What has become a favorite feature of the annual Engineering Open House is the Tesla Coil Concert, hosted this year on the Bardeen Engineering Quad. Shown is Terry Blake, a UIC alumnus, during the concert on March 11. The giant instrument consists of two 7-foot coils that generate bolts of electricity with recognizable pitch that can be changed to re-create well-known musical tunes as it lights up the sky. Blake has been involved with the concerts since the first show in 2008. In the photo, he is demonstrating how the coils can ignite a piece of wood. “Each Tesla coil can draw up to 12,000 watts and most of that power goes into the white-hot plasma,” Blake said by email. “While it is a high voltage, there is still plenty of current and total power to set a piece of wood on fire. The chain mail gloves do protect me from the heat, for a while, as they gradually get warm.”
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