Nikola Tesla, the (oft forgotten) genius inventor, may be getting a new chance at recognition thanks to The Oatmeal.

Matthew Inman, the creator of The Oatmeal website and author of 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth, as well as the upcoming How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You, has thrown his weight behind Tesla’s memory and is raising $850,000 for the non-profit Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, in order for them to buy the inventor’s former laboratory in Shoreham, New York. The goal is to turn this space into a Tesla museum, immortalizing the inventor and his contributions to science and society.

Operation Let's Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum has raised more than its goal (close to $1 million at the time of writing) bringing the dream much closer to reality.

Nikola Tesla was one of the great minds of history and probably the most important contributor to our modern way of (electrified) life. He is responsible for the alternating current (AC) induction motor, which allowed for the more easily transferable AC electricity to be put into widespread use, as it is up until this day.

The number of patents Tesla held is astounding (around 300). Among these include the radio (sorry, not Marconi), remote control, and x-rays. Among some of his other works never realized include the use of the Tesla Coil for the distribution of electricity through the air (his massive tower at Wardenclyffe was never completed due to funding being cut off); an anti-gravity machine; his oscillator (which was blamed for almost crumbling a city block in New York); and a "death ray".

There remains an aura of mystery surrounding Tesla, whether due to his ground-breaking ideas, his death in poverty and relative obscurity, or the FBI seizure of his files upon his death.

For more information about this genius, read his work, My Inventions and Other Writings, or those of others, such as The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla or Tesla: Man Out of Time.