Tesla Museum & Memorial Visit

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Cameron B. Prince" <cplists@xxxxxxxxxx>

Hey guys,

My wife and I made it back from Europe last night. We had a really good trip
with no real problems other than being delayed a day by Ernesto causing us
to miss our flight Saturday as our plan had to be diverted from JFK to
Philly.

We drove for close to 12 hours on Wednesday from Corvara in northern Italy
over to Belgrade driving through Slovenia and Croatia into Serbia. Thank
goodness for autostrades. We crossed all the borders with ease only being
asked a few questions at the Italy/Slovenia border.

Driving in Belgrade was a challenge to say the very least. I finally found a
taxi driver who guided us to the museum and we got there about 4. We didn't
have Dinaras to pay the entrance fees so we had to walk a block over to the
exchange office.

Once we got in I began videoing and after a short period was told I couldn't
use a video camera. I broke out the digital camera and made both still and
video clips with it. I took probably close to 100 pictures and video clips
of the items in the museum and the guided tour with demonstrations of the
various items on display.

The Egg of Columbus was one of my favorites. I've already located some 3"
round brass stock and a variac core to build one. The other items in the
museum were amazing also. I could have stayed all day and would have still
wanted to stay longer. Thank goodness I was able to take so many photographs
and clips as I can study those since I wasn't able to stay very long.

We spent the night in Belgrade at Hotel Zlatnik which was an awesome hotel
at an unbelievable price. All the people we met in Serbia were extremely
nice to us. The only real issue was the chaotic driving.

The next day we drove back over to Croatia to Smiljan. We got there about
4:30 and didn't have Kunas to pay the entrance fee so we had to go to a bank
in Gospic for exchange. We made it back to the memorial with a little over
an hour before closing. The memorial just opened in July and our ticket
stubs showed that we were the 107th and 108th visitors. The memorial was
very nice and clean. It had a modern look to it with sleek buildings and
signage.

We visited the church where Tesla's father was a priest first. No visitors
are allowed inside, but there are large windows you can see in. Then we went
into the newly restored Tesla home. The first floor has a full timeline of
Tesla's life on the walls. There are sounds of farm animals, church bells
and other effects from the time he was a child. There were large LCD
monitors showing the location and original pictures of the property. It was
a real multi-media presentation and I found it very impressive.

Upstairs there were demonstrations of the Columbus Egg, Induction Motor, a
medium sized Tesla coil and a bladeless turbine. There were LCD projectors
hanging from the ceiling casting neat plasma/spark/arc overlays onto large
wall sized photos of Tesla's lab. Some sections of the floor were opaque
with various icons, neon, photos, etc. inside. It was certainly an
experience.

Once we left the house, we went to the newly built replica of the Tesla
barn. The construction was exquisite complete with a straw roof. Like the
church, visitors couldn't go into the barn. Next we went to the stream where
Tesla first played with turbines as a child. They have a large bladeless
turbine that spins in the stream.

Then we went on to what the guide described as a replica of Tesla's Colorado
lab. I would say that it somewhat resembled Tesla's lab, but was by no means
a replica. Inside there is a large coil probably around 18 inch diameter but
had a very poor top load made of what appeared to be solid copper wire about
10 AWG woven into an oblate. The guide claimed it was a 1.5 million volt
system and was only powered on for large groups. This was rather
disappointing.

Next we went into a conference area and I caught a glimpse of the memorial's
security room and control center. They have two large 19" 48U racks full of
servers and equipment. There were two security guards setting at a long desk
watching video monitors. We were the only visitors there and I would say
they had at least 5 people working there which made it obvious it was a
state/country funded attraction.

We were able to video the entire tour and basically everything in the
memorial with the exception of the firing of the large coil. I have over an
hours worth of footage and numerous still shots as well.

Overall, we had a very good experience at both museums. My wife told me that
she thought the memorial at Smiljan was much better than the museum. The
memorial is certainly more modernized, but it lacks the original items that
the museum has as all the memorial displays are replicas. I doubt it would
ever happen, but it would be awesome if both were combined at Smiljan.

I am planning on putting together a video tape of the visit as well as a
museum and memorial guide on my website. Once I have this completed, I'll
post another message with more information. Here are a few shots I wanted to
share with you all now:

http://www.teslauniverse.com/members/cprince/images/museum/


Thanks,
Cameron