SBE Chapter 24 Special Event

Resonance Research CorporationOpen House

Tesla (Resonance) Generator

Above: Wheel that generates the arcs while stopped.

Above: Wheel that generates the arcs while in operation.

Above: The plasma arcs are beginning to build.

Above: The plasma arcs are more pronounced, reaching about 4 feet.

Resonance Tower/ Tesla Coil

Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla is credited with inventing the telephone repeater, the rotating magnetic field principle, the polyphase alternating-current system, the induction motor, alternating-current power transmission, the Tesla coil transformer, wireless communication, radio, and fluorescent lights. Tesla built on Thomas Edison’s discovery of Direct Current electricity to create alternating current or AC applications. Tesla was not a promoter of his discoveries, but rather he was a pure scientist. George Westinghouse joined Tesla, and together they built the first power plant. The power that we draw in our homes today resulted from Tesla’s earlier work. Invented in the 1890's, Tesla coils were originally meant for use in the wireless transmission of electricity. Tesla coils are among the most effective means of producing ultra-high voltages. Today, Tesla coils are widely used in radios and television sets. At Resonance Research, we saw a demonstration of the Tesla coil. The larger Tesla coil in the facility was capable of emitting a 25 foot shock when charged with 6 million volts of electricity. This performance is reserved for when the Tesla coil is set up in an open outdoor area. Tesla Coils are actually air-cored transformers that convert electricity into a high frequency, high voltage form, and then pump that converted energy into the air. If there is a conductive, grounded object near the Tesla coil, then the coil will discharge to the object instead of discharging into the air. If you closely at the picture, you may notice that there are many separate but similarly shaped arcs layered vertically, rather than one solid arc. This is because arcs from a Tesla Coil are not continuous. The arcs usually pulse hundreds of times each second. Each electrical pulse ionizes and heats the air that it travels through. The ionized and heated air is more conductive than the surrounding cool air. Therefore, later electrical pulses tend to travel through the same heated trail of air. Since heated air rises and the arcs are not continuous, each separate electrical pulse causes the air that it travels through to send out light from a slightly different location. Although the high frequency, high voltage energy may seem intimidating, it is considered a reasonably safe form of electricity. This energy follows the skin effect, and it has a very low current. It is reported that Nikola Tesla would do demonstrations where he would hook himself up to the Tesla coil and have sparks rushing from his hair and fingertips.

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