A Tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer circuit designed by inventor Nikola Tesla in 1891.[1][2] It is used to produce high-voltage, low-current, high frequency alternating-current electricity.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Tesla experimented with a number of different configurations consisting of two, or sometimes three, coupled resonant electric circuits.

Tesla used these circuits to conduct innovative experiments in electrical lighting, phosphorescence, X-ray generation, high frequency alternating current phenomena, electrotherapy, and the transmission of electrical energy without wires. Tesla coil circuits were used commercially in sparkgap radio transmitters for wireless telegraphy until the 1920s,[1][10][11][12][13][14] and in medical equipment such as electrotherapy and violet ray devices. Today, their main usage is for entertainment and educational displays, although small coils are still used as leak detectors for high vacuum systems.[9][15]