Statues of famous and noteworthy people are a usual sight in a city or town, but one particular statue of Nikola Tesla in Palo Alto, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, doesn’t just stand there and do nothing. It emits free Wi-Fi.
The statue was unveiled on December 7, 2013, and was the idea of a local resident named Dorrian Porter. Porter raised $127,000 through a Kickstarter.com campaign in 30 days to fund the making of the statue. He then commissioned a local artist named Terry Guyer to design a bronze statue of the famous inventor.
The statue is 6′ 2″ tall, Tesla’s actual height, and he is holding a large light bulb. The bulb is what holds the router for the Wi-Fi signal. The statue is based on an iconic picture of Tesla holding a disconnected bulb that is being lit by wireless electricity.
Having a statue of Tesla as a hub for Wi-Fi is rather fitting since he had proposed a wireless “World System” back in the early 1900s. It would have provided electrical energy around the world through wireless transmission. The statue also has a time capsule inside that is to be opened on January 7, 2043, the 100th anniversary of his death.
