Category Archives: Media

On the news. This site has attracted a lot of international media attention since 2008, and it has now been featured on television or news programs in 17 countries from a total of 16 shoots. There has been coverage in 9 newspaper articles, 28 magazine or book articles and 8 radio interviews.

Holland Novus TV 2009

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Tesladownunder in the media
The site has attracted a lot of international media attention since 2008 and has now been on TV programs or news in 17 countries from a total of 16 TV shoots. There has been coverage in 9 newspaper articles, 28 magazine or book articles and 8 radio interviews.
Discovery USA TV “Is it possible?” 2010 USA
Maximus Film TV 2010 Germany
WIN TV Australia and 16 other countries “Elec-trickery”
Discovery Channel TV episode 1 Canada
Discovery Channel TV episode 2 Canada
Discovery Channel TV episode 3 Canada
Discovery Channel TV episode 4 Canada
Dutch Novus TV “Fobiac”
German Pro Sieben TV “Galileo”
Supercharged (nearly)
Media that didn’t happen (yet)

Dutch Novus TV “Fobiac” Filmed 7/11/08 Aired 7/1/09
Suzanne de Jong from Veronica TV in Holland along with Frank van Geloven as director and local cameraman Dean Lomax recorded a segment about electricity for a program on phobias. The full 45 minute program is here on the Veronica TV site. Photo gallery is here. Filming took about 6 hours at my place. I provided the Tesla coils and HV stuff which they had seen from my website. She gets confronted by electricity from small shocks on her arm to a mini-Tesla coil. Then on to standing in a cage with 6 foot sparks from a huge Tesla coil striking only a few inches from her face. She was genuinely scared and took a lot of coaxing. After that it was into a pool to have 2 foot sparks onto her head wearing a tinfoil hat. They were very happy with the result and it was fun working with a presenter and director (compared with Discovery videos where interviews were over a mobile phone). The video below is edited to include my stuff only and runs15 mins.

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Discovery Channel USA 2010

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Discovery USA “Is it possible?” 2010. Discovery Channel in the USA on April 7 10:00 pm EST with a rescreen on April 8 at 1:00 am and May 2 at 2:00 pm EST.
Title of my 7 mins was Dr Electric, human lightning rod….hmmm. Sounds like I need some colored tights and wear my undies on the outside – perhaps 2 pairs.
Directed by Neil Thomas (Thunderbird Films) who flew in from Canada. It was filmed by cameraman Dean Lomax on Nov, 7 2009. A long 13 hour shoot for 4 hours footage on one camera and 3h on the other. Filmed on location (my home in Bunbury, Western Australia) and shows lots of big sparks and stunts including sparks onto me while in a swimming pool. Hey, I even blew up a few watermelons. Video runs 8 mins.
here on the Discovery site) and reruns seen in Australia here. Other links to TV overseas are:
World News
Zap2it
It showed in Australia on Discovery Channel on Feb13.

WIN TV Australia had a news item on Feb 21, 2009. Reported and filmed by Tiffany Wertheimer. Topic was the Xmas tree 2009. Filmed by Dean Lomax with video effects by Jordan. Video runs 1:18 mins.

Maximus Film Germany. Filmed Feb 5 2010. Screened ?April 2010 and rescreened Sept 1 2010. Two segments, one of which is about crazy inventors. Director was Susanne Bogner, camera by Oliver and host was Harro. Topics included the mini-coil, exploding watermelons, the Faraday cage and the swimming pool. It includes a test with a sparks onto a dummy in Germany. Also some 3d computer graphics showing me moving my arm to show current flows. Very clever. Video runs 14 mins.

“Elec-trickery” WIN TV Australia had a news item on 23/12/08 for 90 seconds. Reported and filmed by Tiffany Wertheimer. Also screened on Channel 9 news and A Current Affair to give wide coverage in Australia. This eventually went international to 16 countries.
First a jukebox selection of 13 international TV news articles based on the Elec-trickery clip. Around 1 minute each.

