TCBA founder, Harry Goldman and the TCBA logo

TCBA - Tesla Coil Builders Association

Devoted to the construction, operation and theoretical analysis of the Tesla coil

TCBA Volume 6 - Issue 1

Page 5 of 18

Input - Output

Q. In Volume 5, #4, you stated that you had found some mail to be humorous. “Take, for instance, the several letters I have from subscribers who are intent on duplicating Tesla's Colorado experiment. Now, that's a laugh.” Your statement could have double meaning. Can you elaborate?

A. It is always possible to read more than one meaning into a written statement. Actually, it was not my intent to belittle or ridicule those responsible for making their intentions known. However, when they said, “DUPLICATE” I took it as meaning IDENTICAL and not a model of reduced concept. I view their remarks from two aspects: (a)economics and (b)engineering.

(a)Right off, a duplication of Tesla's magnifying transmitter on a 1:1 basis would require an investment of somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000. The actual cost would depend upon a person's ability to acquire materials at reduced prices (surplus, etc.). Just getting a transmission line of sufficient power to the site might exceed the annual income of many people. I know of one situation where a firm paid something like $8,000 to get a small substation set up. Then, there are equipment costs such as the high voltage power transformer, capacitor banks, a monstrous spark gap system, special switching controls, safety circuits, and so on.

Chances are the project would have to be built in an isolated area. This might require either land and building purchases or rentals. Also, the project would have to qualify for whatever zoning laws exist in the area. And if the project succeeds, running it could result in hefty electrical bills.

(b)OK, let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they were able to finance this project. Even so, it doesn't mean that they have the technical requirements for undertaking a project of this magnitude. One would have to be well versed in high voltage engineering techniques. I am told that Robert Golka, an electrical engineer, had one heck of a time trying to get his coil to work.

But, getting the coil to operate is only part of the problem. Unless extreme precautions were taken, the FCC and other governmental agencies would probably shut the project down. Rumors reaching TCBA tell that the Idaho experiment (previously reported in TCBA NEWS) screwed up the computers at the Boise airport. It is no coincidence that we have heard little from that project since the initial tests.

Perhaps the gravest problems one would have to face are the many dangers present in a project of this magnitude (electrocution, fire, ozone poisoning, kick-back, etc.). A circuit kick-back at these powers, for example, would result in an electrical explosion. Is that what happened at Colorado Springs when the generators shorted out? Even Tesla, the master electrician, had his problems. He nearly got FRIED! Read the following:

“If anybody, who had not been dabbling in these experiments as long as myself, had done so much work, he would surely have been killed. In this plant I had the narrowest escape ever. It was a square building, in which there was a coil 52 feet in diameter, about nine feet high. When it was adjusted to resonance, the streamers passed from top to bottom and it was a most beautiful sight. You see, that was about fifteen hundred, perhaps two thousand square feet of streamer surface. To save money, I had calculated the dimensions as closely as possible and the streamers came within six or seven inches from the sides of the building. As boys had been looking through a single window provided in the rear, I nailed it up. For handling the heavy currents, I had a special switch. It was hard to pull, and I had a spring arranged so that I could just touch the handle and it would snap in. I sent one of my assistances down town and was experimenting alone. I threw up the switch and went behind the coil to examine something. While I was there the switch snapped in, when suddenly the whole room was filled with streamers, and I had no way to getting out. I tried to break the window but in vain as I had no tools, and there was nothing else to do than to throw myself on my stomach and pass under.

“The primary carried 500,000 volts, and I had to crawl through the narrow place here (pointing to a picture) with the streamers going. The nitrous acid was so strong I could hardly breathe. These streamers rapidly oxidize nitrogen because of their enormous surface, which makes up for what they lack in intensity. When I came to the narrow space they closed on my back. I got away and barely managed to open the switch when the building began to burn. I grabbed a fire extinguisher and succeeded in smothering the fires. Then I had enough, I was all in.”

(Editor's note: The above testimony was given by Tesla in an off-the-cuff discussion at the end of his acceptance speech upon receiving the Edison Medal in 1917. Thanks to Leland I. Anderson for this contribution)