Nikola Tesla, the tragically brilliant Serbian-American inventor beloved of hipsters, techies and historians the world over, may soon have his own museum, thanks to Web comic The Oatmeal’s online efforts. Eager Tesla fans will have to wait for the museum, but in the meantime, check out these outrageous videos – including classic “Sweet Home Alabama” played on Tesla coils.
Videographer Jeremiah Warren offers a short and sweet story on the great man and calls his one-time employer and arch nemesis Thomas Edison a jerk.
Educator Hank Green calls Nikola Tesla the “patron saint of …crazy geniuses” and passes on some fun facts you may not know.
If you’re intrigued by conspiracy theories about Tesla’s ultimate disgrace and demise, How Stuff Works has you covered.
Sadly, Nice Peter has yet to do an Epic Rap Battles Of History between Tesla and Edison, but Will Ferrell’s Funny Or Die takes on the feud between the two in its infamous Drunk History series.
Rob Flickenger, whom Popular Science described as a designer of “wireless infrastructure for developing countries,” created this Tesla Coil Gun after reading about it in the Nikola Tesla graphic novel The Five Fists of Science.
And if you thought that was cool, here’s Terry Blake’s near-death experience with a giant Tesla coil!
Playing with Tesla coils is actually not uncommon for YouTube. Many popular clips feature this weird device as a musical instrument:
