Tesla did not invent the "Tesla Coil"
The Tesla coil is a high-frequency air-core resonant transformer. By high frequency we mean frequencies far higher than usual electrical systems of 50 or 60 cycles per second, but lower in frequency than most radio signals.
The
"Tesla Coil" was actually invented by the talented electrical experimenter,
Elihu Thomson, who received his letter patent on July 4th, 1893. You can
download a free copy from the patent office using the number 500630. Issues
of Electrical World released in February 1892 reveal that Thomson had
created arcs as long as five feet.
Reginald Fessenden in a paper presented before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1908, and reprinted in the 1908 Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, states that Tesla scaled up Thomson's transformer in order to attempt to transmit power without wires through the upper regions of the atmosphere. Transmission of power without wires was not a Tesla idea, but rather that of Mahlon Loomis as documented in his patent, No. 129971, of July 30, 1872. The same idea had been patented in England years before.
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