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Re: Boston Museum of Science Tesla Coils
From: Geoff Schecht[SMTP:geoffs-at-onr-dot-com]
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 1997 8:19 PM
To: Tesla List
Subject: Re: Boston Museum of Science Tesla Coils
>Subject: Boston Museum of Science Tesla Coils
>
>
>I was at the Boston Museum of Science today, applying for a job to teach
>there, and I checked out their Tesla Coils. They're huge (approx 20"
>dia, 8ft. tall), but they did not perform quite up to what I was
>expecting. Anybody know who made these, or where they may have come
>from? I was suprised to see that even the museum's coils had aluminum
>duct + aluminum tape toroids (undersized ones, too). Today was the first
>time I have been to the museum this decade, and I don't recall if they
>were there back in the 80's. The museum also has two identical vacuum
>tube (833) units, which I do know have been there as long as the museum.
>
>-Adam
>
>
The Van de Graf was built by, well, Van de Graf in the 1930's to power the
early accelerators that the physicists (MIT?) were playing with in Boston at
the time, according to what I was told. The TC's are of uncertain parentage;
they looked kind of old and their sparks were rather unimpressive in
comparison to the BANG! that the Van de Graf produced under a full head of
steam. I was expecting some fat sparks from them and the day I was there
(mid-June '96), they only produced some fairly anaemic streamers. They
probably needed some tweaking; list members in the Boston area take notice!
The whole show impressed my kids and scared my wife to death so it was a
worthwhile thing to do. I do wish that I could set up a Faraday cage like
the one that was there.
Geoff