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Re: July 4th and Tesla
Hello All!
Well we had our annual 4th of July combination birthday party (mine) and
fireworks
display this past weekend. Our theme was the same as all previous
parties...'MORE'.
We outdid ourselves again. a total of 5 pallets of stuff. Each made by it's
own proud
lunitic of an owner. My contribution alone was 125 mortors!! We had totaled
almost
$2500 in fireworks! We had a slight problem, though. We all get a bit ansie
(sp?)
about 2.5 hrs before dark, and usually light off a bit of stuff aside from
the main
display beforehand. By the time it got dark, and we were well into the 2nd
pallet,
complete with the long extended version of The Star Spangled Banner as played
by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock playing over my 800 watt bass cabinet, on
repeat.
... I had a visit with the law. We were informed that there was a noise
complaint
lodged by an unknown neighbor, imagine that! If Mr police officer had to
visit us
again that night, I would be arrested on various charges. I have made it a
point
on my birthday for the last 38 years to light off as many fireworks possible
and
this was a first. We decided to stop at that point in time. 50 people very
bummed!
Which leads me to... I scurried in to the garage and whipped up enough parts
to
make a working Tesla coil, not tuned at all, it was a 1' tall one that put
out 2.5' bolts
in free air, no torroid. It saved the party! Hardly anyone had ever actually
seen any of my coils.It mesmerized quite a few people It was nice and black
out then and there was all kinds of ionazation going on. I'll bet my wife
will not be so hard on my time spent working with Tesla coils now. I had
quite a few people suggest that I hold a party based around my next coil
(15KW)....The first time I talk to someone new about Tesla coils the almost
always ask 'what practical purpose does this serve?' or 'why are you wasting
all this time and money on that'....I now have another answer besides
inspiring young peoples minds!
Kevin M. Conkey
(I still have all my fingers)