I present you, the famed inventor, Nikola Tesla. The prolific inventor, scientist, engineer, is quite known for his contributions to our knowledge of the electrical current and electromagnetism. He is credited with many incredible and practical inventions, including: the induction motor, system of AC power generation and transmission, the rotating magnetic field, and the tesla coil. Some of his inventions were truly ahead of their time, like the method of remote signaling, considered by some the birth of robotics. He was no stranger to the patent system. A selected list of his patents can be found here. But among the truly revolutionary inventions he created some truly kooky ones.
Believe it or not, the death ray was one of his more developed and maybe even plausible inventions. Some of the other even more kooky inventions are listed in The fantastic inventions of Nikola Tesla, by David Hatcher Childress. The really kooky list includes a thought photography machine, an ozone generator, and a flying machine (Pat. No. 6,555,114, "Apparatus For Aerial Transportation," his last patent at age 72). I'm not even going to go into the very strange myths that are associated with Tesla. Ok. Just this one...Some believe that he was an alien, who landed as a baby in the mountains of Croatia and was sent here for "the sole purpose of inaugurating the New Age" with his inventions.
This personal life is replete with some really strange habits and acquaintances. To appreciate his strangeness, you can see the movie The Prestige, where he played by David Bowie. And that's why Nikola Tesla receives the Kooky Inventor of the Month Award.