In the beginning

It was a summer night in 1899 when Nikola Tesla, perhaps the greatest electrical genius of his time, emerged from his Colorado Springs laboratory to observe the first major test of what he would later call "my greatest invention." From outside the square barn-like building he could see a wooden tower eighty feet in height from which a 142-foot metal mast emerged. At the very top of the mast was a three-foot copper ball.

An earlier test, lasting only one second, had confirmed that the equipment in the building, an enormous "tesla coil" and the tower seemed to work. Now would come the full test. Neither Tesla nor his assistant was exactly sure what would happen - giant sparks? fire? explosion? - but they were ready to take the risk. Others had been warned: Outside the laboratory grounds were signs posted "KEEP OUT - GREAT DANGER" and over the door of the building was a quote from Dante's Inferno: "Abandon hope all ye who enter here."

When Tesla was ready, he shouted to his assistant, Czito, "Now! Close the switch!" Czito had been instructed to keep the machine running until Tesla told him to turn it off. Inside the building the massive switch was thrown and outside fireworks started to take place.

A heavy current raced through the primary coil of the machine and lightning bolts started to explode from the mast. Tesla watched as giant electrical sparks 135-feet long jumped from the large copper ball. They generated a thunder that could be heard 15 miles away. Tesla was so enthralled with the display that he lost all track of time.

Suddenly the lightning stopped. Teslas snapped out of his trance and raced into the building yelling, "Why did you do that? I did not tell you to open the switch. Close it again quickly!"

His assistant shook his head. He hadn't turned off the current. The power company was no longer sending it.

A quick call to the power station revealed the trouble. In the one minute it had been operating, Tesla's machine had overloaded the powerhouse generator, setting it on fire. The town of Colorado Springs was in a blackout and Tesla himself would have to take a team of trained workmen to the station to fix the dynamo. Even so, Tesla knew his new invention, his "resonate transformer," really worked.