Shocking Interview! Learn about the Spark Museum of Electrical Invention in Bellingham

This episode is a conversation with Tana Granack the Operations Director for The Spark Museum of Electrical Invention in Bellingham, Washington.

You will hear about Tesla Coils, Theremins, priceless light bulbs and much more during our chat about the museum.

The Spark Museum focusing on bringing electricity to life and makes learning fun for everyone who visits the museum. We chat about some of the exhibits and how visitors can interact with the exhibits.

You will learn about the Mega Zapper and hear about the 9ft Tesla Coil that sends bolts of electricity shooting at the cage while you stand inside. Are you brave enough? I don’t think I am….

Make sure you check out the Spark Museum of Electrical Invention here.

Spark has a Facebook Page that you can follow.

Check them out on YouTube.

Tana Granack Spark Museum in Bellingham Episode Transcript

Welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. Here’s your host, Scott Cowan.

Scott Cowan [00:00:23]:
Hi, everybody. This is Scott with the Exploring Washington State podcast. And today, my guest is Tana Granack. He is the operations director for the Spark Museum of Electrical Invention in Bellingham. Welcome, Tanner.

Tana Granack [00:00:36]:
Hi. Nice to be here. Thanks for having me, Scott.

Scott Cowan [00:00:40]:
Yeah. Thanks for thanks for being on, and, I I’m looking forward to finding out more about the museum. Why don’t you why don’t we get started with a little bit of tell us the backstory. What’s the history there?

Tana Granack [00:00:51]:
About twenty years ago, two lifelong collectors from Bellingham, of all places, married their collections together. One’s a radio collector who had one of the finest radio collections in the world, thousands of radios, particularly from the golden age of radio. The other was interested in early electrical scientific equipment. I mean, dawning electrical age stuff, Ben Franklin and before, Isaac Newton, Gilbert, telephone, telegraph, and all the scholarship that goes with it. So they married the two together in a large building in downtown Bellingham, and, and they wanted to tell the entire story of electrical invention. And so they they got this 25,000 foot facility and they filled it with, this collection of original artifacts. And, we’ve been busy ever since.

Scott Cowan [00:01:46]:
That’s fascinating. And and that they were both in Bellingham and and have these these large collections. So you said golden age of radio. When was the golden age of radio?

Tana Granack [00:01:58]:
Oh, you know, people think of the thirties and forties, you know, the Jack Benny, the big bands, the music. I mean, radio was such a huge it was just a brand new phenomena, you know, that, just just imagine how how empty your room would be without any there’s certainly no TV.

There’s no but they actually have a a box that has some sound that comes out from somewhere else. It was profoundly, communal and liberating, and people just and so radio just flourished. It started in the twenties, the first radio station. We have the first radio, actually, the first radio that took the broadcast from the first radio station in 1921. And then within ten or fifteen years, again, you’ve got you’ve got Burns and Allen and and and, Hope and Crosby and Frank Sinatra and the music industry. And the whole music industry, can you imagine, didn’t even exist, You know? So, so that’s the golden age of radio, and John Winter is a has the one of the finest collections in in the world.

Tana Granack [00:03:04]:
And our biggest problem is we have we have a great deal on display, but also floors and actually outside buildings full of extra equipment that we still have to negotiate and go through. So, it’s a spectacular collection.

Scott Cowan [00:03:18]:
Okay. Yeah. One of the things I think of when I think of radio is, you know, the war it was the War of the Worlds at the the radio show that kind of before my time, but threw everybody into a big panic because they kind of thought it was real.

Tana Granack [00:03:33]:
And Yeah. The the whole 1938, you know, the Europe, the Halloween, the whole bit. Yeah. It’s it was but, again, radio is so new. And, if you’re if you’re going through the dial, it’s all of a sudden here’s someone and they they did frame it much like a regular radio broadcast. That was the drama of it. And so, that what what a phenomena. But and and to be able to reach, you know, millions and millions of households instantaneously, it was a it was a a a big lesson in the power of this, both good and bad, in this mass communication.

Scott Cowan [00:04:08]:
So not not that you know the answer to this, but I’ll ask the question. When when did Bellingham get radio?

Tana Granack [00:04:15]:
Well, I would imagine well, no. There’s some actually some local historians that do a lot of the work with the with the radio in the early. But I would say it would be in the in the late mid to late

Scott Cowan [00:04:26]:
twenties,

Tana Granack [00:04:26]:
’20 ‘6, ’20 ‘7.

Scott Cowan [00:04:28]:
So within the first decade, it was really probably reaching the smaller the smaller communities, if you will, of of of America Because Bellingham wasn’t that large of a place back back then.

Tana Granack [00:04:39]:
No. No. But I can tell you radio, just like electricity, I’m not sure, you know, what the what the whole evolution of how that got out there, but but you can imagine how how important it was to rural areas, to be able to get any kind of communication via remote dial in. So, so radio stations went up everywhere, I think, pretty quick. But I yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:05:04]:
Well, it’s it’s interesting. You you bring up the point that I did I haven’t thought about before is, you know, pre radio. How did, you know, how did a rural person know what was going on, you know, in New York or Chicago or Seattle or something. I mean, I guess the newspaper

Tana Granack [00:05:24]:
That’s right. And then because the newspaper is connected to the Telegraph. Right?

