inventor

For nearly a quarter of a century, a small group of Nikola Tesla faithful have gathered in Brockport, N.Y., just a few miles from where the Serbian electrical genius helped to engineer the world’s first hydroelectric generating plant and forever established the superiority of alternating current for electrical distribution. They meet to pay homage to the inventor. Ed Wingate’s Tesla coil laboratory. The coil itself is at the right. The exposed 1/2-inch copper tubing forming the primary winding is visible at bottom. The secondary winding consists of 200 turns of #10 TFFN and is covered with an insulating layer to prevent arcing to the primary. A large diameter copper pipe connects the secondary of the coil to the “magnifier” or secondary resonator on the left. The torodial “capacity hat” and discharge terminal is 56 inches in diameter. The occasion is a “Teslathon” sponsored in the late summer by Tesla enthusiast Ed Wingate. Admission is limited to a few dozen persons and some travel thousands of miles to pay homage to Tesla and witness the unleashing of manmade thunderbolts in Wingate’s lab.TESLA AND RADIO While Tesla’s name is associated with generating extremely electricity of extremely high voltage, some argue that he should be called ...