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: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 21:43:52 -0700
From: Jim Mora <jmora@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: 'High Voltage list' <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: "lightning machine" at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry?
    (fwd)

Dr. Resonance,

Wow, that would be a sight and a sound to behold. How about building
something like that in the short way to Wisconsin. That would be a well
attended Teslathon! Given the number of interested parties in the area,
would it be affordable to build or feasible... Perhaps little brothers?

Jim Mora

-----Original Message-----
From: High Voltage list [mailto:hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 6:48 AM
To: hvlist
Subject: Re: "lightning machine" at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry?
(fwd)

Original poster: Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxxxx>



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 14:20:38 -0600
From: Dr. Resonance <resonance@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: "lightning machine" at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry?
    (fwd)



No, two different machines.  The Chitown Marx was only 12 feet tall with 1e6

output.

The large GE machines were each 50 feet tall -- one a plus 5 mev and one at 
minus 5 mev for 10 mev discharge between them --- and they were incredibly 
loud!!  My grandfather actually saw them fire in 1939 --- he said they were 
monsters!!

Dr. Resonance


> 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.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>