Tesla cannons are lightning-generating Clanker machines invented by Nikola Tesla. They use electricity to set fire to airships and destroy machinary, though they are designed to be used against hydrogen breathers. A Tesla cannon on a ship tries to destroy the Leviathan at the beginning of Behemoth, and Zaven destroys another which is on land. The Goliath is similar to a Tesla cannon, but larger.

In the seriesEdit

After the gyrothopter fails to attack the Leviathan, the Goeben and the Breslau, two Clanker ironclads, are in a position to be attacked by the Leviathan. When the airship is moving towards the Goeben, Alek notices that the ship is covered in rubber, and Klopp notices the Tesla cannon on the deck. Klopp had thought that Tesla cannons had not yet been developed past the demonstration model that he had seen in Austria-Hungary. Klopp reverses the engine that he and Alek are piloting, and the Leviathan turns herself around to avoid the lightning that the Tesla cannon fires at her. Fortunatly for the airship and her crew, there are no hydrogen leaks and the Leviathan does not catch on fire, though some of the men in the metal parts of the ship are electrically shocked.

When Deryn is hiding near the Orient Express, she notices that the train is bringing parts to Istanbul, and she later learns that these were parts for a Tesla cannon. Alek, Deryn, Klopp, Bauer, Zaven and Lilit later go to destoy this Tesla cannon and remove its threat to the Leviathan. Alek and Deryn take a djinn walker, Bauer and Klopp take an iron golem, Lilit pilots a Minotaur, and Zaven pilots Şahmaran. They must fight the elephant walkers that are guarding the Tesla cannon. The Şahmaran is destroyed and Zaven is killed when he uses the walker to pull down the Tesla cannon.

See alsoEdit

Teleforce, a real-world equivalent of the Tesla cannon, on Wikipedia