High-Voltage Testing: man-made lightning at the 1939 World's Fair [History]

It is obvious that the GE Company was not about to spend the huge sums of money for the construction of the high voltage equipment in Steinmetz Hall without seeing the possibility of the future use of this equipment for other purposes. As described, this did occur with both the impulse generators and the 60-Hz transformers. The motor generator set was probably reused as well, but there are no known records documenting its actual fate. Today, the high-voltage testing of electric power system components utilizes equipment exactly the same, in operating principle, as the devices built for use at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Alas, however, the tremendous cost of such demonstrations at expositions has caused them to become only a fond memory.