For the San Francisco district see Nob Hill, San Francisco, California

Nob Hill, San Francisco, California

Nob Hill refers to a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, centered on the intersection of California and Powell streets. It is one of San Francisco's 44 hills, and one of its original "Seven Hills."-Location :...

For the Canadian supermarket chain, see Knob Hill Farms

Knob Hill Farms

Knob Hill Farms was a supermarket chain in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by Steve Stavro, and operated from 1951 to 2001.-Community grocery stores:...

Knob Hill is a neighborhood in central Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, one mile (1.6 km) east of downtown, extending east from South Union Blvd to South Circle Drive, and from East Willamette Ave south to Airport Rd. It is most famous for its connection with Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...

, and the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind

Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind

The Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind is a K-12 residential school, located on Knob Hill, one mile east of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado, near the famous laboratory of Nikola Tesla. The school was founded in 1874 as The Colorado Institute for the Education of Mutes by Jonathan R...

.
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

Electricity

Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

. The lab possessed the largest Tesla Coil

Tesla coil

A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. Tesla coils produce higher current than the other source of high voltage discharges, electrostatic machines...

 ever built, fifty-two feet (16 m) in diameter, which was a preliminary version of the Magnifying Transmitter

Magnifying transmitter

The magnifying transmitter is an advanced version of Tesla coil transmitter. It is a high power harmonic oscillator that Nikola Tesla intended for the wireless transmission of electrical energy...

. 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.