40-foot Tesla Coil demonstration planned for Tesla Birthday Expo Saturday
As part of this year’s annual celebration of famed inventor Nikola Tesla’s birthday, a demonstration of a 40-foot Tesla coil will be the centerpiece of Saturday’s event presented by The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe.
The Tesla Birthday Expo Saturday afternoon will feature the giant four-story coil presented by its designer, Greg Leyh, an electrical engineer who has built some of the world’s largest natural lightning devices.
The coil “will blaze to life on Tesla’s historic tower base, producing incredible arcs of lighting and otherwordly sound on a huge scale,” a press release for the event said.
The event celebrates the life of Mr. Tesla, at his historic Wardenclyffe laboratory in Shoreham, where his famous 187-foot transmission tower once stood. This year’s expo commemorates both Tesla’s 163rd birthday as well as the centennial of his 1919 autobiography, “My Inventions.”
In addition to the Tesla coil demos, the 2019 Birthday expo will have a number of exhibits, including robotics, amateur radio, Tesla coils, Tesla vehicles, cymatics and more. Hands-on science and tech stations will also be available for kids and adults. Tesla-inspired entertainment and music, local food artisans and vendors, and local businesses focused on science and tech will be featured, as well as a new presentation on the history of Wardenclyffe from Joe Sikorski, director of the award-winning documentary “Tower to the People.”
The 2019 Tesla Birthday Expo will be held from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets are available online at https://teslasciencecenter.org and at the door.
Photo caption: A 40-foot Tesla coil will be on display Saturday. (Courtesy photo)
