COLORADO SPRINGS - SOUTHERN OUTSKIRTS - SEVENTY MILES SOUTH OF DENVER

These days it's known as the home of several optical disc corporations and NORAD, the missile defense command under Cheyenne mountain.

Hundred years ago it wasn't known at all. Then, a weird scientist moved into town and set up a laboratory on Hill Street. Since that day, the world we live in has changed forever.

Hill street as it looks today.

And, strange things start happening. People would walk near the lab, and sparks would jump up from the ground to their feet, through the soles of their shoes. The grass around was glowing with an eerie  blue corona, like St. Elmo's fire. One boy held a screwdriver near the fire hydrant and drew four-inch electrical spark from the hydrant. The people were, to put it mildly, stunned.

But, this was small stuff.

The man in the lab was merely tuning up his apparatus.

He was getting ready to run it wide open, in an experiment that ranks among the greatest and most spectacular of all time. That day he made a world record for man-made lightning. 42 meters in lenght (130 feet). The record he still holds today. But that was only a side effect of the experiment.

The man: Nikola Tesla