Scott Cowan [00:05:30]:
Right.

Tana Granack [00:05:30]:
And send a story, but I mean, it’s you know, so so yeah. No. It’s it and by the way, it just real you know, that’s kind of the fun of that’s the fun of being here at this museum because, you know, we start with, you know, the early stuff. And my job or our job is to take you back in a time when nobody even knew what to call this this energy, let alone what to do with it. And it’s just been a little while. And to watch how things change as people slowly get connected, you know, and and, you know, the Internet was huge. TV and radio was huge, but nothing beats the telegraph. Nothing sewed the country and the planet together better than the telegraph.

Tana Granack [00:06:11]:
To be able to get a message, you know, thousands of miles away in in a in a matter of seconds.

Scott Cowan [00:06:19]:
That’s true.

Tana Granack [00:06:19]:
It was just a whole you know, in the old days, if you’re the general and you send off the army and you send them off and you wave, and then you wait two years to find out who won. Yeah. Well, I you know, good luck. And then maybe somebody will get a message back, but what? You know, you go to go to England and get a message to the queen, and she says, well, tell them maybe. You gotta get back on a boat for six weeks. And, you know, you just see it’s just so communication to be and, you know, the other thing that’s really interesting is because the military used this in such a big way early on, obviously, before Galileo turned the telescope up to see the you know, to really start figuring things out. It was it was a military weapon. But to be able to see your enemy or know your enemy before your enemy can see or know you, the advantage is obvious and profound.

Tana Granack [00:07:03]:
So, communication, good and bad, is, you know, for good or bad means, you know, communication instant communication is changes everything. So

Scott Cowan [00:07:14]:
Yes. Very true. Very true. So looking back on the museum’s evolution, you’re at where you’re at today, what do you think the museum’s gonna look like, say, in five years?

Tana Granack [00:07:29]:
You know, it’s such a big question, but the the museum is a science and history museum that has demonstrations and exhibits that are accessible to everybody on every level. And if I was gonna show anybody if I had anybody, I said I got one hour of science to show you in the world, This would be the vehicle and this would be the way I do it. You don’t have to know anything about it. It’s accessible. It’s immediate. Everybody gets it. It’s not controversial. I’m not the Darwin Museum.

Tana Granack [00:08:03]:
I’m electricity and you know, magnetism museum. So it’s like it’s it’s it’s stuff that we all work with. And so I just see us being a bigger and bigger hub for science education.

Scott Cowan [00:08:14]:
Okay. That’s that’s that sounds awesome. That sounds exciting.

Tana Granack [00:08:17]:
Yeah. It is it is exciting, you know. And so and that’s where we’ve gone and that’s, you know, we’re on the way. We we did almost 20,000 visitors before we, you know, we were we had this unfortunate, pandemic that’s affected everybody. And my our hearts go out to everybody, but, and there are a lot of businesses that are in jeopardy, and we certainly, you know, are not happy about not being able to serve the public. But if kids and people needs need science education more than ever, we’re the we’re the platform for it. So, we’re just the teachers and community are just chomping the bit to for us to come back and then the only complaint we get is there’s not more of us.

Scott Cowan [00:08:57]:
Okay.

Tana Granack [00:08:58]:
You know, and and then there’s not more programs and more. And so, we feel like we’re on the right track. We feel like we’re on the right track and, we respond to the community. That’s another thing is is being the starting out just loving the museum and the collection and then, you know, starting to teach classes and working with kids and and lots of people to everybody. Your grandma, your kids, your your aunt from France who doesn’t speak English, you know. They’ll all have a great time and it’s such a meaningful time that it just made a great impact on the staff, you know, doing these demonstrations and stuff. Like, you know, we really have an effect on people. We have to really be serious about this.

Tana Granack [00:09:38]:
And and and this is fun and exciting, but, you know, it’s a great platform. And and, and so we yeah. We just take it all pretty seriously with what we do here.

Scott Cowan [00:09:49]:
Do you ever, you mentioned kids. Do you ever take parts of the collection to the schools and bring it directly to the kids?

Tana Granack [00:09:58]:
You know, it’s funny. We we we do demonstrations. It’s at the school sometimes, you know, but but it’s hard to take that’s one thing we learned early on is that this the space has become so spectacular, you know, because, you know, I I was just writing something up about the galleries. We give demonstrations. Dozens give demonstrations in all the galleries. So here you are surrounded. Let’s say you’re in the static electricity exhibit. Well, you’re surrounded with the first devices ever used to make, measure, and store electricity, not copies, like pieces from 1650, ’17 hundred.

Tana Granack [00:10:31]:
And then in in the midst of that, some guy is there with a replica, and the kids are all around, and then we can demonstrate that for you. So so, there there’s no better place to experience these demonstrations than here. And the other thing is, there’s a lot of the bigger equipment just can’t be moved, like the mega zapper, that four and a half million volts of loose electricity. I just can’t put that in a truck and wheel it somewhere. And, so what I’m saying is is is there a lot of the experience is built into the into the into the museum itself so that if you wanna enjoy it as a museum and, gosh, you have these wonderful priceless artifacts to admire, then there’s the interactives, and then there’s, of course, all that we can demonstrate for you. And that’s that’s why with this pandemic, you know, we’re getting ready to to reopen. And when we reopen, it’s like, well, our biggest brag is look at all these cool interactives because that’s what people want. Yeah.

