So, on the occasion of my latest visit to the Serbian capital, I finally visited this museum. I went there three times before I managed to enter. The museum is extremely popular, especially with foreign tourists. The first two times, the available museum tours were not convenient for me. The third time, I was lucky. But, more about this later in the post.
Everyone knows who Nikola Tesla is. So, this post is not about him. Whoever wants to learn more about this great Serbian-American scientist, there is ample information about his life and work on the internet.
This post is about the museum and my experience there.
ABOUT NIKOLA TESLA MUSEUM
The museum is in this beautiful villa in Krunska Street 51. It’s very close to Slavia Square and it’s also very easy to find. It’s a small museum. As a matter of fact, the museum is just the ground floor of this villa, the upper floors are offices and staff rooms.
NIKOLA TESLA
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), was a Serbian-American inventor and scientist, a pioneer in electrification, who significantly influenced the technological development of our civilisation by his poly-phase system inventions. That system is the cornerstone of modern electro-energetic systems of production, long distance transmission and usage of electrical currents, electricity and communication.
Since the beginning of its exploitation towards the end of the last century, until now, the poly-phase system, together with the asynchronous motor, has been perfected and improved to remarkable and inconceivable dimensions.
He was a very imaginative scientist whose ideas led to many important discoveries without which our civilisation would lack many of its technological comforts (radio, radar, television, all kinds of motors, high frequency fields, coils, computers). Some of his ideas are still to be realised.
He was born in Smiljan in Lika. At the time, the village was within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, under the Emperor Franz Joseph I.
MUSEUM TOUR
The museum tour starts with an excellent 15 minutes film presentation about Nikola Tesla’s life and achievements.
In that same room, there are several very interesting exhibits. One of them is the original nameplate from the two-phase generator in the Niagara Falls.
The nameplate lists 13 patents, 9 of them belonged to Nikola Tesla.
Another interesting exhibit is the induction motor with the short circuit rotor.
Next to it, there is a model of the induction motor with the egg-shaped rotor, better known as “Tesla’s Egg of Columbus”. In the photo of a projector room, you can see these motors below the screen.
The absolute star of the museum and clearly the most interesting exhibit is Tesla’s 500 KV oscillating transformer. Just to see this transformer switched on and working is more than enough. What happens is that they give you the neon bulbs, that you can see below, and, while the transformer is working, the bulbs light up in your hands. It basically demonstrates the wireless transmission of energy. It’s a fascinating experiment.
In that same room, there are several more models of Tesla’s inventions. It’s a part of the museum where several more experiments are done.
Additionally, his remote-controlled boat with “AND” logic Gate is equally fascinating.
This transformer is a smaller version of the previously mentioned, more powerful oscillating transformer.
TESLA’S BELONGINGS
The other part of the museum is dedicated to Tesla’s life. It is also interesting to see it.
The bust of Nikola Tesla was made by the great Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović.
You can also see his various personal items.
Tesla’s nephew, Sava Kosanović, shipped his entire estate to Belgrade in 80 trunks marked N.T. in 1952.
You can also see Tesla’s boots, his hat, gloves and belt.
Tesla was 1.88m tall and his suit is also exhibited.
Tesla died on the 7th January 1943, at the age of 86. He died alone in the room 3327, in the New Yorker Hotel. The safe that you can see below was in the room where he died.
Tesla’s ashes were transported from the United States to Belgrade in 1957. The ashes are displayed in the museum, in a gold-plated sphere, on a marble pedestal. There are other museums in the world dedicated to him, but the urn with his ashes makes the Belgrade museum the only legitimate Nikola Tesla museum.
HOW TO VISIT THIS MUSEUM
So, how to visit the museum? It’s a very popular museum, with more than 135000 yearly visitors. You can enter at 10am, 11am, noon, 1pm, 2pm and so on. Additionally, tours are either in Serbian or in English. It is important that you choose a tour in a language that you understand. Thus, you will be able to follow the explanations and especially the experiments.
You can see below that tours marked in blue were in English and in orange in Serbian. I attended a tour in Serbian. The entrance was 500 dinars, which is just over 4 euros. The museum only accepts cash.
Nikola Tesla’s Archive consists of the unique collection of manuscripts, photographs, scientific and patent documentation, which is indispensable in studying the history of electrification of our world.
In his honour, the magnetic induction unit (tesla) of the SI system is named after him.
The collection documents the most important era in the history of development of the modern world, which thanks to the Tesla system, made the easy energy production and distribution possible.
His archives, held in the museum in Belgrade, were included in a UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2003.
If you go to Belgrade, don’t miss this small, but very precious museum. Personally, I am very glad that I finally managed to visit it. Learning about this great person and seeing some of his experiments will certainly blow your mind.
Also, a concept of the wireless transmission of electricity is something that I am still trying to fully comprehend …
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