Re: "lightning machine" at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry? (fwd)

["High Voltage list" <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxxxx>



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 16:37:44 -0400
From: David Speck <Dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: "lightning machine" at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry?
    (fwd)

Doc,

By any chance was this the machine that had been featured at the GE 
Pavilion of the 1939 NY World's Fair?  The vintage and capabilities of 
the machine sound similar to what I've heard about the NYWF display. 

GE had both a Marx Generator and a multiple megavolt 3 phase flaming arc 
display at that fair.    The transformers of the continuous display were 
dispersed, some being used for test stands in Pittsfield, MA.  I never 
heard what happened to the Marx display. 

Dave

High Voltage list wrote:
> Original poster: Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 11:03:35 -0600
> From: Dr. Resonance <resonance@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: "lightning machine" at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry?
>     (fwd)
>
>
>
> It was not a Cockroft-Walton circuit. It was a classic Marx impulse 
> generator.  I repaired it for them several times.  The original design used 
> HV resistors that were too small and they kept frying.  The generator was 
> quickly and quitely removed from service when someone discovered the caps 
> were filled with PCBs.  It was a 1,000,000 Volt Marx generator.
>
> Dr. Resonance
>
>
>   
>> Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 13:24:14 -0600
>> From: Gomez Addams <gomez@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>, Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> Subject: "lightning machine" at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry?
>>
>> This may have been asked on one of these lists before.  I may have
>> even asked it myself a few years ago, because it's something I've
>> been interested in for a long time, but if I ever did get an answer
>> here, I didn't put it where I could find it again.  If I'm repeating
>> myself, I apologize for my absent-mindedness.
>>
>> By the way, this isn't really Tesla coil related, but it's close
>> enough it ought to interest many on the TC list, and I figure someone
>> else my age or older may know about it.
>>
>> So: in the 1970s, the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry had
>> something which my high school science teacher called a "Lightning
>> Machine".  We took a field trip there (from Peoria) but to my dismay,
>> they had shut it down only a few months before our visit.  According
>> to the guide I talked to, they had found a hole in the ground cable
>> which lead down from the second floor and into an elaborate ground
>> system in the basement, and for that and other reasons (perhaps it
>> had other problems) the powers that be had elected to not resume
>> operating it.
>>     
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