Henry Leroy Transtrom
American inventor
Henry Leroy Transtrom (1885–1951) was an American inventor and showman who worked with high voltage electricity. His book, Electricity at High Pressures and Frequencies, (1913) is still used as a guide for constructing homemade Tesla coils.
Transtrom was best known for his dramatic stunts and performances with high frequency, high voltage electricity from a Tesla coil. For his "Lightning Man" demonstrations, he stood on a large Tesla coil which made sparks (electrical discharges) come out from his outstretched fingertips.
Death
There is a long-standing rumour that Transtrom was electrocuted during one of his demonstrations when one of these long sparks reached the primary coil of the device, thus coupling and drawing enough current to kill him.
No source has been found for where this rumour originated; it had been passed around among Tesla coil hobbyists for years. In 2010 a blogger received an email from Tamara Zizzo, Mr. Transtrom's great-granddaughter, stating that the story was false, and that he died from leukemia with his daughter, Edith Transtrom (Holm) at his bedside.
The public source identifies “Henry Leroy Transtrom” as american inventor. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Henry, Leroy and Transtrom.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15457911. VIAF identifies the subject as 23719300. The Library of Congress control number is n88647232. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1885, 1951, 1913 and 2010.
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This entry incorporates text from “Henry Leroy Transtrom” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.