Anyone ever seen one of them, especially in person? I think they're amazing. My uncle built one and recently finished it. He brought it over my house and gave us a show. The arcs were about 4 feet long.

I've been dying to build a tesla coil for years!

It was definitely quite a show, even though he's still testing and tuning it for maximum efficiency. It kept sputtering as opposed to a steady stream of sparks. He thinks it's because the spark gap isn't good enough.

Oh I love them too! In Minneapolis,MN there is the Bakken Museum which is devoted to electricity! It is wonderful and has a great Tesla coil that one can play with! It's really a small museum and not well known but I like to go there sometimes when I'm in the city. It also sponsors grade school science fairs, and has days where the kids can setup their experiments and displays for different schools. That's fun to go to!