Zagreb, Croatia -- Outside the Museum of Naive Art we find a plaque to Croatia's most famous scientist, Nikola Tesla. If you know of Edison and Westinghouse, you should remember this Serbian born in Croatia who did most of his scientific work in the states. Sprung from an illiterate mother and an Orthodox priest, he is pretty much the reason the world runs on alternating current. With his Howard Hughes-like obsession with germs, he became the poster boy for the mad scientist in his later years, before dying impoverished. The US Supreme Court ruled that he also invented the radio. With some irony, each night his plaque -- and the rest of this area -- is illuminated by gas lamplights which are lit by hand at dusk. Tesla would probably be rolling over in his grave -- with the assistance of an AC electric motor. Around the turn-of-the-20th-century, he once lit 200 lamps wirelessly over a distance of 25 miles. Note St. Mark's in the background. Tesla migrated to the US about the time these tiles went on that colorful roof.
First |
Previous Picture |
Next Picture |
Last | Thumbnails
