Knob Hill

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Knob Hill, one mile (1.6 km) east of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado, is most famous for its connection with Nikola Tesla, and the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind.

A publicity photo of a participant sitting in the Colorado Springs experimental station with his "Magnifying Transmitter". The arcs are about 22 feet (7 m) long. (Tesla's notes identify this as a double exposure.)

At this location, in 1899, Tesla, several of his assistants, and a local contractor commenced the construction of Tesla's laboratory shortly after arriving in Colorado Springs. The lab's primary purpose was to conduct experiments with high frequency electricity and other phenomena. Its secondary purpose was for research into wireless transmission of electrical power. The lab possessed the largest Tesla Coil ever built, fifty-two feet (16 m) in diameter, which was a preliminary version of the Magnifying Transmitter. This coil reproduced the effects of lightning and its accompanying thunder for the first time in history. On January 7, 1900, Tesla's lab here was torn down, broken up, and its contents sold to pay debts when Tesla left Colorado Springs.