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RE: Tesla theatrical play in TX



Original poster: "Ross Overstreet by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ross-o-at-mindspring-dot-com>

Hi Chris,

I was serving a one year sentence in Austin, TX in 2001 and attended
this play.  I'm not a very cultured person so I don't consider myself
qualified to comment on the acting (didn't like it).  I'm slightly more
qualified to comment on the historical accuracy of the play.  All that
I'll say here is that it ends with Tesla flying away in a spaceship.

That said, I do consider myself qualified to comment on the HV special
effects :-)  The coil was large diameter, low aspect ratio coil that
stood about 5ft high.  It used what looked like large PFC caps.  I
wasn't able to identify their origin.  It contained a large diameter
(>12") RSG with a bunch of flying electrodes.  The RSG was unshielded,
swinging large diameter electrodes, and was operated about 10-12 ft from
the audience.  I considered this an unacceptable safety hazard and I
made sure that the wife and I were out of line with the rotor so that we
wouldn't be killed if it came apart.  The coil actually failed to
perform during the play but no one in the audience knew any difference
and the actors continued on like it was planned.  (The RSG spun up but
the gap never fired.  It was obvious that the stage help forgot to
connect the electrodes from the PT to the coil).  After the performance,
the director acknowledged the failure, spent a few moments
troubleshooting, and tried to run the coil once again.  This time they
managed about 3 ft thin blue arcs.  It was sort of a letdown since my
little coil in the garage was making arcs twice that long with a
hot-rodded NST, TCBOR gap, and MMC.

One really cool effect was the sparker they rigged into the ceiling.
There must have been 50 or 60 simple wire spark gaps mounted across the
ceiling in random spots.  Occasionally someone would run a HV lead
across a nail board and you would get this random HV crackling across
the ceiling.  The spark gaps were small and it was dark up there so you
couldn't see anything until the guy did the nail board trick.  Very
cool.

Back from a 2 year hiatus,
Ross-O
Los Angeles, CA

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 11:39 AM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Tesla theatrical play in TX


Original poster: "Chris Brick by way of Terry Fritz
<teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <cbrick-at-rebelbase-dot-com>

Some friends in Austin, TX mentioned they are going to this:

Rude Mechanicals is proud to bring back REQUIEM FOR TESLA - a
semi-biographical, sci-fi homage to Nikola Tesla, a genius inventor who
loved pigeons, hated spherical objects and was undoubtedly one of the
most fascinating and controversial figures of all time. REQUIEM FOR
TESLA is an ecstatic and evocative tribute to the man who gave us
alternating current and dreamed of spaceships in a time when even
electricity was dangerous magic. Tesla’s impassioned efforts to
improve the quality of life for humankind left him straddling a line
between genius and insanity. Rude Mechs’ high-voltage stage-collage
honoring the genius/madman fuses period electronics, frenetic
subconscious hallucinations, and a demonic Mark Twain. Death rays,music
by The Golden Arm Trio and a spine-tingling Tesla coil all combust in
this sci-fi electromagnetic polyphase dynamo play.

http://www.rudemechs-dot-com/

I thought I'd post it in case there are others in the area that would
like to go.

Cheers,

Chris