Tana Granack [00:11:27]:
It’s great to see a priceless light bulb, but what does it do? Right? So can I interact with some newer things? We have these interactives that that bring it all home. And to have telephones, you can dial on and telegraph keys, you can tap on.

Scott Cowan [00:11:40]:
Oh, very cool.

Tana Granack [00:11:41]:
And, and theremins to play, you know, and static labs to make your hair stand up and all those things that you expect when you come to this museum, including seeing indoor lightning. And so that’s what we’re doing with the docents. It’s like, guys, if people aren’t able to interact with things as much as they used to because people are not into touching like they used to, right, nobody wants to put a puzzle together. Got it? So but that means our job is to give more demonstrations. In other words, we have to be more present with the with people in the galleries so so that we are demonstrating things for them and giving them a good time and leading them through. So so we’ve got that in spades. We’ve got, we we give great dynamic that’s part of our our program is giving dynamic demonstrations in all of the galleries. And plus, we’ve got the powerhouse where we’ve got all the big equipment.

Tana Granack [00:12:33]:
So, we’re gonna, you know, we’re just try it’ll just be a more of an orchestrated show, for the time being. Yeah. But,

Scott Cowan [00:12:41]:
So you mentioned a theremin.

Tana Granack [00:12:44]:
Of course. Okay. Oh, the world’s first electronic musical instrument, the only instrument you play without touching it, the instrument we all know, we’ve heard many times, we just don’t always know it.

Scott Cowan [00:12:56]:
So when when was the first one? When did those come out?

Tana Granack [00:13:02]:
The patent was from 1919, but the the first one, the RCA theremin, which we have in the galleries, the original, like they they made 500. I think just 500 of the of of the original RCA theorem in 1929. That was it. We have one on the play. But we also have a couple of newer models for you to play along with. See, that’s the deal. There’s the scholarship, and then there’s this, you know, there’s the interactive. So it became known not as a a musical instrument, but as a as a classic sound effect device.

Tana Granack [00:13:37]:
So So

Scott Cowan [00:13:37]:
I was watching a video, and I think you were playing one. Yeah. But it was a Moog?

Tana Granack [00:13:43]:
Well, Bob Moog of Moog Synthesizers, you know, so theremin is considered really the first electronic musical instrument manufactured. It’s very simple. It’s very primitive. I call it kind of the pong, the pong you know, I mean, there’s, like, you know, back where it’s very primitive, like, volume pitch. Really, that’s about it. Just all you could do is get it to make rude noises. A lot of it’s it’s very difficult to play. Well, now, you know, they’ve got the Moog synthesizers where sound has been synthesized and blended and so so beautifully.

Tana Granack [00:14:13]:
And so the Moog sent this so as a tribute to theremin, the Moog company produce makes theremins today, and they make a souped up, theremin called a TheraMini. And so if they would be able to incorporate some of the classic Moog synthesizer sounds, the drone and some of those just very they’re very familiar into so you can play a a Moog synthesizer without touching it the way you play the theremin. It’s brilliant.

Scott Cowan [00:14:43]:
Okay. Yeah. No. You were what got me as I was watching this video, and and the theremin is just you’re right. I I associate with, like, old science fiction muse movies and and and then also Big Bang Theory when when Sheldon played it. So that’s kind of my but then I saw this Moog, and I was like, well, that’s kind of that was cool looking. I mean, that was a when did that so it was a, you know, a white plastic looking Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:15:10]:
It’s called sci fi looking thing. It was cool, though.

Tana Granack [00:15:13]:
It’s called Theremini. So Theremin with an I on the end. And, yeah, they just, they came out about we’ve got a couple of them. I I have one personally, because, again, it’s it’s it it’s very versatile. And so it it’ll play the original theremin sound and and you know? But then it’s got ways to to adjust the sound. It’s got 32, I think, preset classic Moog sounds that you can play. And you could play around with the with the pitch, and you can play around with the with the key, and it it’s got a little screen. So it’s it’s just the best.

Tana Granack [00:15:44]:
And you’re right. It’s got that sci fi look. Very well, when Bob Moog was talked about a collector’s item that we wish we had, when Bob Moog, the, you know, the founder of Moog synthesizers, who we think was just brilliant, we have several of his of his sixties and seventies synthesizers. When he was a little boy, he used to make theremins in his garage when he was 14 and 15 and sell them off like in in, you know, Popular Mechanics kind of magazines, you know, you mail order. Can you imagine getting a handmade Moog sent a theremin made by Bob Moog when he was 15 in his garage?

Scott Cowan [00:16:21]:
So, that would be that would be very, very cool.

Tana Granack [00:16:23]:
Now that’s Yeah. So Bob Moog is a big fan of theremin, and and, and as a tribute to him produces a version of the theremin today.

