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Tesla coil, scientific experiments, now a hobby???

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Ken M.

Tue Nov 27 2007, 01:22PM

Registered Member #618 Joined: Sat Mar 31 2007, 04:15AM
Location: Us-Great Lakes
Posts: 628

As I was driving home from work this morning I thought, "How did the tesla coil go from being a scientific experiment in wireless energy transfer, to a hobby and a scientific experiment?" well that then lead to more questions like any other question. So I'm asking you guys, How, when, where, why, who, started turn this scientif experiment ino a hobby?

Capper

Tue Nov 27 2007, 02:20PM

Registered Member #914 Joined: Fri Jul 20 2007, 06:22PM
Location: South Bend, IN
Posts: 85

Science turns into a hobby when the materials and knowledge are made available to the general public. It's much harder now because of the greedy lawyers and lack of adult mentors and supervision however.

When chemistry sets showed up in stores, people started playing with chemicals. Because of stupid people and lawyers, you can't find them anymore.

When Radio Shack, heathkit, and Jameco started making electronic kits, people started making electronic gadgets.

I remember Tesla coil plans/kits from Edmund Scientific and Popular Science magazine in the early 80's.

When you can go down to the local fusion store and get a fusion kit, every kid on the block will have one under their Christmas tree. When a hundred kids kill themselves with it, then the lawyers will have them banned.

Scott

uzzors2k

Tue Nov 27 2007, 05:07PM

Registered Member #95 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:57PM
Location: Norway
Posts: 1308

I can't wait until kids get genetic engineering kits under their Christmas tree.

Really I agree with Capper though, disclaimers be enough instead of actually banning stuff. I think people should be responsible for their own safety when it comes to purchasing products, and decide for themselves whether it is safe enough for them to use. This implies that producers actually mark items with sufficient warnings. Evolution is being prevented to much by humanity as is.

CT2

Wed Nov 28 2007, 12:11AM

Registered Member #180 Joined: Thu Feb 16 2006, 02:12AM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 187

Hahaha "I can't wait until kids get genetic engineering kits under their Christmas tree." , who can't?

Tom540

Wed Nov 28 2007, 12:18AM

Banned on 3/17/2009.
Registered Member #487 Joined: Sun Jul 09 2006, 01:22AM
Location:
Posts: 617

Yeah it gets pretty lame. How do they expect kids to learn science. I loved my chemistry set when I was a kid.

Eric

Wed Nov 28 2007, 12:37AM

Registered Member #69 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 07:42AM
Location:
Posts: 116

I think the lines between hobby/experiment/research were blurred right from the beginning. I know my grandfather (born in 1906) built Tesla coils, spark gap radios, etc. when he was a kid some for utility/communication and others purely for discovery. As Feynman said "Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it."

Anyway, I agree society is all screwed up with respect to science and technology. An individual has a very hard time experimenting and exploring certain things because of the decay of society. I needed some sodium hydroxide last night and there isn't a damn place to buy it anymore because of meth labs around here. I have some old chemistry books for kids that tell 'em to go pick up the cobalt chloride or what have you at the drug store.... imagine that.

Steve Conner

Thu Nov 29 2007, 10:23AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

I guess something becomes a hobby when the technology gets outdated and isn't of any commercial use any more.

Zum Beispiel

Thu Nov 29 2007, 12:50PM

Registered Member #514 Joined: Sun Feb 11 2007, 12:27AM
Location: Somewhere in Pirkanmaa, Finland
Posts: 295

Tesla coils are fun things to play with

I think that's reason enough.

Overclocked

Sat Dec 01 2007, 01:22AM

Registered Member #1056 Joined: Thu Oct 11 2007, 11:15PM
Location: CT, USA
Posts: 27

Same Thing with Rocketry Or Pyrotechnics. People are afraid Rockets can be used as guided missiles (Oh, How Unguided those people are..!) and as possible terrorist weapons. Pyrotechnics is a bit different. The only way you can get hurt is by doing something stupid, and when that someone does that something the media (and CPSC) immediately jumps on it and trys to ban pyrotechnics..

Firnagzen

Sat Dec 01 2007, 02:30AM

Registered Member #567 Joined: Tue Mar 06 2007, 10:55AM
Location: Singapore
Posts: 147

And then as another example, how about computers? Remember what they started out as? Gigantic clunky machines used by the military, and those were state of the art...

And now?

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