Bert Hickman - Woodridge's Mad Scientist

Welcome to my personal page on eBay! I'm an electrical engineer, "mad scientist", and local fire hazard residing in the western suburbs near Chicago, Illinois. I've got some interesting hobbies. Some of these include generating homemade 65" lightning bolts from a Tesla Coil and "shrinking" coins with powerful electromagnetic fields. By radially squeezing coins using ultra-strong pulsed magnetic fields, I can actually compress a US clad quarter so that it ends up being smaller in diameter than a dime - all in the blink of an eye. And, the most amazing part is that the quarter still retains all of its original surface features! Of course, the coin gets thicker in the process, so that the density remains the same. The "shrinking" process also works with most other coins. You can learn more about the procedure we use here and see the variety of coins we've shrunk here. I'm now auctioning some of these unique objects on eBay. They make ideal gifts for kids who are interested in science, coin collectors, amateur scientists, and engineers. You can see what some of our shrunken coins look like in the pictures below, or you can visit our Coin Gallery page to see many more types of coins.

Other unique items include our beautiful "Captured Lightning" Lichtenberg Figures. These are acrylic sculptures that contain permanent "fossils" of powerful lightning-like electrical discharges within. We create these using a powerful electron beam accelerator to "force" electrical charge deep inside the acrylic. The excess charge builds inside until the plastic suddenly breaks down, releasing all of the stored charge with a bang and a miniature lightning flash lasting only billionths of a second! The discharge leaves behind thousands of microscopic fractures that create beautiful lightning-like discharge patterns permanently imbedded deep inside the acrylic. When illuminated by bright LED's, the fractures glow brightly from within. The larger discharge paths and "root" of the discharge sparkle with an almost crystalline appearance, while even the most delicate, hair-like tips of the figure can easily be seen. More information about these unique acrylic sculptures can be found here. We offer a much broader selection of Lichtenberg Figures via our web site Galleries (Gallery 1 and Gallery 2)

I'm always on the lookout for interesting or out of print Physics or Electrical Engineering books to expand my personal research library. And, I'm also getting rid of a significant number of extra copies of scarce or out of print technical titles in the area of physics and engineering. These can be found on our Book Sales page and via Amazon.com. And, I'm also interested in high voltage parts, high-power electrical, electronics, transmitting, or laser gear. That's why you'll often see me bidding on some of the weirdest things! If you'd like to learn more about Tesla Coils, Nikola Tesla, Quarter Shrinking, Lichtenberg Figures, or Pulsed Power, please visit my site at: