[TCML] [PA]Forecast good for Cal U students' StormFest

[Dave Pierson]

[of possible interest...
Edited for brevity...

best
 dwp
]
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_553992.html

Forecast good for Cal U students' StormFest
By Mike Wereschagin
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, February 24, 2008

A modest plan by college students to get middle-schoolers interested in the
 weather turned out to be lightning in a bottle -- or, at least, in a cage.

StormFest, a three-day program organized by California University of
 Pennsylvania meteorology students, is expected to draw more than
 800 pupils to the Carnegie Science Center beginning Friday. The program
 will include weather-related experiments, IMAX films and a million-volt
 lightning simulator that creates brilliant 8-foot arcs of electricity inside
 a cage.
...
The lightning will come from the science center's Tesla Coil, a
 nearly-100-year-old set of copper coils that acts like a home's transformer
 in reverse. Instead of reducing the voltage, the coils take the 220 volts
 flowing through normal electrical lines and increase it dramatically, said
 Mike Hennessy. He and science center educator Aimee Beitel Kampbell will
 operate the device for students.
...

[I wonder if its REALLY a '100 year od coil, or the concept thats 
100 years old.  And '8 foot' sparks?}