Electrum
The world's largest Tesla coil
Category Instruments of Science, Electrical Oddities
Tesla coils have always held a special place in denoting the "mad" scientist. Created by that great icon of mad science Nikola Tesla, the coils have long been beloved by high-voltage hobbyists. However the world's largest existing Tesla coil was commissioned not as a work of science, nor as a movie prop, but as a work of art.
Known as Electrum, the four-story (38-ft) Tesla coil was commissioned by a prominent New Zealand art patron Alan Gibbs, and set up on on his farm outside of Auckland, New Zealand in April 1998. Built by the late artist Eric Orr and high voltage engineer Greg Leyh, the enormous coil puts out over 3 million volts, enough to rip electrons out of the air molecules around it.
A particular delight of the Electrum Coil is the hollow spherical cage on top, where Greg Leyh often sits during discharge shows. Though the arcs from the coil would instantly kill anyone they struck, Leyh is safe within the Faraday cage created by the sphere. Of course, if he were to put his hand through the cage, he would be instantly electrocuted.
Though the Electrum is the largest coil currently in existence, it is not the biggest ever created. That title belongs to an 18-story-tall coil built in 1903 by Nikola Tesla himself at Wardenclyffe, Long Island. Unfortunately it was torn down due to lack of funding before it was ever fully operational. However Leyh, the co-creator of the Electrum, has plans to resurrect Tesla's dream of a giant coil--times two.
Under the project name Lighting on Demand, or LOD, Leyh has purchased 81 acres in the Nevada desert where he plans to build twin 118-foot-tall Tesla coils, which would be big enough to generate 10 million volt lightning arcs that would stretch across an area the size of a football field. Having built a pair of 1:12 scale (still almost 10 feet tall) coils as a proof of concept, Leyh is waiting for funding to help bring alive his electrical dream.
Other large Tesla coils currently in action include those at the Boston Science Museum, the "BIGGG" Tesla coil in Oklahoma, Big Bruiser in Wisconsin, and a pair of coils known as CAUAC that make an appearance at the annual Coachella music festival. A number of large coil can also been seen at the yearly Teslathon gatherings.
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- Website Leyh
- Address Kaipara Harbour, Kaukapakapa, Auckland, New Zealand
Comments
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March 16, 2010
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That's actually a *really* wimpy Tesla coil, in terms of volts per linear foot. Can definitely say that Electrum is in no way wimpy. The noise it makes fills the entire bay with a high pitched buzz sawing drone each time it fires and the safe distance is around fifty foot from the base. It is an impressive and scary sight, especially manoeuvring in close for some detail shots through a long lens. <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Acai-Berry---How-I-Lost-20-Pounds-in-2-Weeks-Easily!&id=2704188">The Acai Berry</a><br>
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Anonymous
August 21, 2009
Tesla's AC beat Edison's DC when it came to power distribution. That makes him considerably more than a mad scientist. In fact, most of his work is still being assessed, and I suspect our descendants will find precious little "mad" about him in a couple of hundred years time.
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