Buffalonians have been learning a lot about the accomplishments of Nikola Tesla, thanks to a powerful film and an impressive statue that act as timely dedications to a man that electrified the world.
While many of us know his name, and his face, thanks to these newfound tributes, we are most likely less familiar with the contraptions created by Tesla, particularly the Tesla Coil (originally called Tesla Oscillator) – a high frequency oscillator that enabled the inventor to conduct a series of revolutionary experiments including wireless phosphorescence, wireless lighting, X-radiation, high frequency AC phenomena, and the wireless transmission of electrical energy.
The Tesla Coil also served as trailblazing technology that helped in the inventions of early radio and television receivers, which is how Tesla himself earned the moniker “Father of Radio.” In fact, Tesla beat inventor Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi to the punch with his invention – “a component of the first generation of transmitters to carry wireless technology.” He patented the technology in 1891. It turns out that the 1909 Nobel Prize Committee awarded Marconi for his wireless work – a designation that was eventually contradicted and posthumously acknowledged Tesla as the “Father of Radio.”
That is why this Tesla Coil is such an important technological artifact, and should be honored alongside the inventor.
The Tesla Coil was a high frequency alternating current transformer capable of creating high voltage at low current.
Now, in addition to the first and only park (in Downtown Buffalo) named in honor of Nikola Tesla in the entire United States, Buffalo Niagara Nikola Tesla Council (BNNTC) has proposed to build and erect a giant Tesla Coil at Gratwick-Riverside Park in North Tonawanda.
This newest dedication would be another signature component that will not only complement the Tesla statue, it will also help to tell the story of the inventor and his works.
Not only will this significant statue resemble a Tesla Coil, it will second as a bench, as the central column and the “torus” or “toroid” as the top dome will help to protect people from the rain.
To Gratwick-Riverside Park in North Tonawanda was chosen due to its close proximity to Tesla’s Terminal A Building and The Tesla Legacy Corridor (NTLC).
“Locating the Tesla Coil monument in NT enhances the NTLC by giving the approximate middle a marker – not just two end points (Niagara Falls and Buffalo), with nothing in-between. The serendipity of the new location for the Tesla Coil proposal is remarkable,” said Tesla enthusiast, Marty McGee, who was integral in the creation of Buffalo’s Nikola Tesla park.