First Tesla Museum and Science Center International Conference on NIKOLA TESLA

October 6-8, 2006, Long Island, New York, United States of America

Brookhaven Town Hall, 1 Independence Hill, Farmingville. N.Y. 11738

ABSTRACT

Tesla's Tesla Coils:  Turn Of The Century Electric Oscillators

Jeff Behary
Curator of The Turn Of The Century Electrotherapy Museum

A close examination of the highly obscure Electrical Oscillators article published in Electrical Experimenter, July 1919. Contained within the article are photos and descriptions of eighteen unique Tesla Coils as used in his original lectures and patent models, in addition to three-dimensional recreations of the systems using modern CAD software and manufacturing techniques.. A selection of functioning period Tesla Coils are displayed showing examples of how these early concepts were used commercially. The modernization of Tesla Circuit-Controllers is discussed with sample prototypes. The recreation of complex coil winding techniques of the “Pancake” variety are demonstrated using modern materials, with eight of the earliest surviving Tesla Coils from 1896-1901 used for comparative results of the outputs obtained. A new form of adjustable capacitor is exhibited that helps facilitate the intricate tuning of all of the apparatus presented. In closing, original glass plate negatives of electrical discharges and hand-drawn blueprints of the original apparatus are exhibited for the first time since their discovery - having been untouched for over a century.

Latest page revision: 08/23/2006