Sword swallowing, Tesla coil sparks and a World Record. Just a normal day…

The Space Cowboy likes nothing more than to juggle a chainsaw on a unicycle, abuse his body terribly, throw knives and yes, perform sword swallowing.
“Continue reading” for more details, 18 photos and 8 videos.

He is a world champion street performer, and 27 times Guinness world record holder. As if that wasn’t enough he contacted me to add a bit of spice to his act with some Tesla coil sparks. The aim was to beat the “longest sparks to a swallowed sword” category for a Guinness World record.
This is the GWN 7 news clip.

This is the initial view from my camera.

And the unedited video from the main camera by Dean Lomax.

A view from the Tesla coil.

For Guinness, you usually need to hold the performance for 10 seconds. Confirmation requires continuous video with a visible timer plus witnesses and clear measurements.  The spark here was 3 foot ten inches onto the tip of the sword.

The tip of the sword was a balsa extension with some steel wool which burnt through by the end of the act. The central rod extension could have been increased but it can start to look out of proportion.

There was still some tingle with just one earthed glove so I added a second one which seemed to fix the problem. He was also on an insulating base to minimise ground leakage.  The sword passes close to his heart so I wasn’t really keen to have much in the way of any leakage current.

I had a defibrillator on standby and he signed an injury waiver.  Of course I have tested all this on myself for safety – without actually swallowing the sword. There is redundant earthing and I am controlling the power.

A longer spark was also tried of 4 ft 7 inches but there is a tendency for the spark to drift off onto the shield. Not sure if this will be used for the record attmpt.

 

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On the day

After travelling for 8 hours across Australia from Byron Bay to Bunbury, Chayne needed a change from airline food.  First, a taste of small sparks.  A trial of spark swallowing… OK enough puns.

See pain realtime.

Next, a test of safety equipment.  Resuscitation might be needed.

The video is a bit of fun too.

Construction and set-up of the sword swallowing stunts from the beginning

Chayne originally contacted me with his vision of sword swallowing in this (photoshopped) image.
Now, clearly, having sparks to a sword directly won’t work. The sparks will shortly jump to his head, he will convulse, the sword will penetrate his stomach and inferior vena cava and he will die. This is 5 minutes of good reality TV but not so good for him.

Here are three of his suggested swords. He was thinking that a plastic handle might make sword swallowing a bit safer.

We need something protective to prevent sparks going to the wrong place. Gulp. It needs to be TV ready real time video.

The sword needed to be modified with a spark shield to prevent it hitting the performer.  It needs to be very light with 2 earth wires for redundant safety.  Here’s the umbrella shield.

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It is very light and fairly rigid using chrome-nickel steel wire and is almost 2 m across in a web like pattern.  It is thin enough to be of low visibility unless a spark strikes it. I need to have a central breakout point to minimise this. 

This is me doing feasibility and safety testing in preparation for the world record attempt for longest spark to a swallowed sword (not by me!). There is also a small extension to the sword to ensure the spark hits that in preference to the shield.

Only one earth wire is needed but I have arranged two plus a chain maille glove plus an insulated base to stand on for redundant protection. Later I had to add a second glove to ground Chaynes’s body more solidly.

We have just heard that a Tesla coil/sword swallow was just done 3 weeks ago by Jellyboy TheClown. Different and much smaller but has no earthing/shielding, so all current goes to the sword. Hence must run at much lower power and spark length.

Media

This is the GWN 7 TV news segment from the news site.

Video here (onsite)

Space Cowboy   tricks

Oh, and I haven’t mentioned his own little HV tricks and he brought his own Brightarcs musical DRSSTC. (I have never seen one before) But that is another story.

The Space Cowboy also does a few magic tricks. These were a couple he showed us.

Related pages

External links
Space Cowboy – homepage
Space Cowboy – Wikipedia
World champion street performer

Try something else

Photo Date: Feb 20, 2013