Hi! I'm Bert Hickman. I live in Woodridge, Illinois, a far western suburb of Chicago. I built my first Tesla coil while in the 6th grade, using plate glass capacitors and a model-T spark coil. I progressed to an 811A vacuum tube system with a "candlestick" coil (from an article by Harold Strand in Popular Electronics magazine), and then to a Neon Sign Transformer (NST) powered coil in the 7th grade. I built a 2 kW vacuum tube CW coil with three paralleled 211A/VT4-C Navy  surplus triodes while in high school... and survived! Those were in the "good ole days" when you could get all manner of really nice transmitting tubes and HV equipment very cheaply via the surplus market. After graduating with a BSEE from the University of Illinois in Urbana, I abstained from high voltage and coiling for another 25 years. I suddenly got bitten by the "coiling bug" in 1995 after accessing a Bulletin Board System (BBS) that had an area dedicated to Tesla Coiling (back in pre-Internet days!). Although trained as an electrical engineer, I have been in management for over 25 years, completely obsoleting me for over 3 dog lifetimes! I am now retired, and the only "hard" engineering I do at present is for Tesla Coils, Quarter Shrinking, Lichtenberg Figures, or consulting. I'm presently a member of the Electrostatics Society of America (ESA) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). 

My last coil was a 10" diameter Tesla Coil that was housed in a screened-in, unheated patio, which made for some really chilly "coiling" in the Winter! The tank capacitor was recently converted from a pair of home-brew Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) trash can caps to better performing, and physically much smaller set of Maxwell pulse capacitors. My wife, Sandy, helped cut much of the LDPE and foil sheets originally used in the trash can caps! Powered by two 15 kV/60 mA NST's and a 0.02 uF 80 kV tank cap, the system uses AC resonant charging and a combination of static and vacuum spark gaps to generate 65" streamers. While the system was designed to generate longer sparks, the size of the room limited any further power increases. I live in a residential area, and unfortunately not all of my neighbors share my passion about loud noises and long sparks, so running the system outside was not an option. 

The Quarter Shrinker also occupies the same room, and is positioned out of reach of the streamers. I enjoy giving demonstrations to local groups, budding young scientists, and local HV enthusiasts. I'm also  doing research into high voltage, gaseous breakdown, and electromagnetic theory. My personal technical library now exceeds 7,000 volumes, most of which are out of print, and many of which are now very rare. I am very fortunate in having an extremely understanding, patient, and loving spouse, Sandy, two great kids, Lesley and David, and two beautiful grandchildren, Rowan and Ethan. Some of my other hobbies include rock, mineral and fossil collecting, and mushroom hunting (yes, to eat!).

 
Some local wild mushrooms from Fall 2001
 "Bears Head" (Hericium coralloides) and "Chicken of the Woods" (Laetiporus sulphureus)
And yes, they taste like chicken!



Yellow and black morels found locally in Spring 2003
Morels may be the best tasting mushrooms you can find. Spring came late and was cool and
wet - ideal conditions for getting large morels.

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