What would make a Tesla-themed birthday card awesome?

June 5, 2009 12:42 PM

I'm designing a Tesla-themed birthday card for a friend, last-minute. What do you think would make it awesome?

Hey Gang.... I'm not terribly knowledgeable about Tesla myself, but I've got a buddy who idolizes him. Another friend just had the idea to make the card, which we'll give to him tonight.

Any ideas you have about this, from graphics to use to quotes or content, would be greatly appreciated. My buddy's the fun-loving nerdy type, so anything goes!

Thanks in advance!

posted by chudmonkey to science & nature (22 comments total)

Whatever you do, you have to get him this Tesla Comic print. Feel free to allow it to inspire the card.
posted by Mizu at 12:44 PM on June 5 [2 favorites]

Tesla the scientist or Tesla the band?
posted by dfriedman at 12:50 PM on June 5 [1 favorite]

Sorry, ignore my comment. I didn't read the "idolizes him" part. Clearly you're referring to Nikola!
posted by dfriedman at 12:50 PM on June 5

- "A happy birthday is your density!"
- Spirals (maybe one that springs up at you when you open the card)
- Flashing lights (little LEDs?)
- A cut-out of a black mustache and center-parted floppy hair that your friend can wear
posted by cocoagirl at 12:52 PM on June 5

You could have the card shock him.
posted by backseatpilot at 12:53 PM on June 5 [1 favorite]

This is probably a shitty answer, but anyway.

If your friend is a tad twisted, here are photos of Edison famously electrocuting an elephant at Coney Island to scare people away from Tesla's work.

It would be a card that was at least, um, memorable.
posted by CunningLinguist at 12:55 PM on June 5 [1 favorite]

If you have photoshop skills, can you photoshop a picture of your friend in with a picture of Tesla to make it look like Tesla is celebrating his birthday with him or something like that? Is there anyone else he idolizes who you can invite to the party-on-the-card?

It sounds ultra corny but i've done something like this before to great effect.
posted by amethysts at 12:58 PM on June 5

Twisted Cheeto cheese coils!
posted by phatkitten at 12:59 PM on June 5

nothing with DC batteries, or else Edison wins
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 12:59 PM on June 5

How did I misread "card" as "party"? *sigh*
posted by phatkitten at 1:00 PM on June 5

Whatever you end up doing with the card, deliver it with/inside a DVD/Blu-Ray copy of "The Prestige."
posted by jbickers at 1:01 PM on June 5

I have a personal affection for this picture.

Also, Tesla is totally a demon from the lowest levels of hell. I would know :p.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 1:04 PM on June 5 [3 favorites]

Get a watch battery, two bread ties and some tape.

Tape the wires to the +- sides of the battery and to the inside of the card. Extend the breadties up and down the two sides of a card so that when he opens it he gets a little tingle.

It's mostly guesswork, but might work.
posted by unixrat at 1:05 PM on June 5 [1 favorite]

Also, if the wires touch while the card is closed, chances are your card will catch on fire. So, you know, that might be a little awesome too.
posted by unixrat at 1:06 PM on June 5

A low-tech idea: use these instructions to make a pop-up rainbow card, but do an electric arc instead of the rainbow.

Also, jbickers is totally right about The Prestige.
posted by permafrost at 1:08 PM on June 5

get him a test drive in one of these.
posted by philip-random at 1:24 PM on June 5

Tesla was a weird, weird dude.

He was terrified of smooth round spheres and germs. Women's pearls would freak him out. He calculated the cubic contents of cups, bowls, and plates of food before consuming them. He could not touch human hair, "except perhaps at the point of a revolver."

From this page:

He once heard a regular pattern of signals coming over his receiving equipment and said he was hearing a message from Mars. This produced its share of ridicule until the famous Lord Kelvin publicly stated that he agreed with Tesla, that the messages were from Mars.

Despite his fear of germs, he was often seen in the park with pigeons covering his arms. He even had a favorite white pigeon who visited his window at the hotel where he lived.

From this page:

Handkerchiefs he purchased in large numbers because he never sent them to the laundry. [maybe a card written on a hankerchief in fabric marker that says DISPOSE AFTER READING]

This is completely unrelated, but in researching this I found out Dan Ackroyd has Tourette Syndrome. TEAM TOURETTE'S FOR THE WIN FUCK YEAH.
posted by Juliet Banana at 1:29 PM on June 5

this!, get one of those recording sound cards and collect a few links inside
posted by zengargoyle at 2:04 PM on June 5

"The glow retreats, done is the day of toil,
It yonder hastes, new fields of life exploring
Ah, that no wing can lift me from the soil,
Upon its track to follow, follow soaring!"
(Tesla and Faust)
posted by leapfrog at 2:54 PM on June 5

Tesla the scientist or Tesla the band?
posted by dfriedman at 3:50 PM

Make him a really nice Tesla the scientist card, but first hand him a crappy Tesla the band card and wait for the look of disappointment on his face before the big reveal!
posted by orme at 3:24 PM on June 5 [1 favorite]

Go to home depot for supplies. Use a card-sized thin piece of wood, age it with tea (or whatever), put two bolts in it, bolting two pieces of thick copper wire to form a huge spark gap. Take a flame or soldering iron to the wood to give it burns. Then write "Happy Birthday" on it. Perhaps wrap some thin copper wire aroudn the wood to make a coil connected to the spark-gap. Non-functional, but solid Hollywood style oldschool lightning apparatus.
posted by -harlequin- at 5:05 PM on June 5

How technical is your friend? I would suggest making one yourself, with a schematic of Tesla's AC dynamo. If your friend is more into the popular-science aspects of Tesla's work (direct energy, Tesla coils) a well made photograph of a Tescla coil would work. If your friend is more interested in Tesla's life and work, how about a postcard of a landmark associated with him in either Colorado Springs or his native Serbia?

Now if it doesn't have to be a conventional postcard (and go over USPS) mail and you are really adventurous, you could go for this:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Mini-Solid-State-Tesla-Coil/
posted by af at 12:24 AM on June 7