Nikola Tesla’s wireless electrical system is more than a high voltage spectacle. Experiments with Tesla coils could help explain important questions about how lightning works. Bay Area citizen scientist Greg Leyh has built the largest Tesla coils in the world in his quest to better understand the physics of lightning.

Leyh's current project is completing a 40-foot tall coil which has been in the works for 5 years; and that's a step toward eventually building a pair of coils at 3 times that height. Invented by Nikola Tesla in the 01890’s, the Tesla coil produces high-voltage, low-current, high frequency alternating-current electricity with vivid electrical streamers that extend from the top of the coil.