Tesla coil sparks up to a half-million volts are the focus of this Australian site.
So, lets look at some of the spark and high voltage photos.
Above: The “Modern Thinker” above is my take on Rodin’s classic statue the “Thinker”. Appeared in TV and print media internationally. Check out the Modern Thinker page for the interesting techniques used in performing this stunt (safely).
By the way, no photoshopping anywhere on this site. It’s all what the camera sees in one exposure.
Above, a
Tesla Xmas tree from 2009 made of Tesla coil sparks. That’s how we do it in Oz. It’s a single very long exposure in which a lot happens to give all the effects.
Above, the Tesla trooper from
Red Alertin action with a real Tesla coil.
Above shows “Tesladownunder car theft protection”. You must see the video as well for a laugh.
Above shows a Tesla coil with rotating long breakout point looking dramatic on time exposure of 22 seconds. The “Eye of Sauron”. The two photos above have been seen by perhaps 500,000 people worldwide now since Feb 2007 and resulted in well over 100,000 hits to my site. My ISP ran out of bandwidth and had to shut me down for a day after 330 GB transfer. It was featured on some big sites and hundreds of blogs and was also popular in Russia and Japan. (For printing, 6 megapixel uncropped versions of most photos are available at a small charge – email me).
Above, the
“Aura of Sauron”. It looks unreal but there is no “photoshopping” anywhere on this website. All my photos are single exposures with very little post processing ie real photos. The effects come from doing things during the exposure which can be striking particularly if the source of sparks have shifted or rotated as above.
Above is an animated gif showing the effects of rotating the rod on top. In real time it takes 7 seconds per rotation.
Above, the Dalek cage. Just what you need to get up close and personal with lotsa volts. And you can even use a phone in it.
Above: How about red sparks?
Above: There are lots of other colors to see in multi-colored sparks. These are single photographic exposures through clear and colored filters in turn.
Above, swimming with 100,000 volts. Sure it’s safe. Tin hats protect you. Only do this at home. See the Discovery Channel video 5:14 mins for the full details.
Above: The ring of ‘antivirus’ protection done with 60,000 volt sparks.
Hey, I don’t just do high voltage stuff.
Above: This monster 7000 lumen LED runs on 100W, and can burn things like this CD case. Brighter than car lights too so great for irresponsible fun on the bicycle.
I like blowing stuff up too…
… like exploding a watermelon with electrical power. Good clean fun.
Above, exploding the Easter Bunny – because I can (and the foil wrapping is conductive).
Above: The capacitor bank is discharging 3 kJ in to some steel wool for more impressive sparkler effects. See the second Discovery Channel video 3:45 mins for this in real time.
Above: Lots of spark pictures from 30,000 to 100,000 volts. I like sparks …
Above, Tesla coils with sparks from 2 inches (5cm) to 11 feet (3.3m). Seems odd that my longest spark photo is 26 th photo down.
Above, a briefcase Tesla coil and sparks in a light globe.
Above, Tesla coils sparks onto my tongue, driving a string of up to 30 fluoro tubes and apologies to Michelangelo’s Creation.
Above, some unusual solid state Tesla coils on the left using SIDACs instead of a spark gap, centre using a Royer circuit and on the right a vacuum tube based coil and its sparks.
The big capacitor bank is running at huge powers now and is great for exploding wires.
Above, from left to right: an electronic art piece, homemade computer plotter and a solar model car.
Above on the left is my new lifter with neon lights installed. Center shows a run outdoors and the right shows the installation in a science museum.
Above on the left is a much stronger lifter running on 80 kV lifting its own weight. The right photo shows 4.5 inch sparks if overdriven.
Above left is my magnetic levitation display running, centre is a coil levitated and on the right is hydrogen/chlorine ignition at the back of my model boat with magnetohydrodynamic drive.
Above left is aerogel, the worlds lightest solid – “frozen smoke” and right is the bizarre ferrofluid.
On the left above is my home made Nitrogen laser with the beam in Fluorescein. The center picture shows the Nitrogen laser diffraction pattern. The laser is ultraviolet but shines up with a blue fluorescence on white paper. The right picture showsgreen 5 mW diode and red HeNe 10 mW beams grazing the camera.
