Wardenclyffe Tower facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Wardenclyffe Tower
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1904 image of Wardenclyffe Tower
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 Location in New York
Location in the United States
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| Location | Shoreham, Long Island, New York |
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| Built | 1901 |
| Architect | Nikola Tesla |
| NRHP reference No. | 100002744 |
| Added to NRHP | July 27, 2018 |
Wardenclyffe Tower (1901–1917), also known as the Tesla Tower, was an early experimental wireless transmission station designed and built by Nikola Tesla on Long Island in 1901–1902, located in the village of Shoreham, New York. Tesla intended to transmit messages, telephony and even facsimile images across the Atlantic to England and to ships at sea based on his theories of using the Earth to conduct the signals. His decision to scale up the facility and add his ideas of wireless power transmission to better compete with Guglielmo Marconi's radio based telegraph system was met with refusal to fund the changes by the project's primary backer, financier J. P. Morgan. Additional investment could not be found, and the project was abandoned in 1906, never to become operational.
In an attempt to satisfy Tesla's debts, the tower was demolished for scrap in 1917 and the property taken in foreclosure in 1922. For 50 years, Wardenclyffe was a processing facility producing photography supplies. Many buildings were added to the site and the land it occupies has been trimmed down to 16 acres (6.5 ha) but the original, 94 by 94 ft (29 by 29 m), brick building designed by Stanford White remains standing to this day.
In the 1980s and 2000s, hazardous waste from the photographic era was cleaned up, and the site was sold and cleared for new development. A grassroots campaign to save the site succeeded in purchasing the property in 2013, with plans to build a future museum dedicated to Nikola Tesla. In 2018 the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Landmarking
On February 14, 1967, the nonprofit public benefit corporation Brookhaven Town Historical Trust was established. It selected the Wardenclyffe facility to be designated as a historic site and as the first site to be preserved by the Trust on March 3, 1967. The Brookhaven Town Historic Trust was rescinded by resolution on February 1, 1972. There were never any appointments made after a legal opinion was received; it was never set up properly. On July 7, 1976, a plaque from Yugoslavia was installed by representatives from Brookhaven National Laboratory near the entrance of the building. It reads:
IN THIS BUILDING
July 10, 1976
DESIGNED BY STANFORD WHITE, ARCHITECT
NIKOLA TESLA
BORN SMILJAN, YUGOSLAVIA 1856—DIED NEW YORK, U.S.A. 1943
CONSTRUCTED IN 1901–1905 WARDENCLYFFE
HUGE RADIO STATION WITH ANTENNA TOWER
187 FEET HIGH /DESTROYED 1917/, WHICH
WAS TO HAVE SERVED AS HIS FIRST WORLD
COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM.
IN MEMORY OF 120TH ANNIVERSARY OF TESLA'S BIRTH
AND 200TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE U.S.A INDEPENDENCE
The sign was stolen from the property in November 2009. An anonymous benefactor is offering a $2,000 reward if it is returned to the property.
In 1976, an application was filed to nominate the main building for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). It failed to get approval. The Tesla Wardenclyffe Project, Inc. was established in 1994 for the purpose of seeking placement of the Wardenclyffe laboratory-office building and the Tesla tower foundation on both the New York State and NRHP. Its mission is the preservation and adaptive reuse of Wardenclyffe, the century-old laboratory of electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla located in Shoreham, Long Island, New York.
In October 1994, a second application for formal nomination was filed. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation conducted inspections and determined the facility meets New York State criteria for historic designation. A second visit was made on February 25, 2009. The site cannot be registered until it is nominated by a willing owner.
Designation of the structure as a National Landmark is awaiting completion of plant decommissioning activities by its present owner.
Museum
In August 2012, concerned about an apparent offer to purchase the site and develop it for commercial use, web cartoon The Oatmeal launched a fundraiser for the Tesla Science Center to raise $1.7 million in order to purchase the property, with the hope of eventually building a museum on the grounds.
Jane Alcorn, president of the nonprofit group The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, and Matthew Inman, creator of The Oatmeal, collaborated in 2012 to honor "the Father of the Electric Age", by preserving the Wardenclyffe facility as a science center and museum. They initiated the Let's Build a Tesla Museum fund-raising campaign on the Indiegogo crowdfunding site, to raise funding to buy the Wardenclyffe property and restore the facility. The project reached its goal of raising $850,000 within a week, more than exceeded the requested amount, including a $33,333 donation from the producers of the Tesla film "Fragments from Olympus-The Vision of Nikola Tesla". The campaign also attracted donations from benefactors such as Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, Inc.
The money raised within one week was enough to get a matching grant from the state of New York, allowing the project to be able to meet the seller's asking price of $1.6 million; the state had agreed to match donations up to half that amount. A total of $1.37 million was donated, the matching grant from the State of New York brings the total collected to over $2.2 million. The surplus will be used to fund the cleaning and restoration of the property. Tesla, Wardenclyffe and the museum fundraising effort will be the subject of a new documentary being produced called Tower to the People – Tesla's Dream at Wardenclyffe Continues.
On May 2, 2013, The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe announced that they had purchased the 15.69-acre laboratory site from Agfa Corporation and will begin to raise "about $10 million to create a science learning center and museum worthy of Tesla and his legacy."
On May 13, 2014, The Oatmeal published a comic called "What It's Like to Own a Model S, Part 2", in which they requested a further donation of $8 million from Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk in order to propel the museum toward completion. The next day, Musk stated on Twitter that he "would be happy to help." On July 10, 2014, during a 158th birthday celebration for Tesla at the Wardenclyffe site, it was announced that Musk would donate $1 million toward funding the museum, as well as having a Tesla Motors supercharging station installed onsite.
The center plans to offer several programs, including science teacher associations, conferences, symposia, field trips, associations with science competitions, and other science programs. Planned permanent exhibits include a Tesla exhibit, exploratorium-type exhibits, and a living museum. On September 23, 2013, the President of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolić, unveiled a monument to Tesla at the Wardenclyffe site. Nikolić said that he had planned to push for the monument to be displayed at the United Nations, but chose Wardenclyffe once he learned it had been purchased for the center.
Facility grounds
Wardenclyffe is located near the Shoreham Post Office and Shoreham Fire House on Route 25A in Shoreham, Long Island, New York. Wardenclyffe was divided into two main sections. The tower, which was located in the back, and the main building now compose the entire facility grounds. At one time the property was about 200 acres (0.81 km2). Now it consists of slightly less than 16 acres (65,000 m2).
Related patents
- "Means for Generating Electric Currents", U.S. Patent 514,168, February 6, 1894
- "Electrical Transformer", U.S. Patent 593,138, November 2, 1897
- "Method Of Utilizing Radiant Energy", U.S. Patent 685,958 November 5, 1901
- "Method of Signaling", U.S. Patent 723,188, March 17, 1903
- "System of Signaling", U.S. Patent 725,605, April 14, 1903
- "Art of Transmitting Electrical Energy Through the Natural Mediums", U.S. Patent 787,412, April 18, 1905
- "Apparatus for Transmitting Electrical Energy", January 18, 1902, U.S. Patent 1,119,732, December 1, 1914
Images for kids
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Tesla with his "magnifying transmitter", Colorado Springs, 1899, in photo taken for his 1900 Century Magazine article. This photo was a double exposure; Tesla was not actually in the room when the device was operating.
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Artistic representation of the station completed, including the tower structure.
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Demolition of the Wardenclyffe tower started in July 1917
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Stanford White Building at the corner of Tesla Street and NY 25A (2009)
See also
In Spanish: Wardenclyffe Tower para niños
