(CNN) -- On Nikola Tesla's 158th birthday, it was the effort to build a museum in the influential scientist's honor that got the gift. Elon Musk, the magnate and inventor behind electric-car company Tesla Motors, has pledged $1 million to the Tesla Science Center in Shoreham, New York, on the site of Wardenclyffe, Tesla's only remaining laboratory. And it's all due, at least in large part, to an appeal from a webcomic creator. Matthew Inman, whose comic and website the Oatmeal draws millions of readers each month, wrote Thursday that he had spoken to Musk and confirmed the pledge. "So, I had a call with Elon Musk earlier this week ..." Inman wrote on his site.
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The founder of Tesla Motors is giving $1 million to a museum for its namesake
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Volunteers raised money to save the last remaining lab of inventor Nikola Tesla
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They need several million more, though, to restore it and build a museum
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Matthew Inman, creator of the Oatmeal, announced the donation Thursday
At @placeholder, Tesla worked on developing wireless communications, more than 100 years before anyone would hold a smartphone, and methods for delivering clean, free energy.