Scott Cowan [00:16:32]:
So who’s credited with inventing the theremin? Is there an ind

Tana Granack [00:16:37]:
Yeah. Leon Theremin.

Scott Cowan [00:16:39]:
Leon Theremin. Okay.

Tana Granack [00:16:40]:
Leon Theremin’s a a a Russian physicist and inventor. He’s Russian. He he had I think he had the patent from 1919, and he came to America in the twenties. And then RCA again, we have the first one manufactured, the RCA one, 1929. It’s the same two wands, you know. And and so, yeah. He that and he was responsible for lots of other lots of other craziness as well as life went on. But, yeah, it was Leon Theremin, a famous Russian physicist.

Scott Cowan [00:17:11]:
K. So so when I was looking at some of the other exhibits, you’ve got the incandescent light bulbs and we’re using them as space heaters because the bulbs aren’t very efficient, which but that seemed intriguing to me that they were building little, like, little radiators and putting light bulbs in them. What what was going on with that?

Tana Granack [00:17:33]:
Well, from from what I know about it, I just know that, obviously, when we when you talk about light bulb technology or the or the history of of artificial light, you know, from street lights. So they try to bring light into the home, and they finally you know, and it’s difficult. You know, it’s one thing to make an arc light that can light up a street, but to have that that light in your home that’s safe and you can have it on your kids and the whole thing, it’s just like that’s proposed a lot of safety problems. And when they finally when they finally got a the light bulb was invented let me back up. In 1800, a guy named Humphrey Davy is running electric current through a wire. And it’s really it’s running more and more, and it’s getting hotter and hotter. And as as the wire gets it runs more and more current through, it begins to glow. And he runs so much of it through it, it glows.

Tana Granack [00:18:31]:
He goes, oh my gosh. I run through I I it gives me light. But way before you get light, you get heat. It makes way more heat than light. It’s not efficient. Those light bulbs, you touch them, you burn your hand right away. This is the point. And so these first incandescent bulbs, but they’re not really thinking of that kind of efficiency.

Tana Granack [00:18:47]:
This heat is a byproduct. And so since they come give so much heat and it gives light, well, then maybe we can we can harness it. We can focus the heat and use it as heat as well, but it’s like it’s just not gonna it’s not very practical.

Scott Cowan [00:18:59]:
Not very practical. Well, they were interesting to look at, though, on on the photos.

Tana Granack [00:19:02]:
Oh, all all that stuff. I mean, we’ve got a little case full of of just bizarre, you know, let alone the crack medicine and everything, which is another whole areas. But just all the all the the home appliances, you know, with this new energy source that this new reason to use electricity. You know? And, So

Scott Cowan [00:19:21]:
what was okay. So that’s interesting. So they started rolling out electricity into the home. Right. And and k. And is there something that would be considered the first home appliance that was using electricity? What Oh, okay. Something?

Tana Granack [00:19:37]:
Yeah. And I’m trying and I and I can’t think of what it is, but there is. But I wasn’t ready for that. The I no. No. There is. There is. And it wasn’t the toaster.

Tana Granack [00:19:52]:
We have to get back. I’ve my mind’s just gotta run through the cabinet because, lots of personal hair products. We but seem like toasters. I think I’m wondering if the fur if they heat not well, I don’t know if you consider the the the first the small heater, but it seemed like there was an appliance that was

Scott Cowan [00:20:18]:
Would it have been iron?

Tana Granack [00:20:21]:
It might have been, but it might have been a hair product too, like a a a a curling iron or a flattening iron. But but also, of course, you know, there’s refrigerators and there’s we’re not thinking of those things. And I don’t know what the chronology of that is in in washing machines and, and coffee pots and, stovetops and, you know, hot plates. So I I don’t know what the what the first of that was.

Scott Cowan [00:20:54]:
But just think about all those all those appliances is how what efficiency they brought into into life. What we take for granted, a washing machine in a range top and things like that, and we just take it for granted. So that’s interesting. Let’s go back. You said something, and we weren’t planning on talking about this, but the quack medicine. So when I think of quack medicine, I think a guy selling, you know, potions in in, you know, snake oil, if you will. But what sort of quack medicine was using electricity? Gosh.

Tana Granack [00:21:32]:
So, boy, that’s a big topic. And, well, early on with electricity with electricity, and so they’re playing with sparks and magnets and compasses, and they’re starting to think, well, is this spark on my machine the same thing as a bolt of lightning in the sky? Is this the spark of life? You know, they’re making a frog leg kick, the whole Mary Shelley. I mean, she’s watching Galvani and Volta do their demonstrations, running electric current through, you know, in you know, animal limbs and and bigger and bigger animal limbs in front of bigger and bigger audiences and thinking, well, this leg is kicking and, you know, we’re made of electricity. Could this be the spark of life? You know, these are these are all actually, at the time, were actually great questions. They just you know, when you investigate them, they bear different fruit. And another another thing was, well, is this is this got healing properties? Early on, people are getting shocked with electricity or applying minor amounts of it and claiming making claiming making medical claims. And, the placebo effect, which I think is profound, is having a great effect on a lot of people. Look.

