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Update #5: Project Wrap-up
For backers only,
Posted on December 8
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Update #4: Progress so far
As of today, about 24,300 people have visited the kickstarter page, where about 0.9% of them have left a donation. Not too bad, considering the hit rate for a full-page magazine advert is about 0.1-0.25%. At this hit rate, a mere 326k visitors would fund the project.
Recent coverage:
Techzwn: http://bit.ly/udb0L3
The Bay Citizen: http://bit.ly/snJEEl
O'Reilly Media Kickstarter page: http://kck.st/p45WYr
and a *second* Slashdot hit: http://bit.ly/uCw7bk
Meanwhile I am busy scouring the surplus markets for deals. One challenge in building a large project from 'obtainium' is that finding a major bargain can result in substantial design revisions.
Thank you all for being the steadfast minority that appreciates the scientific potential in this project. -Greg
Update #3: New Scientist Article
... hit the streets this morning: http://bit.ly/vdAPcU
An interview by Wired is due out later this week, and hopefully a boost from a major figure in the 'Twitter-sphere' as well. Stay tuned, and thanks for supporting obscure science!
Update #2: Media Response
Hi All,
Looks like several groups have picked up the story now, including
Make: http://bit.ly/rARYo2
Slashdot: http://bit.ly/vu6hqu
Boing Boing: http://bit.ly/tbrsBQ
and Gizmodo: http://gizmo.do/ugHBGa
But perhaps my favorite one so far is: http://bit.ly/rvk8pc
"If the government is not willing to fund the building of two 10-story tall Tesla Coils, then why the hell do I even pay taxes?"
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Joseph Decker on November 18, 2011
Congrats on the coverage, I'm glad someone got a /. story in past the Firehose!
-
Update #1: Inspired!
Hello All,
Thanks for the amazing support, and outpouring of referrals! For a non-internet savvy person like myself, getting the word out has been a daunting task... even more than designing the 40,000 volt, 50,000 amp primary drive circuitry. Here's how the 'Kickstarter dashboard' is looking so far:
It's just starting to bend in the right direction, but there's clearly a long way to go. Any help at this early stage that you can provide towards spreading the word, 'likes, RT's, etc.' will make a big difference.
Perhaps the most exciting part for me so far is the emails and comments on the scientific potential of the machine... It's incredibly encouraging to see how many people out there appreciate the scientific aspect, and who have made some great suggestions for additional experiments. I'm already working on design changes to 'stretch' the machine's capabilities, to explore some of these ideas.
Thanks everyone!
Greg
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Funding Unsuccessful
This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on December 10.
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The ‘Experimenter Pack.’ Everything included in the Enthusiast Pack, plus three exclusive offerings: *****A) A lifetime ‘Principal Lightning Foundry Backer’ membership, providing free admission(+1) to all Lightning Foundry public performances, access to the strike zone after performances, plus invites to special testing events. Please read the 'Important Notes on Rewards' for shipping details. *****B) A ‘Million Volt Ride’ on our large experimental coil in San Francisco CA. Personally throw 25ft electric arcs at any item you wish to bring along, and live to tell about it. Jamie Hyneman climbed this coil with his custom salt-water cannon and fired a plasma discharge at the 'bad guy' in the water-jet stun-gun episode of Mythbusters. *****C) An invitation to place an item of your choice inside the strike zone of the completed, full-scale Lightning Foundry. This could be either a machine that intentionally uses the ambient fields for power [you’ll receive a special award if you can outrun our ‘Tesla Roadster’, pictured at left] or it could be an item that receives the electrical energy in an uncontrolled fashion, and is inevitably consumed.
Project By
Connected as Lightning On Demand (36 friends)
I'm an electrical engineer and enthusiast. I've worked around particle accelerators and high-voltage machines for most of my life.
I founded LOD in the early 1990's to explore uses for high-energy and pulsed-power devices outside of the traditional national laboratory scenario.
