As the founding father of alternating current, the legacy of Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla is felt every time we use an electrical device. But, of all his creations, only the Tesla coil bears his name. For aesthetic appeal, historic legacy and a satisfyingly high level of danger, the Tesla coil is the ultimate fringe science icon, a role it has played to perfection in the laboratories of numerous Hollywood mad-scientists.
The device is a step-up converter that uses two resonant coils to transform low voltage input into extremely high frequency, high voltage output. Usually channelled out via a toroid cap, the spectacular and intense discharge is essentially man-made lightning.
Tesla unveiled his first coils in 1891, to demonstrate his dream of wireless power transmission, which he would do successfully using a 60m tall, 15m wide coil at his Colorado Springs, Colorado, laboratory. This coil, which easily generated millions of volts, reportedly produced great sparks 40m long and could transmit electricity, wirelessly, over 50km.
It's said that the surrounding prairie shook as thunder and lightning erupted from the lab, while locals described sparks crackling underfoot some distance away. Tesla hoped ultimately to transmit power worldwide, despite his fear of igniting the Earth's atmosphere through his experiments.
Following a number of failed business ventures, Tesla faded from view and died an anonymous death in 1943. But a version of his coil technology would be used for decades in radios, cathode-ray tube televisions, and in diathermic medical equipment.
In the 1970s artist and engineer Robert Golka built a 37m tall Tesla coil in a hanger at Wendover Air Force Base in Utah. Golka, who declared his own coil to be more powerful than the one at Colorado Springs, initially attempted to create ball lightning with the tower, allegedly with some success.
His coil was later commissioned by the US Air Force to test the effects of lightning strikes on aircraft, leading to rumors of a lightning weapon.
Today Tesla's vision is kept alive by a global network of enthusiasts, known as coilers, who stage often spectacular public demonstrations, inspiring future generations of lightning junkies.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
RSS