
On 1st of June 1892, Tesla arrived in Belgrade due to the call from Belgrade municipality. Several thousand people greeted him at the Belgrade train station. He addressed the gathered crowd, who saluted him: "There is something within me that might be illusion as it is often case with young delighted people, but if I would be fortunate to achieve some of my ideals, it would be on the behalf of the whole of humanity. If those hopes would become fulfilled, the most exiting thought would be that it is a deed of a Serb. Long live Serbdom!..." Tesla further said to the students of Belgrade University: "As you can see and hear, I have remained a Serb overseas where I have done some researches. You should do so and by your knowledge and hard work you should glorify Serbdom over the world." One of Tesla's proudest moments was when he was granted his United States citizenship; he never lost his love of his homeland, however. His monument, carved by Ivan Mestrovic (who knew Tesla personally), can be seen in Zagreb. Another monument, carved by Croatian sculptor Frano Krsinic, can be seen on "Goat Island", near the former Tesla Hydropower Plant on Niagara Falls, in the middle of the Niagara River, between the United States and Canada boarders. It is purposely left un-illuminated at night (for the effect, and, to provoke thought of what the world would be like without Tesla's contributions). As I have personally visited this monument, it leaves an eerie feeling on you. One definitely feels as sense of sadness; a man that quite literally created our modern electrical world, now with a simple statue staring out from an island in the middle of nowhere. A part of the Technical Museum in Zagreb is dedicated to Nikola Tesla. Even today, so many years after Tesla's death in 1943, his numerous manuscripts are kept as "top secret" by the US Ministry of Defense (see Margaret Cheney, "Tesla: Man Out of Time", Prentice Hall, 1981)
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