Rochester Area Tesla Coil Builders Teslathon 1998

The seventh annual Rochester Area Tesla Coil Builders Teslathon was held at the home and lab of Ed Wingate on Saturday, August 22, 1998. There were a record 51 attendees present for the festivities this year, 55 if the four curious visitors from the neighbors' lawn party across the street are counted. The neighbor, rather than trying to explain what the strange noise coming from Ed's lab was, called up and asked if an on the spot magnifier demo could be arranged and of course the answer was yes! Over half of Saturday's attendees were present at the Friday night get together.

The greatest number of local attendees ever, a total 12, were present this year, along with the out of towners from a multitude of states and even one attendee from the United Kingdom. Tim Davy took the honors for traveling the farthest by spanning the Atlantic Ocean from the U.K. to join the group. Next farthest were Greg Leyh from San Francisco, California and Steve and Fay Cole from Crestline, California. The Tesla Coil Builders of Richmond were well represented by Richard Hull, Alex Tajnsek, Kim Goins and Bill Hathaway. And what Teslathon would be complete without our “guardian angel” Harry Goldman and wife Ruth?

The flea market was a huge success again this year and many prime Tesla parts were available and quickly disappeared into car trunks for the journey home. A great deal of general scientific/electronic parts were also available and quickly disappeared. Litchenberg figures, beautiful electrical discharge patterns in acrylic plastic squares, were being sold by Tony De Angelis and Kim Goins and sold like the proverbial hotcakes.

Ed fired his twin coil a few times in the late morning for the attendees and then set up the newest configuration of his magnifier which was fired at intervals throughout the afternoon and evening. There were plenty of sparks and arcs and ozone for all to enjoy as the 10 to 12 foot arcs shot from the center of the lab to the wall, ceiling and floor!

There were plenty of educational demos for all. Richard Hull gave demos of his tabletop pulsed magnifier type coil. John Hunt demoed his first Tesla coil, a table top model. Tom Vales set up and fired his Byland style solid state magnifier system. Lou Balint gave a very complete and well thought out talk with demo models of the effect of magnifier operating frequencies and tune points on the fields produced around the driver and resonator coil. Kim gave a short talk describing how Litchenberg figures are created on a linear accelerator and Bert Hickman had a variety of shrunken quarters he has produced with his excellent z-pinch experiments. Tim Davy also brought several examples of his fantastic metal covered fiberglass toroids for everyone to see. The copper plated one is a work of art!

The group chowed down on hots and hamburgers with salads and fresh picked corn on the cob at about 4:00 P.M. but the action and camaraderie continued well into the night with the last weary guests leaving at about midnight. As with previous years, many new friendships were formed and many e-mail addresses now had real faces to go with the names. It's really nice to see folks who have been communicating by e-mail or phone for months or even years meet face to face for the first time. Thanks to all who attended for making this year's Teslathon a great one!

Report from RATCB