Re: 165 foot sparks

To: tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: 165 foot sparks
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 09:01:10 -0600
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net
Subject: 
        Re: 165 foot sparks
  Date: 
        Mon, 10 Mar 1997 07:53:43 -0500 (EST)
  From: 
        richard hull <rhull-at-richmond.infi-dot-net>
    To: 
        Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>

>Subject: 165 foot sparks

>Sence we are all interested in makeing sparks and seeing sparks I thought I 
>would mention this.  Although this is not Tesla I think many may be 
>interested.
>
>Oak Ridge in Knoxville TN. has a free museum.  They demonstrate a small Van 
>DeGraff several times a day at the museum.  About 10 miles from the museum is 
>a 16 story building housing the worlds largest Van DeGraff generator.  I was 
>told at the museum that visitors can enter the building and look at the Van 
>DeGraff threw the glass windows.  This Van GeGraff produces 165 foot long 
>sparks.  No one is allowed inside the generator room while it is running but 
>you can look threw the glass.
>
>I have seen the building from a distance but not been inside yet.  I arrived 
>late and stayed at the museum until it closed and didn't have time to visit 
>the Van DeGraff. I stopped at the museum last summer on a return trip from 
>Washington D.C. where I visited the Smithsonian for a week.  The Smithsonian 
>is free also, your tax money pays for it.  The Smithsonian is the only place 
>in the United States that I know of where you can spend your 2 week vacation 
>and its all FREE.  Your tax money paid for it so you should see it.  Vacation 
>season is on it way so check these things out.
>
>I have seen lots of pictures of Tesla's Tower and Coils.  Does any of this 
>stuff still exist somewhere in a museum?  If so where is it?
>
>Gary Weaver
>
>Gary,

I'd have to see the 165 foot E.S. arcs to believe them.  Next time I'm
in
Tenn. I'll have to check this out.  I would imagine that standard air
would
not support such a build up of electrostatic potential. (short of mother
nature's 300 square mile thunder storms).  If in a vacuum chamber, (the
way
most accelerator Van de Graffs are housed) such potentials might be
possible, but the arc potential is never brought out to air.  Again, Ill
have to check this out.

Regarding Tesla's stuff.  It is all gone and demolished long ago and
long
before his death even.  A few of his personal effects still exist and
are in
the Tesla museum in Belgarde Yugoslavia.  Beyond a few letters, etc.
nothing
much of Tesla's actual personal materials exist in the U.S.

Richard Hull, TCBOR