Tana Granack [00:22:50]:
Look. When you when you apply electric charge to people for gout, which it doesn’t cure okay. What? You know, it just doesn’t cure, but people had gout. And fifty percent of your people say they feel better with the treatment, well, you’re gonna make a lot of money.

Scott Cowan [00:23:08]:
Wow. Okay.

Tana Granack [00:23:09]:
Right? But it doesn’t cure gout. So but it’s being packaged in lots of ways. And we have lots of samples of that, from electric belts to craniology, stuff that goes on your head, applying electric charges in different parts of your brain to, play up or play down different parts of your personality. It’s fascinating. And, a lot of physicians, hung their shingles. And, actually, there’s still still some today, I think, that that, use some of this technology in a way that it’s just difficult to prove, especially when people a a lot of times, they’ll they’ll apply the electric charge, you’ll get shocked. And then when you’re done, they said you, you know, you you often say you feel better. But I think you all feel better because they turned it off.

Tana Granack [00:23:56]:
But but then you have to deal with that. So then you try to sort out what works and what doesn’t. You know, what does cure gout and what you know? And so, so early on, especially at the time of Franklin and and this Galvani with the frog leg thing, you know, like, why can we animate matter? And it’s like, no. You can’t. That’s not what’s going on. What’s what’s going on is wondrous and amazing, and it’s gonna lead to the invention of the battery. Thank you. But it’s not gonna reanimate matter.

Tana Granack [00:24:24]:
You know? You’re not gonna get a Frankenstein. It’s not it’s not how it’s gonna work. You know? We tried that. And so and so, you know, that’s and, you know, these stories, these are our stories, man.

Scott Cowan [00:24:35]:
Okay.

Tana Granack [00:24:35]:
When I get a bunch of kids in the room, and I wanna talk about some of this stuff, and I say, who’s heard of Volta? Nobody raises their hand. Who’s heard of Galvani? Nobody’s raised their hand. I say, who’s heard of Frankenstein? Everybody raise it. Everybody. People don’t speak English raise their hand. You know, it’s like, yeah, we can all talk. Well, okay. Let’s talk.

Tana Granack [00:24:55]:
This is a good this is a good question. You know, it’s crazy. It’s cool. Let’s answer it. Let’s go through it. It’s fascinating. You know, we can do some science along the way. Wouldn’t that be cool? Anyway

Scott Cowan [00:25:08]:
Okay. So when you guys were open, it looked like on on the weekends, you were doing this mega zapper show.

Tana Granack [00:25:16]:
Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:25:20]:
Why? Explain it to me, please, because I don’t understand why I could stand in that cage and not get electrocuted. Isn’t

Tana Granack [00:25:31]:
nature wonderful?

Scott Cowan [00:25:32]:
Well, it’s okay. The photography of what you guys are showing here is is jaw droppingly cool.

Tana Granack [00:25:38]:
And and, Scott, Scott, sometimes someday, we’d love to have you. Get in the cage, take your camera with love with your loved ones, you know, and and, see if you’re really meant for each other and and capture the moment on film. It’s just, yeah. So how does it work?

Scott Cowan [00:25:57]:
I mean, what’s what’s the science here?

Tana Granack [00:26:01]:
Well, let’s see this science. Well, first off, the the cage the human birdcage as we call it, and and the big mega zapper, the big Tesla coil, the nine foot Tesla coil, versions of that demonstration have been done for years and we did for years with with a birdcage and light bulbs and smaller electric coils. And, you know, we always say, would it be interesting if you could get in one of these cages and prove it? You know? And so then we built one, you know, that whole bit, but it’s been done. But the the idea is even Franklin, a couple hundred years ago, knew that that electric charge on a hollow conductor would stay on the outside of the conductor and and actually repel off the it it it almost think of it as like, I guess the best way for me to think of it as a non electrical engineer is, you know, when you’re working, get an electromagnetic field. And, you know, if you take two magnets, you know, you just you know, it’s so fun. You know, you just take two magnets, you know, and, you know, one side sticks Right.

Scott Cowan [00:27:09]:
And the

Tana Granack [00:27:09]:
other side

Scott Cowan [00:27:10]:
Repels.

Tana Granack [00:27:11]:
Repels. And I can’t I just won’t let me, you know.

Scott Cowan [00:27:14]:
Mhmm. That

Tana Granack [00:27:14]:
invisible force will let me. Well, that force is on the outside of the cage. Oh. And it is literally repelling off there. And so that’s how you count on that that and so that’s what’s happening off of it. And and what it’s trying to do, by the way, is is it’s repelling off the off the conductor. It’s going around the conductor. It’s looking.

Tana Granack [00:27:35]:
You know, electricity is is not a lot of times people, like, try to give it personality, you know, like, it’s angry or it’s got it’s I somebody they talk to about electricity like it’s a person. But but but of all things you you have to say about it is it’s persistent, it’s it does not hesitate, and it’s insidious. And when that charge comes at you through that, it knows you’re there, and it can’t get you. And so it’s going around trying to get you, and it’s bouncing off the the the the conductive material. And, it’s it’s an odd phenomenon to watch it seek seek out the ground, and it’s trying to get into the ground. It’s trying to get it to conduct it’s trying to get to something that’ll get it in so it can and and and you’d be a great pathway, and that’s what it’s looking for. And so we give it a pathway with a cage and a grounding cable, so that it just doesn’t want you. But but if you were to take your finger and slowly stick it through the cage, which I can’t even believe I’m saying but we’ve got spotters watching and all that stuff.

