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Re: Tesla history project

Original poster: <dgoodfellow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

The Tesla coil at Tampa's Museum of Science ( a TTR Model 9) is also out of commission at present. A staff member stated that a new portion of the Museum will house the "New and improved" Tesla coil, but what he meant by that, I don't know. For anyone that hasn't been there, the Model 9 was hung inverted inside a Gazebo with glass windows. The glass was the type that has the thin metal wires running through it. I saw the coil, after being re wound with thhn instead of magnet wire, was set unfortunately to run only to produce 3 to 4 foot sparks due to the limitation of the Gazebo. One staff member told me that it had been run at higher power levels, but it was putting chips in the glass. Hopefully, the Museum will find a way to display the coil in a way that will allow the full dose of power that it was designed for and then we will see those 12 foot sparks the Model 9 is capable of.

Dave Goodfellow


----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 8:51 PM
Subject: RE: Tesla history project


Original poster: "Dave Halliday" <dh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Just as a quick heads up, the Buhl (pronounced Byule (silent "h" -
almost like 'Beau'tiful)) Planetarium has been shut down and reopened as
part of the Carnegie Science Center.

http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/exhibits/planet.asp

The Tesla Coil has been moved to the new building, so has the Foucault
Pendulum but the original Zeiss Mk-II Planetarium Projector still sits
unused in the old building (which is being used for storage) as well as
the big telescope.  There is quite the movement to save the projector as
it represents one of the last "classical" planetarium projectors -
indeed the last one to come out of Germany in 1925.

Here is a photo of the coil in the old Buhl
http://buhlplanetarium3.tripod.com/BuhlTeslaCoil.JPG

Unfortunatly, a lot of irreplaceable stuff was tossed in the dumpster
when the old building was shut down:
http://www.savethebuhl.org/lobby.html

   "No attempt was made to catalog or preserve the historical contents
of the building after its closing. Artifacts discarded and discovered in
the dumpster include scientific equipment, scrapbooks, and the original
architect's model of the building. The final resting-place of many of
the other artifacts and the first edition books authored by renowned
scientists and lecturers housed in Buhl's Library is, at this time
unknown."




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 4:14 PM
> To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Tesla history project
>
>
> Original poster: "Dr. Resonance" <resonance@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
> The first large coil in the USA was built by George Kauffman
> in 1903 for the
> Carnigie Institute (college).  It ran at 10 kVA with rotary
> spark gap and
> plate glass capacitors.  It is still at the Buhl Museum/Planetarium in
> Pittsburg, PA.  Kauffman's father worked in New York digging
> ditches with N.
> Tesla when Tesla was going through some hard times.
>
> In 1930 a coil was erected at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
>
> In the mid-1940's a German group was one of the first (after
> Tesla) to use a
> large toroid atop the secondary coil for electrostatic field
> control.  This
> also forces the coil to run efficiently at a single sec freq
> and not develop
> standing wave interference from multiple frequencies.
>
> Dr. Resonance
>
>
>  >
>  > I am doing a project in history on the history of Tesla
> coiling. I would
> be
>  > gratefull to anyone who sends me, personally, information
> on the history
> if
>  > Tesla coils since 1900 to the present.
>  > Thanks.
>  >
>  Steven Steele
>  >
>  >
>  >
>
>
>
>