On the left above, is the violet laser out of a Blu-ray player made into a laser pointer. The center photo shows a hologram from this unit. On the right is a beam through Fluorescein, tonic water and Rhodamine showing green, blue and orange fluorescence in turn.
On the left is my son with a blue laser burning the garage roof. (Actually a small alcohol flamethrower). The center photo shows a real blue laser parallel to a HeNe red beam. On the right is a pattern from a laser beam modulated by two mirror galvanometers.
On the left: “Beam me up, Scotty” to far away galaxies… The argon laser beam is modulated by two mirror galvanometers. The center photo shows the dramatic effects by making a smoke tunnel with a circular beam. On the right is a pattern from the beam through a diffraction grating showing the multiple spectral lines.
Above left shows the 800 amp spotwelder flash. Centre is the flyback supply. Right is a battery operated Candy box HVsupply using old camera and TV parts.
Above left is liquid nitrogen in the pool. Center photo shows the dangerous stunt of putting my hand in liquid nitrogen. Right photo shows the gear I use to make liquid oxygen using liquid nitrogen.
Above left is a banana hammer for hammering in small nails. The banana becomes hard and brittle at liquid nitrogen temperatures. On the right is a flower made glass like and brittle.
Above left is tonic water under UV light. Centre is a scorpion fluorescing under UV and on the right a handful of uranium glass marbles.
Above left is the completed railgun. center is a Handpowered coilgun and right, a Spud gun.
Above. Can crushing with magnetic induction upgraded and now tears the can apart with 40,000 A.
Above. The bigger can crusher at currents of 80,000 A will tear it in thirds, or in a spiral depending on the shape of the work coil.
Above, the technical stuff about measuring the very high current pulses. The center photo shows an early coin shrinkingattempt and the right photo shows amazing shrinkage of a 1 yen coin. You can still see the Japanese characters miniaturized. Bonsai for coins.
Above, Magneforming is the use of extreme magnetic fields to form a metal sheet over an object.
Above, rewiring a microwave oven into a useful HV supply. Power supply 1971 style. The right photo is actually my most impressive high power arc at over 2 feet long from an x-ray transformer.
Above, a Jacob’s ladder and a Jacobs Bi-ladder. On the right, some sparks viewed end-on.
Above, strange behavior of high voltage. Woodburn fractals, the arc-repellant screwdriver and plasma in a magnetic field.
Can you work out what these have to do with high voltage or magnetism? Left, center or right for the answers.
More strange behavior of high voltage. Electrostatic levitation of non conductive (deionised) water and arcs onto a water surface.
High speed photos of Tesla coil sparks showing detail of events in time after the spark (left), before the main spark (center) and details of the polarity of each trailing spark. Ordinary photos perhaps, until you consider that the time difference between each spark in the left photo is 5 millionths of a second.
One volt can be impressive too (at 533 amps). Spinthariscope made from around the house materials to view alpha particle activity. Internals of a 120 kV x-ray head.
Radioactivity is topical. Here is a readout from my geiger counter.
Above is a Geiger counter registering high counts from a Uranium ore sample. The graph shows background radiation counts from my home updated 6 hourly (when I have it connected). Check out the page here for details of my other radioactive stuff.
The amazing Marinov motor (two ball races and an axle) at 1223 RPM and 165 A. On the right is an incredibly simplehomopolar motor which runs at 5000 RPM and takes seconds to assemble.
On the left above is a magnetic sensor array. Dull at rest but on the center and right gives interesting mapping of unusual fields on movement.
Above shows a vortex ring launcher. Lots of fun and a unique opportunity for basketball players.
More vortex ring shots giving unusual effects like the “UFO” in the center. Also orange smoke.
More unusual spark effects from a very large light globe and a spark playing over a magnet in water. A laser scanner gives interesting effects.
Photos above show a 5 second exposure of a sparkler attached to an electric drill.
Photos above show a 5 second exposures of two different types of LED arrays giving unusual effects. A CD zapped in a microwave also gives unusual fractal patterns.
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