Tana Granack [00:28:40]:
But, I mean, as as soon as as soon as you were able to get outside the cage with whatever, I don’t care what it was, a needle. You know? As soon as that cage or that charge picked up the needle, it wouldn’t care about the cage anymore. It’d be all about the needle, and it’d be all about you. Right? And so it just once the first thing it comes to, it’s, it’s very predictable. And so, you know, so this phenomenon, this this Faraday cage effect, you know, it just repels. It’s just yeah. People do it with screens and in different forms all the time. A lot of your electrical devices, are protected with a Faraday with what they call a Faraday cage effect, where it’s it’s, you know, sealed up in a conductive material, and so it’s able to repel an electric charge.

Scott Cowan [00:29:26]:
Oh, interesting. Yeah. So you’ve got a nine foot Tesla coil, and I’m gonna guess that that just doesn’t plug into a regular wall outlet.

Tana Granack [00:29:37]:
Pretty damn close, though. Pretty pretty close. Plugs in a two twenty. I was just thinking that today, which is what you use your washer and dryer with.

Scott Cowan [00:29:46]:
It runs on two twenty. So my dryer Yep. I could I could go and get a nine foot Tesla coil and plug it in where my dryer plugs in.

Tana Granack [00:29:55]:
Well, I like the I’d be happy to help you hook that up, Scott, if you have that came to you. I don’t know how much I’d like to see that. I’d like to see that. But, yeah, it’s a it’s a pretty efficient, it was built back by a guy named Jeff Parisi, who who who actually built it for Cirque du Soleil, and was building us one. We we wanted a big coil. We’d always been talk we wanted a figure a figure piece. So it’s figure demonstration of, I don’t know what you a signature demonstration. That’s what I mean.

Scott Cowan [00:30:26]:
Gotcha.

Tana Granack [00:30:26]:
And we thought, well, the mega zapper and this whole phenomena would would be a great a great show. And, so we contacted a guy, Jeff Parisi, and he he builds them. And and he was building us one, and he had just built this one for for Cirque du Soleil, and they had a a very, a really awful accident almost right away in their rehearsals. And and they canceled their electric themed show, whatever it was, and gave him back his coil. So he contacted us and said, would you like to buy a similar coil, only slightly used? And and

Scott Cowan [00:31:02]:
Low mileage.

Tana Granack [00:31:03]:
Yeah. Low mileage, only one kill. And, no nobody nobody was nobody was killed, but someone was really, really hurt. And and so we bought it and and but by the way, when we got that, we we realized what what a great machine it was. I mean, that was, you know, definitely professional and big quality and everything we wanted, but also how dangerous it was and how we’re gonna roll out a show. I don’t just do the weekend shows too. I do the weekend shows to the general public. But all during the week, I I do I do school groups or did school groups or will do school groups again.

Tana Granack [00:31:36]:
So I’m I use that coil virtually every day. And, to roll it out in front of a hundred, a 50 people, you know, hit the lights. I got five year olds and grandma and people with all kinds of, from all all walks of life, you know, and to be to to know that I’m able to do this in a safe way and have everybody have a fun and spectacular time is it’s great. It’s great. So, yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:31:59]:
So how long how long does somebody stay in the cage? Oh. How long does the Oh, yeah. How long is the show?

Tana Granack [00:32:04]:
Yeah. Well well, the show itself, you know, depending on how long we you know what the build up is and what the demonstrations are around that, you know, actually the you know, getting inside the queue so there’s an audience here. You see the big cage. It’s a large cage. It actually holds four to six people that

Scott Cowan [00:32:21]:
can’t keep it big.

Tana Granack [00:32:22]:
And then there’s the big coil, there’s a fence. And and then, usually, I do other coils before that and maybe the birdcage is a demonstration so you get a sense of what we’re about to do and, you know, take it up a notch, so to speak, and then reveal the big cage and then have people step inside and then reveal the the coil and then, you know, do the wind up and then fire it off. So what we use if but we fire the coil in, you know, fifteen second. That’s a long time. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:32:50]:
That that that would be

Tana Granack [00:32:51]:
It’s loud. It’s, you know, it’s like but it’s it’s like a roller coaster. It’s like a jet engine. And, and, yeah, a little a little you know, it’s we we try to we try to to place it well so that so that so that, you know, a little bit goes a long way with something that big. So we try to really, but but something else too is, you know, we’re and we’re proud about the coil. I love the coil. I mean, the big mega zapper. But I’ve got six Tesla coils.

Tana Granack [00:33:21]:
And to be honest, if you were all if you were here for, like, five minutes or ten minutes, and you said, I Tanya, you can only show me one thing. You can only give me one demonstration, what would it be? I wouldn’t do that. I I I I I it would be in the top five, but I do the singing Tesla coil, which is hanging from the ceiling, where I can play the theme from I mean, I can play the theme from Star Wars or Hall of the Mountain King or Frankenstein or, you know, I mean, I’ve got a singing Tesla coil that’s much like a theremin, except when it’s blasting out electrical energy and throwing out sparks, it’s doing it to a particular tune.

