[TCML] Tesla coil history - which came first?

[Gary Lau <glau1024@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've been asked to give a brief talk about Tesla coils.  Of course no
discussion of the topic is complete without credit to its inventor, Nikola
Tesla.  It dawned on me that I don't really understand how Tesla came upon
that device.  We all know he developed the TC to enable wireless
transmission of power, but it's not obvious that he started out with that
goal and then built a TC, or, more likely IMO, he somehow for some reason,
cobbled together an early prototype TC, saw that power was transmitted, only
then realizing what it could do, and endeavored to refine it for that
purpose.  Is there any known account of what inspired Tesla to first build a
resonant transformer?  Which came first - a high frequency resonant
transformer, or the vision of wireless power transmission?  Or is it all
just speculation at this point?

Thanks, Gary Lau
MA, USA
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