Welcome to Electron Lab!

 

This site is a collection point for my ramblings about electricity, technology, education, and a few tidbits about some of the great people that have made an electrified world possible. It also serves as a resource for my electrical apprenticeship classes. I intend to keep the site as free and open as I can, but I may restrict certain class resources from time to time.

At the moment, information is pretty thin, but as time permits I will begin to flesh out the site with additional articles and perhaps some links to other sites that I have found useful or interesting.

The photo on this page is one of the best Tesla Coil photos I have seen. Nicola Tesla was, of course, an important figure in the electrical industry. Edison was certainly important, both from the standpoint of his inventions and his ability to open markets for those inventions, but Tesla’s technical contributions to electrical generation, transmission and utilization easily outstrip Edison’s.  Indeed, prior to their falling out, Tesla worked for Edison and afterward, eventually found employment with George Westinghouse where his inventions were marketed in direct competition to Edison. Though Tesla was brilliant and visionary, he was often impractical. As a result, Tesla died penniless even though some of his inventions generated millions in revenue and helped usher in the electrical age. The Tesla Coil is a fitting monument; both the man and the invention being brilliant and enigmatic.