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Re: Coiling Goals

Malcolm Watts on the Tesla-2 List said:
  "I'm curious to know: what is/are each person's goal/s 
  in coiling?  I'd be very interested to hear. I will 
  offer no comment unless one is requested."


I got into coiling when I saw my first Tesla Coil. I was 12 at
the time. Building my first Tesla Coil was a real adventure
for me. It gave me a hunger to learn more and *DO* more.

In short, it was a catalyst, a spark that has grown into a
wonderful flame because it has been fanned. Among my friends
I always stood out as being somewhat "peculiar" because I
(a) loved all things scientific, 
(b) enjoyed READING about science and other interesting things,
and
(c) enjoyed DOING things scientific more than just
reading about them.

The Tesla Coil is a wonderful thing. It inflames the 
imagination. It is fanciful and very real at the same time.
It has a magic all its own. You can build a Tesla coil
with little more than a few pieces of genuine junk.
You can refine your understanding and your skills of
workmanship, and craft one that is a gleaming thing of
beauty. As you grow, so does your appreciation for all
the *other* wonderful things that you have learned 
because of this "hobby".

Tesla Coils attract people like myself as a flame attracts
moths. So I have found that many people who are somewhat
like me are also attracted to this Tesla List.
Through this Tesla List I have met many persons who
I regard in the best sense as genuine "friends".

I have found that there is a great sense of sharing that
exists among the members of this List. It is nice to
have somewhere where you can ask a question (on many topics)
and get answers that by and large are helpful.

It is good to share what I have learned with others. It
is good to share enthusiasm and comaraderie. It is good
to see that I do not have all the answers, but that
together we have almost as many answers as we have
questions... and that just makes the remaining questions
all that more rich and tantalizing.

I have learned much from grappling with the physics
of Tesla coils. I love the apparent simplicity of the
device and the principles that underlie its operation.
I am also humbled at how it still holds much that
is beyond my current understanding. I discover
something still to be learned at every turn. What
a wonderful journey this Tesla Coil has taken me on!

It is a pizzazzy kind of a thing, this Tesla Coil.
As close to magic as most anything we will
encounter during our lifetime. And it brings out
the pizzazzy in each of us who stands in awe of its
magic.

Richard Hull, Malcolm Watts, Bert Hicks, Terry Fritz,
Mike Hammer, Richard Quick, and a wonderful cast
that includes also the likes of Gary Weaver and Bill
the Arcstarter, and hopefully myself, the
multitude of everyday posters, the oldies and
newbies and even the unknown multitude of silent
lurkers... we are in some very real way a living
community of people who - at least for a moment -
share something wonderful in common. And we are *all*
the better for it.

I always show my high school electronics students one
of my Tesla coils as part of my orientation to the
course. I always hope that it will be for some of them 
the kind of catalyst that it was for me. All are
amazed at the Tesla Coil. They all love to see it
demonstrated. And there are always a few who seem
attracted to it as I myself was so many years ago,
in 1958 when I was 12 years old. These are the
ones that begin to ask the questions. "How does
it work?" "Could I build one myself?" "What does
that funny looking thing over there do?"  And
that is always just the beginning of many questions
about many things.

In my own life, when I turn to the center, where
the fire of curiousity was first truly enkindled, I still see
at that center the wonderful writhing arcs of the Tesla Coil
beckoning me to come in closer and see more clearly the
wonder and the magic of this world I live in.

My goals in coiling? To enjoy the gift of curiousity
that God has so graciously given to me, and in doing so
to give Him thanks and praise.

Comments graciously accepted from Malcolm and any one else
who cares to comment.


Fr. Thomas McGahee