A Shocking Good Time: Discovering the Spark Behind Electricity in Bellingham

I kind of liken electricity to a fire hydrant. You never really notice it until you need it, and it doesn’t work. While we may take it for granted until a power outage, it’s nearly impossible to imagine a world in which some curious people long, long ago figured out ways to harness and use electricity to improve our daily lives.

I have little doubt that in prehistoric times, a young cave boy would amuse himself by rubbing his hand on a piece of wool and shocking his unsuspecting little sister and then running away giggling. But how did we get from static shock and an observation of lightning to all the amazing ways to generate and store electric power today for our homes, communication and medical devices, and increasingly, for electric powered vehicles?

There is no better way to answer this question then by entering the doors of the Spark Museum of Electrical Invention located at 1312 Bay Street in downtown Bellingham. Just be forewarned that to take full advantage of this experience, you’ll need to walk in with an ample abundance of curiosity and serious sense of wonder… as in “I wonder what that thing does?” or “I wonder who figured that out?”.

To find out, you need to walk no further than the front counter where you will be warmly greeted by a team of people whose passion for providing you with the best possible experience is beyond exceptional. They will inform you that the exhibits are segmented into three categories, must see, interactive and demonstration. For example, there are two original Edison Light bulbs on display, and you can listen to a replica of the distress transmission from the Titanic’s Marconi wireless room. They even have one of four original phones used to launch the transcontinental telephone line in 1915. These are definite Must Sees!

The interactive displays encourage you to touch a button to hear the full story of a puzzling device.  Demonstration stations are filled with items they don’t want you to touch but never fear, the docents are more than happy to demonstrate them for you. They use what was described to me as a “zone” defense. In other words, when you leave one docent’s area of expertise, another will be waiting at the next “zone” to show off more of the marvelous exhibits on display. 

Perhaps the most popular attraction in the Museum is the MegaZapper where audience member volunteers (age 18+) can enter the “Cage of Doom” to be bombarded by thousands of volts of electricity from one of the largest Tesla coils in the country. It’s fun, it’s loud and just a little bit scary. In other words, you’ll love it! Scheduled public demonstrations are at 2:30 on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Spark Museum of Electrical Invention was the brainchild of two passionate collectors, John Jenkins (wireless and electrical devices) and Johnathan Winter (vintage radios) who in 2001 agreed to merge and create a more complete story of electricity over the centuries than either of their individual collections could provide. I asked Mr. Jenkins to describe the mission of the museum, and he said quite simply, “To get kids excited about science.” I asked one of the docents what he hoped people would know upon leaving the museum and he said, “Science is Fun… I can do this!” Sounds like their messaging is well synced up, doesn’t it?  

From the earliest known experiments in understanding the nature of electricity, to the ingenuity and invention that sprung from this understanding, there is something for everyone, young and young at heart to enjoy.