Quote: Nikola Tesla is one of Serbia’s most famous sons for the pioneering progress he achieved in the fields of physics, wireless technology, and electrical engineering. His likeness graces the 100Din banknote, and Serbia’s largest power plant and Belgrade’s international airport are both named in his honor.

Worldwide however, Tesla has still never received the recognition that he deserves for such inventions and innovations as the long-distance transfer of electric current and wireless transfer of electric signals. Tesla was also involved with the first primitive radar devices, development of X-Ray technology, and huge efficiencies in power generation. Even the invention of radio, despite being popularly credited to Marconi, is one of Tesla’s many notable achievements.

It’s likely that Tesla suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder and coupled with the public’s inability to comprehend some of his most groundbreaking innovations, he was often dismissed as a mad scientist. This and his long-running feud with Thomas Edison; the so-called war of currents, contributed to his lack of recognition and failure to win any of the Nobel prizes for which he was nominated.

Fortunately the Tesla Museum in Belgrade is a great place to learn more about the misunderstood genius and some of the things he was responsible for that we take for granted today, like safe electricity in our homes, mobile telephones ,and starting our cars without a crankhandle. When we visited in January 2007, parts of the museum were under renovation, but the main displays were still accessible and it was one of my favourite things that we did while in Belgrade.

The museum is usually open 10am to 6pm, but closes at 1pm on weekends and all day on Monday. The price of entry is 200DIN. Due to the nature of the displays, it’s only possible to see the museum with a guide, and the tours begin every hour on the hour. We first sat down to watch a short video about Tesla’s life and then continued around the museum proper to see models and displays demonstrating some of his more influential ideas. There’s a model of a hydro-electric powerplant (the only statue of Tesla outside Europe is at Niagara Falls), and a clear perspex model demonstrating how alternating current (which pulses back and forth) can be harnessed to provide continuous motion in one direction, thus making possible electric motors as we know them from appliances like electric washing machines and ceiling fans. There’s a small scale mock-up of a power station in which power is generated by turning a handle and transmitted to power a light at the other end, and a replica of the Egg of Columbus that he used to demonstrate rotating magnetic fields at the 1893 world's fair in Chicago.

The highlight of the interactive exhibits though is the huge power generator that creates crackling forks of lightning and used the wirelessly-transmitted electricity to power fluorescent tubes in the hands of museum visitors. I recommend the museum for everyone though, not just those who fancy themselves as Jedi material.
From journals White city, blue Danube, black heart.