Scott Cowan [00:34:06]:
So okay. You heard it? Never heard of that. Yeah. I’ve never heard of that before.

Tana Granack [00:34:09]:
I called

Scott Cowan [00:34:09]:
it Zoom. And you you wrecked my question because I was gonna ask you what your favorite thing was, and you just kind of answered it. So you didn’t wreck it, but that’s awesome. But tell me more about the singing Tesla coil. I mean, I’ve never heard of anything like that. Yeah.

Tana Granack [00:34:24]:
Though they’re, and I think I was gonna film film it some today. So, so just like, so when you a a theremin, you know, it’s it’s, it’s it’s throwing out bursts of electrical energy. It’s it’s usually fairly loud, and it’s kind of a, you know, frequency. Well, well, the long and short of it is about twenty, twenty five years ago, some, electrical engineers figured out a way to control the frequency, of the of the Tesla coil. So much like a theremin, just makes like a just instead of a sound, you’re able to take the pitch up and down. Well, that’s what they did with theremin instead of that scratch, it’s able to take it up and down and dial in so you could dial in notes. And so, myself or my colleagues will step up. The president and CEO, John Jenkins, the founder of the museum, One of his favorite things to do is step up.

Tana Granack [00:35:23]:
He plays it pretty good too. He plays Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix like nobody’s business.

Scott Cowan [00:35:29]:
That would be cool.

Tana Granack [00:35:29]:
On the same coil. I mean, he just knocks that out. And so when you catch the arc, you’re able to pull the note, and it’s, it’s a spectacular. That’s my show that’s what I close every show with. Because after that, I got nothing to show you. That’s what I tell them.

Scott Cowan [00:35:44]:
So so this is a relatively recent invention, if you will, or use of the Tesla coil? Is that this to turn it into a a musical device, if you will.

Tana Granack [00:35:55]:
A c s. A singing coil. And, like, they like Burning Man, I think. There’s a guy who does one at Burning Man or something, the big ones. I’ve seen dueling banjo kinda singing coils.

Scott Cowan [00:36:06]:
Oh, wow. Okay.

Tana Granack [00:36:07]:
And so and so, they’re called Zuzaphones and, you know, different terms like that, but I call them singing Tesla coils. And they’re they’re kind of a novelty, a variation on on the on the coil and, to make music with it is yeah. It’s memorable. It’s memorable.

Scott Cowan [00:36:27]:
Okay. Yeah. I I’m looking forward to coming and seeing that. So before we push the button to record, you mentioned something about Edison seventy eights being proprietary in the whole recorded music. Mhmm. What when did when did, when did vinyl records come out? When when was because when I was a kid and those Edison, the tubes up behind you, I I can see behind your head and on top of the bookcase, you’ve got some old Edison. Yeah. Cylinders.

Scott Cowan [00:37:12]:
So when did it go from cylinders to to vinyl platters?

Tana Granack [00:37:19]:
Well, it went from I mean, they use different materials, but the cylinders, again, are are meant to much to emulate, you know, the the the style of Edison cylinder phonographs look much like music boxes. And if you look at the cylinder on a music box instead of the pins, this has got a groove. But, I mean, that that design, you know, that’s originally that’s why we have vintage music boxes next to the Anderson cylinders to show you that evolution and and what people are thinking. And so so they they they must have gone flat sometime, I would think, like, in the twenties.

Scott Cowan [00:38:02]:
In twenties?

Tana Granack [00:38:03]:
Or the twenties. They have or do you mean flat? Just basic records? Yeah. Just flat. Seventy eights. Yeah. That was in the early twenties. Early twenties. Early twenties.

Tana Granack [00:38:13]:
Twenty ’19, ’18. Yes. Alright. So so this is, like, nineteen o two. This is, like, 01/2020. This is, like, a 20 revolutions a minute. Then you get 70 eights. Right? 70 eights look like 33 and a thirds, except 70 eights are one song, 33

Scott Cowan [00:38:29]:
and a

Tana Granack [00:38:29]:
thirds is like five songs. Right? I mean, you know, you you hold up you hold up the other side. So these got flattened out, but then but then they they weren’t really vinyl. They didn’t really go to vinyl, I think, until they went to to albums, to the 33 and a thirds. And there was an overlap because we’ve got a, like, a we’ve got a vintage, world tour, music box from 1938, and that and that that holds that holds 70 eights.

Scott Cowan [00:38:56]:
That holds 70 eights.

Tana Granack [00:38:57]:
Yeah. So I just yeah. But I I think but the 30 the 40 the ’33 and a third and the ’40 fives, it came out more in the forties at

Scott Cowan [00:39:06]:
the So that cylinder, how much audio does that hold? Is that just a song? Yeah. So maybe three to five minutes?

Tana Granack [00:39:16]:
Two and four minutes. The black ones are two minutes, and there’s some blue ones that that run for four minutes.

Scott Cowan [00:39:23]:
Okay.

