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    Pikes Peak Library District republishing Tesla book

    Pikes Peak Library District republishing Tesla book

    Presented by Pikes Peak Library District at PPLD - Penrose Library

    May 17, 2010

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    Asking “What’s the buzz?” in Colorado Springs 111 years ago may not have referred to the latest gossip or the most current news. It was electric current making the buzzing noise, emanating from Knob Hill where a large wooden shack, with a tall, sphere-tipped mast, stood, lonely, east of the Deaf and Blind Institute. On May 17, 1899, Nikola Tesla arrived in Colorado Springs to conduct experiments on the wireless transmission of energy. Here he built the world’s largest Tesla Coil and made his most important scientific discoveries, including the potential to “transmit unlimited power to any terrestrial distance with scarcely any loss,” according to Colorado Springs historians Inez Hunt and Wanetta Draper. Hunt and Draper published their famous biography, Lightning in His Hand: The Life Story of Nikola Tesla, in 1964. Today, the Serbian-American scientist’s discoveries and patents impact everyone’s lives, from the alternating current that powers anything plugged into a wall outlet, to the free wireless internet available at your public library. As part of this year’s Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium, “Enterprise and Innovation in the Pikes Peak Region,” the Special Collections Department of Pikes Peak Library District is republishing the long-out-of-print Lightning in His Hand. The book, updated with many new illustrations, will be released at a special event on Monday, May 17, 2010, from 4 - 5 p.m. at Penrose Library in the 1905 Carnegie Reading Room, 20 N. Cascade Ave. The event will feature Richard Marold performing the role of Nikola Tesla on the date of his arrival in Colorado Springs, 111 years ago. Books will be available for a 15% discount at the event. No reservations are required, however seating is limited. Describing Tesla’s “most dramatic Colorado experiment,” Hunt and Draper wrote, “…then came a tremendous upsurge of sound as the power built up. There was a crescendo of vicious snaps from above. The noises became machine-gun staccato—then roared to artillery intensity. Ghostly sparks danced a macabre routine all over the laboratory. There was a smell of sulphur that might be coming from hell itself. A weird blue light spread over the room. Flames began to jump from the ball at the top of the mast—first a few feet long—then longer and brighter—thicker, bluer. More emanations until they reached rod-like proportions, thick as an arm and with a length of over a hundred and thirty feet. Tesla estimated the length by comparing the flashes with the laboratory. The heavens reverberated with a terrific thunder that could be heard fifteen miles over the ridge in Cripple Creek.”


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        PPLD - Penrose Library

        20 N. Cascade Ave.
        Colorado Springs, CO 80903

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        Tickets:

        Free

      • Dates & Times

        Dates:
        May 17, 2010

        Times:

        4 - 5 p.m.

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