Nikola Tesla's Colorado Springs Laboratory, December 1899 by Dickenson V. Alley

Nikola Tesla's Colorado Springs Laboratory, December 1899 by Dickenson V. Alley shows the inventor seated beside his enormous "magnifying transmitter" Tesla coil as it discharges immense bolts of artificial lightning inside his experimental station in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The image was staged as a double exposure for The Century Magazine, first capturing the coil's discharge in a darkened room and then re-exposing the plate with Tesla seated calmly in the chair, creating one of the most iconic publicity photographs in the history of science.

Artist: Dickenson V. Alley. Date: December 1899.

Nikola Tesla's Colorado Springs Laboratory. Historic Scientific Photography Canvas Print.