Tana Granack [00:39:24]:
That’s the song, and the song title is on the end. And just Right. Yeah. It just goes on a on a machine very similar to a a shape of a music box with a horn on it.

Scott Cowan [00:39:34]:
Right. Now you were you had a video that you were playing one, and you didn’t have the horn on. Right. And I was I was it was very interesting to me to watch that because you started playing, you know, you put the needle down and then you you put the megaphone on and it made the volume was in was incredible.

Tana Granack [00:39:52]:
That’s the best So that’s the best part of the demonstration. We we do that always on purpose now. We always have the hole on the side because we should just have it on before. Yeah. It’s it’s very dramatic when that goes on. Everybody kinda goes, wow.

Scott Cowan [00:40:04]:
Yeah. It really wasn’t a a a very drastic improvement to the to the quantity. So so what I one of the questions I’ve been asking people as we wrap things up, putting you on the spot here. I’m going to paint a scenario, and here’s the scenario. Everybody is in the museum is safe, but you have to leave the museum, and you can only take one thing with you. What would be the one thing in the museum you would take?

Tana Granack [00:40:38]:
In the museum? Yeah. Well well, I’ll I’ll tell you. I would probably take the most this is crazy. But I think this is what I do. I take the most priceless thing in the museum. And the most priceless thing in the museum is the Edison light bulb, which was the first incandescent light bulb for the most you know, it’s just unbelievably rare. So I would take that light bulb, and I would take it. But here’s the problem.

Tana Granack [00:41:06]:
It’s a burned out light bulb. It it’s like it’s like right? It’s like if you steal it, like, it’s a burned out light bulb. What good is it? Well, that’s why what makes it what it is is the story and the history Okay. And the context. That’s what makes it priceless. Right? Okay. And so so I feel odd about the one thing I would take would be a burned out light bulb, but that’s what I’m taking. Okay.

Tana Granack [00:41:34]:
And I think

Scott Cowan [00:41:35]:
And you were not prepared for that question, so that we’ll we’ll we’ll allow that answer. That’s a that’s a great answer.

Tana Granack [00:41:40]:
And I think when this post clears and my bosses go, yeah. Yeah. I was alright. I might get chewed out, but I I’ve been chewed out before.

Scott Cowan [00:41:50]:
Okay. Alright. So as we wrap up, why don’t you why don’t you tell our audience where they can find more about the museum? And and then ultimately, at some point, you’ll be open to the public again. But where where can if they wanna go find out more about about you guys, where can they find you?

Tana Granack [00:42:07]:
Well, I mean, we’re certainly you know, we have a website, which is spark museum, www.sparkmuseum.org. We have Facebook. You well, let me just say where we can they can find us.

Scott Cowan [00:42:19]:
Well, are so you have you have a Facebook a Facebook page. You’ve got your website. Yep. Yep. Are you on any other social media platforms? Are you on Instagram?

Tana Granack [00:42:26]:
I believe we’re on Instagram, but I’m yes. I believe we’re on Instagram, but I have no other information on that at the moment. Other people handle that. Again, I said I’m the custodian, so, I’m more than happy to the bathrooms. But, yes, they can reach us that way. And, of course, you know, by by calling museum, you know, our we’ve got a big chunk of real estate in Downtown Bellingham, and, we’ll be opening as soon as it’s safe to do so. We already have plenty of safety things in in we’re all we’ve always been concerned about safety here, obviously, dealing with the equipment we have and sanitation and so forth doing all the school groups. So but we’ve taken it up a notch, and we’ll let everybody know.

Tana Granack [00:43:03]:
And we’re just our docents are more excited than ever to share the collection with the students, the kids, the community. And, we really appreciate, Scott, you’re you’re showing some interest in us. We really do. And we look forward to having you come visit and and, have you give a great give you a great time.

Scott Cowan [00:43:22]:
I I’m looking forward to, coming over to Bellingham and and taking a look at this. It looks fascinating to me, and I think, I think it’ll be well, I know we didn’t cover a lot of topics about what you guys have there, so that’s part of it. You gotta come and see some of the other stuff that you have. That’s really cool. But I’m really looking forward to to coming and and taking a look through the through the museum. And I don’t know if I’ll stand inside the cage, but I might, you know, I mean, that’s that’s pretty spectacular looking that visually, that’s pretty spectacular looking.

Tana Granack [00:43:54]:
No matter how you do it, you know, you don’t have to go in to have a great time. That’s all. You know?

Scott Cowan [00:43:58]:
But but,

Tana Granack [00:43:59]:
but it’s an unusual experience to see. And, again, you know, like we talked about earlier, the the the great thing about our jobs here is we have such dynamic equipment to work with, and it’s it’s a lot easier to let the lightning do the talking for you. So, that’s why I’m really looking forward to to having you actually see some of this and not just hear about it.

Scott Cowan [00:44:18]:
Awesome. Well, thank you very much. This was very enjoyable for me, and so I’m sure people will enjoy listening to it or have enjoyed listening to it. And, guys, go take a look at the Spark Museum of Electrical Invention in Bellingham. I think it’s going to be worth your time. Thanks a lot.

Tana Granack [00:44:34]:
Love to have you. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:44:55]:
Join us next time for another episode of the exploring Washington state podcast.