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Re: [TCML] OKC Science Museum Tesla Coil

Yup, I visited that one as well, back in 2005, IIRC. It was nice and had one of the largest museum display Tesla coils that I have seen. The absolute largest museum Tesla coil that I have seen was right here in Memphis at the Pink Palace Museum, back in the late 1980's. It was one of DC Cox's Resonance Research coils (before I even knew about him) and was on the same scale as the most impressive of pole pig driven coils. ;^) - (probably 8 to 9 ft. tall and spewing 12 to 15 ft sparks)! Unfortunately, they only operated it for special occasions and as far as I know, they no longer have that coil, or if they do, it must have been "moth balled" in storage for the last three decades! I do remember the guy who was operating it saying (back in the '80's) that it cost $30K!
As far as the coil in the Hot Springs Museum, I think it was an exact half-scale replica of the famous Griffith Park Observatory Tesla coil. Of course, you could fit four or five of the Hot Springs science museums into the one in St. Louis, though. 

David
----- Original Message ----- From: "charles rakes" <crakes29@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2018 5:37 PM
Subject: Re: [TCML] OKC Science Museum Tesla Coil



Hot Springs, Arkansas has a nice Science Museum, at least I and the kids
enjoyed it many years ago.  Charles

On Sat, May 26, 2018 at 10:38 AM, David Rieben <drieben@xxxxxxx> wrote:


Steve,

Although I cannot help you in sourcing a builder for the coil that you
describe in your post, I must say that this is the first that I have even
heard of a science themed museum in the OKC area. The best science museum
that I have had the pleasure of visiting so far, by far, is the science
museum in St. Louis. Being in the Memphis area, OKC would easily be within 
a day's drive from me, just like St. Louis, though. I'll have to make a
note of that should I travel through Oklahoma in the future.

Although it has been a good number of years since I have been to the St.
Louis Science Museum (early 2000's, I believe), I do recall them having a
similar sized, SG driven Tesla coil set up in an elevated and (grounded)
caged room pretty near to the main entrance. It ran on an intermittent and low duty cycle as well and its distinctive sound would catch your attention 
as you came through the main entrance (if your entrance was timed just
right).

David

----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve White" <steve.white1@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Tesla Coil List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2018 10:57 PM
Subject: [TCML] OKC Science Museum Tesla Coil



I was visiting my mother in Oklahoma City a few weeks ago. While there, I

visited the Oklahoma City Science Museum. The museum had a medium-sized
tesla coil enclosed in a plexiglass room. It could be operated about once a minute for about 10 seconds. The secondary appeared to be about 4 feet tall and about 4 inches in diameter. It had a toroid that looked like about 4" x 12". The capacitors appeared to be a bank of doorknob capacitors. It used 
some kind of static spark gap which was not visible. It also had what
appeared to be the biggest NST that I have ever seen as the power source. 
Spark length into free air was about 2 feet.

Does anyone know who built this coil?

Steve
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