those kinds of things before
So we're starting to live his his dream and we're recognizing his his hand in it
Does Tesla have any surviving relatives and have they weighed in on this? Well, there is
to my knowledge and
One surviving relative and his name is William turbo. He is the grandson of Tesla's sister and
he's a
Very very lovely man. He lives in New Jersey, and we've had many a conversation
He's very very happy about the way things are going. He's quite excited
He visited with us last fall when we had a conference
Joe had presented the teaser for his film and
Mr. Turbo was
Extraordinarily excited about it. He felt it was one of the best things he'd seen that reflected his illustrious
ancestors life and so
He's he's a wonderful man, and he's very excited about what's happening here
And and but he's the only person I'm aware of still alive who actually met Tesla
Wow
That's interesting Wow
Boy now it seems to me too that what you guys are doing
The plans to have a museum
Should be eligible for all kinds of grants and funding from various agencies. Have you have you look into that at all? Well, we
We are starting to look into that and we've had some wonderful offers from a couple of
private foundations, but
They're they're big donations to us, but they're not big enough to make the dream happen yet
So we're certainly hopeful there'll be other opportunities to access grant money
we'll be looking into as many of those as we can to see if we're eligible for them and
We certainly hope that anyone who might be listening who knows of anything like that would be willing to share that information with us
So I don't know the specifics
but a lot of times it's a lot easier for you to get these grants if you're out able to demonstrate that the public is
Behind you too, and and the public has shown that but how can our listeners?
Contribute if they want to well, there are three ways that you can contribute. The first is through the Indiegogo
Tesla Museum
page and that's
That's the campaign that that we're all excited about that's raised so much money
The second way is directly through our web page
Which is www.teslasciencecenter.org
We have a donate button and you can go through PayPal that way or you can send a check
Right directly to our post office box, which is box five five to
Shoreham, New York one one seven eight six
Now I understand that there have been several rather momentous donations that have been made and some of them are
Rather interesting numerical amounts. Did you care to go into that at all? Oh sure
On Indiegogo, there are perks that people get for donating to our
our cause and
Several of them have the number three as the donating amount. So there's a $3 donation
You don't get a perk for that except the good feeling that you've contributed to something worthwhile
but for
$33 you get a different perk or for
$333 or for
$3,333 and all of this is because Tesla was very fond and looked at of and looked at the number three as being a
very important
numerical
Digit in our in in mathematics and and science and then of course there was the biggest
donation number which was
33,000
$333 and I have a little story about that. Oh, wow. We were approaching our
$850,000 goal and we were all excited and watching the numbers go up and watching the numbers go up and
all of a sudden
There was a three hundred. I'm sorry a thirty three thousand three hundred thirty three dollar donation and we reached our
goal of
$850,000 we were ecstatic
We were kind of jumping around here and I found out right afterwards that my friend Joe sitting next to me
He and his his family and his partners had pulled together
They wanted so desperately for us to reach this goal that they were the ones who donated that and so he's had our back
All along and and when we heard that we just couldn't believe it
it was just so exciting, but I also think he inspired other other people to keep giving because they saw that and
so he is one of two people who made those huge donations and we're
Really grateful for that and we're also grateful for everyone else's donated
Threes have to do with Tesla who said something to the effect of if we could understand the magnificence of
The numbers three six and nine we could unlock the mysteries of the universe
Yeah, and you know what? I don't usually tell people this but we've been playing around with ideas for quotes for the next issue
We always have a quote in our magazine
and we want to do something with Tesla and that was one of the
Possible quotes and I think that one is going to be the winner
I think that's if you can understand the magic of three was a three six and nine. Mm-hmm
Yeah, I guess you could unlock all kinds of secrets and just really appreciate things
One of the comments that was made on the Indiegogo site was that we should try for three million three hundred thirty three thousand three hundred
Thirty three dollars and thirty three cents
Wow, well now how okay that that raises the question. What are you shooting for now? You've exceeded the goal
So what what's what are you gonna try to do now?
