Nikola Tesla’s historic Wardenclyffe lab site at risk after devastating fire
Back in 2012, a crowdfunding effort on Indigogo
successfully raised the funds necessary to purchase the Wardenclyffe Tower site on Long Island, New York, where Serbian inventor
Nikola Tesla once tried to build an ambitious wireless transmission station.
Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe plant on Long Island circa 1902 in partial stage of completion.
The goal was to raise additional funds to build a $20 million Tesla Science Centre there, with a museum, an educational center, and a technological innovation program. The
nonprofit group behind the project finally broke ground this April after years of basic restoration work—only to experience a devastating setback last week, two days before Thanksgiving, when a fire broke out.
Over 100 firefighters from 17 local departments responded and battled the flames throughout the night, as residual embers led to two additional outbreaks.
While an investigation is ongoing as to the cause of the fire, Fire Chief Sean McCarrick said that they had ruled out arson. According to project architect Mark Thaler, there was nothing flammable in the lab that could have caused the fire, although the back buildings had wood-frame roofs.
The original brick building, designed by Stanford White, is still standing, although there is considerable damage to the structure of the roof, steel girders, chimney, cupola, and a portion of a wall. Some elements have been irreparably destroyed, but fortunately all museum artifacts in TSC's collection were stored offsite.
The most pressing concern is that water from the firehoses saturated the brick walls, according to Thaler, since the upcoming colder winter temperatures could freeze that moisture and cause the brick work to break apart and collapse.
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...yffe-lab-site-at-risk-after-devastating-fire/
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