Elon Musk Pledges $1 Million For Nikola Tesla Museum In New York

NEW YORK – Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA), is pledging $1 million toward the creation of a museum dedicated to inventor Nikola Tesla in Shoreham, Long Island. The gift was announced by cartoonist Matthew Inman, creator of webcomic The Oatmeal, on Thursday, the 158th anniversary of Tesla’s birth.

Nikola Tesla, an inventor known for his contributions to the alternating current, or AC model of distributing electricity, is the namesake of Musk’s electric car company. The company’s Model S and Roadster incorporate a motor design based on a 1888 patent filed by the inventor.

Inman requested that Musk donate money in May after posting a positive review of Tesla Motors’ Model S on Twitter.

“Within a few hours of posting my review, Elon Musk tweeted that he'd be happy to help,” Inman wrote yesterday. “He's going to build a Tesla Supercharger station in the parking lot of the museum” and is “donating $1 million dollars to the museum itself.”

Musk’s donation will go toward developing a museum, learning center and “innovation” center to help budding inventors, Inman said. The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe is the site of Tesla’s last laboratory, where he worked at the turn of the 20th century to create a system of distributing wireless power. The 16-acre site was purchased last year with the proceeds from an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign run by Inman.

“We are excited and extremely grateful for Mr. Musk’s generous gift to Tesla Science Center, and also to Matthew Inman for arranging the opportunity,” Jane Alcorn, president of the Tesla Science Center, said in a press release.