RE: Transtrom's Book

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "David Thomson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dave-at-volantis-dot-org>

> I have a reprinted book "Electricity at High Pressures and Frequencies" by
Henry L. Transtrom, originally printed in 1921.  Among other things, there
are a number of stage presentation type photos of him doing really dangerous
things such as lighting an 80 watt bulb between a tesla coil secondary and a
metal electrode held in his mouth, and other scary demonstrations of passing
RF through his body.
>Question - is he one of the few who was electrocuted by a Tesla Coil?

Tesla, himself, melted wires between his fingers and stuck his head between
electrodes that would otherwise melt metal in a similar manner.  Tesla
admitted later in life that such a feat was reckless, but he lived to be 86
years old because he knew enough about the nature of the medium he was
working with.

Henry Transtrom died while giving a Tesla coil demonstration, but it was not
the demonstration that killed him.  It was carelessness in standing too
close to an unplanned ground connection that did him in.

As in any situation in life, it is not what we truly know that will kill us.
It's what we think we know.

Watch out for:

a sense of expertise
a lack of humility
the fear of failure
the fear of success

If a coiler doesn't know what a coulomb is and how to use it to visualize
voltage and current at high and low frequencies, then he or she is not
qualified to even attempt a human-contact Tesla coil experiment.

A senior student of the art, with the right attitude and training, can
become a master of electricity and make it do wonderful and useful things
with no harm to the practitioner or the audience.

In case you're wondering, I'm still a beginning student and would not
consider lighting bulbs through electrodes in my mouth.

Dave