Well, we just would like to see
interests continue in
Supporting this goal and we're not putting a number on the goal, you know a number goal
On on the site. We just want to see if we can push it as far as possible and encourage people to help us with this
We think that it it's a worthwhile thing
This is this is the only lab anywhere in the world where Tesla worked the only one left
His Houston Street lab burned down his Colorado Springs lab was
Taken down. So this is it
He had offices in New York City where he did some work
But nothing on this scale and this was to be his crowning achievement, too
He looked at this as his major goal to be able to transmit not just
messages and and radio waves
But actually electrical energy from this spot and so we think it's really an important place in
American but worldwide history
Well worth preserving interestingly Long Island seems to have a lot of history as far as as radio
Not just Tesla, right? That's true
the leader forest actually is another person in radio history who lived in Shoreham for a while and
there, you know, we have we have a lot of a very large science community here on Long Island, so I think that
that's part of the
You know part of the reason we've gotten some of the support we have and there's a actually a Marconi
building
Not too far away the Marconi shack. It's called so
There's a lot of radio history here. And there's a Long Island
Great a TV and radio historical society as well. That's been trying to preserve
The radio history of this area RCA also had transmitting stations here
Fascinating now has anyone been in touch with AG for the people actually on the land is to see if they're going to sell the land
in the first place
Well, we've been in touch with the real estate agent on and off
Over the last year a couple of years and we've also been in touch with different members of the AG for
Administration and personnel
When we visited the site at for personnel were there and we've had occasion to talk to them
One of the things we had hoped to do was to encourage them to donate the property to us
But they're unwilling to do that
so we're going to do what we have to do to try to make sure that it's saved and and that we
Can raise the money to make it a legacy of Tesla's
and and hopefully they won't try and jack up the price based on the fact that it's getting such a
Tremendous response. In fact, if they were to donate a portion of it
Their name could live on in infamy as far as
Supporting something historical and important to science
absolutely, and you know, we're hopeful that Joe eventually will be able to do some filming right on location which would give an
extra authenticity to his film and
You know where there are a lot of people who have an interest in
Being on the spot where Tesla worked. So we hope that we're going to be able to offer a lot
One of the things we hope to do is make it more than just a place where you come and look at things in
A glass case. We want it to be a place that's interactive and people can get their hands on things and learn how
Science works by actually experiencing something and we want to have a physics playground for kids to learn about
physics through their play and
We have a lot of ideas and I'm sure we'll have more as time goes on and have many more
Suggested to us. Yeah, if you open this up to kids and encourage them to
To take an interest in this. I think that will measure the the success of the project overall
I think so when we already get calls from international visitors people who want to come and
Talk to us and ask questions about what we know about the site. And so I'm often called to go visit
Tesla Street stand there and and talk to people from well, just this past week. There were some people from istanbul who came to
See the site and they were taking pictures and asking questions
So did they come all the way from istanbul to will come did they come all the way from istanbul just to see that site?
Well, I think they were here for they were here in new york, but I they took the ride out here to long island
Wow, it's about an hour and a half ride
And so I think that that was a particular
Purpose in their in their journey this far. They didn't come straight from istanbul. Although we've had people who've been from japan and and
Many of the european countries who?
Make a point of coming here as part of their journey through america because they know about tesla
Well, I I know when kyle and I visited, uh, tesla street
We interviewed a few of the people that were there and they said that they were interested in coming to istanbul
We interviewed a few of the people that were
kids on scooters actually just were
milling around and we asked them what they knew about the uh,
The site because we didn't really know much about it ourselves at that point and they basically just uh,
All they knew was it was a factory at some point
Right, and that's and that's the failing of our schools and and in this country is that we don't
teach all of the
Um, you know, we've kind of watered down this part of history and not provided a full education to children
I certainly didn't learn about tesla until I was an adult
And I think that we're we're really missing out by not providing this kind of information to our children
Okay, um any um, uh final, uh words as far as how people can
Can get involved how they can continue to contribute and uh anything else that you'd like our listeners to know?
well, they're certainly um encouraged to go to the indiegogo page and
Join in the contributions there. They can visit our website. As I said, that's teslasciencecenter.org
Or um, we also have a facebook page. They can certainly friend us and and see what's going on. We um,
we have a
Hashtag for twitter. It's tesla science
and
They can get in touch with us by mail at tesla science center post office box 552
Shoreham new york one one seven eight six and they can look up joe's film on fragments from olympus.com
And uh, also, uh, they can read the oatmeal the oatmeal.com
Matthew's been great and he posts information about what he's doing and and what we're doing and he's been
He's the catalyst
That helped promote the cause
And I understand if you do donate thirty three thousand three hundred and thirty three dollars that he will do a cartoon about you
On his website. Absolutely
And and that's no small thing. He has millions and millions of followers and I I think I think that um,
You know his his work
And helping us made all of the difference in getting it out and getting the word out
His followers were the first ones to hop on and and help us out and we are
Very grateful to matthew and to his followers and and readers
And uh, we're delighted that he was willing to help
All right, bernie kyle any last words from you guys? I just wanted to say uh, jane
Know that that community is there for you. Um, and that you know, even once once the place is opened
You know, there'll be people that want to come and volunteer and i'm sure in the remodeling process
People will be so eager to to check it out or maybe lend a hand
Maybe you'll have work parties on the weekends or something
But good luck to you and and find work on on um, getting the message out there and teaming up with people
Well, thanks very much for having us on here because we're sure this is going to help as well. We're sure your listeners
Um are good-hearted people who will be happy to join in with us and we thank you very much for inviting us
Jane, thank you. Thank you. Thanks a lot
Thank you very much and we've been speaking with uh, jane alcorn from the uh,
Nikola tesla museum the future nikola tesla museum and joe sikorsky filmmaker also involved in the project
And you know, I want to close uh, obviously with something having to do with tesla, you know
There's a band called tesla, but they don't really do music about tesla
Uh, I did and there's a million songs called tesla, but they're all pretty much
Dance tunes that don't really have words in them either
Uh, so I I kind of uh went with what what I think nikola tesla would like the most
and that's um
something from an album called transistor music
And uh, it's geist form is is the name of the uh, the group here
And yeah, let's just go out with this maybe with headphones on and think about the future
And what a tesla museum could mean to all of us
And stay tuned to wbai because we're going to uh, tampa in just a few minutes the republican national convention
And get to hear all the fun
From that part of the world until next week emmanuel for off the hook. Have a good night
So
So
So
So
Right
Thank you, uh for those of you thinking we were just going off the air. No, this is actually music i'm told
and um something uh
By uh, nikola tesla and his band. Yeah. Yeah, right. See oh there he is now there he is now and we're waiting
Actually, oh god. What happened?
In my old age, I no longer recognize what is music and what is dead, uh a dead signal. All right