Above, are a few pictures from the Win TV shoot. The 5kJ capacitor bank explosion of some steel wool and aluminum actually started 2 small grass fires which were caught on camera.
The sources of the jukebox clips above are here:
Reuters Dec 2008 (a large international news service) had this version of the WIN TV segment which they titled: “Zapping for ‘elec-trickery’ man” . Reuters is also the source of these: Reuters, Reuters (Reuters article with narration), Reuters (Rough cut, no narration),Blinkx Video
USA TV news Dec 2008. Made it to the MSNBC Editors Picks
UK TV news Dec 2008, on ITN TV. (…isn’t a Timelord..) Meet Australia’s Electro-man.
China TV News (in Chinese) Dec 2008. The site and details are here. Another Chinese report shows a newspaper article. Details on the Youtube report.
China TV News here New Tang Dynasty TV in English and French.
Italy TV News here, Turkey TV news here, Holland TV news here, Brasil TV newshere, Romania TV news here
A few other countries whose clips I couldn’t capture for the jukebox above are:
Norway TV news here, Denmark TV news here, Indonesian TV news here,Croatian TV here
Switzerland TV news here.
Also was seen in Pakistan, Vietnam, Peru, Bulgaria and Singapore.
The Canadian Discovery Channel – Daily Planet has done 4 videos of my stuff. Nice high quality production which took about 6 hours shooting for each 5 mins. And the first one won an award.

Discovery Channel TV episode 1 shown Sept 4, 2007 in Canada. Runs 5:14 mins and includes smoke rings, electric shocks, capacitor discharges and sparks in the pool.

Original Video – More videos at TinyPic

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Above is the Gold Remi Award from the Houston International Film festival awarded to Discovery Channel Canada for this first video segment. Dean Lomax was the cameraman and Dennis Porter the producer. There are about 5000 entries and about 1000 winners in hundreds of categories. In this pdf winner list search for “electricity” will take you to the entry.
Discovery Channel TV episode 2 shown Sept 11, 2007 in Canada. Cameraman Dean Lomax shot episode 1 and 2 in 11 hours. Runs 3:45 mins and includes capacitor discharges, big TC construction. If you have a fast broadband link then view it direct in higher resolution from the Discovery Channel hereotherwise click the video below.

Original Video – More videos at TinyPic

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Discovery Channel TV episode 3 shown Nov 21, 2007 in Canada. Cameraman Dean Lomax shot this in about 6 hours. Runs 5 mins and includes the big TC in a big domed building. Click the video below.

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Discovery Channel TV episode 4 shown Dec 20, 2007 in Canada. Cameraman Dean Lomax shot this also in around 6 hours. Topic is the Tesla Christmas tree. If you are in Canada (only) you can watch ithere otherwise watch it here. Video runs 5 mins.

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Dutch Novus TV “Fobiac” Filmed 7/11/08 Aired 7/1/09
Suzanne de Jong from Veronica TV in Holland along with Frank van Geloven as director and local cameraman Dean Lomax recorded a segment about electricity for a program on phobias. The full 45 minute program is here on the Veronica TV site. Photo gallery is here. Filming took about 6 hours at my place. I provided the Tesla coils and HV stuff which they had seen from my website. She gets confronted by electricity from small shocks on her arm to a mini-Tesla coil. Then on to standing in a cage with 6 foot sparks from a huge Tesla coil striking only a few inches from her face. She was genuinely scared and took a lot of coaxing. After that it was into a pool to have 2 foot sparks onto her head wearing a tinfoil hat. They were very happy with the result and it was fun working with a presenter and director (compared with Discovery videos where interviews were over a mobile phone). The video below is edited to include my stuff only and runs15 mins.

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German Pro Sieben TV “Galileo” Filmed 14/11/08, Aired 16/6/09
Ann-Mirja Boehm is a producer from Pro Sieben TV station in Berlin and filmed this program for a science program called “Galileo”. Again, local cameraman Dean Lomax did the shooting in two 9 hour sessions for 10 minutes on air. Was shown online here a few days later for 1 week but not accessible in Australia. The video below is in German but you will get the idea. The car effects are well done. Video runs10 mins.

Sadly my camera died during the night (see the last photo) and it wasn’t filming sparks at the time at the time it started.

Click to enlarge
Joe Genius is an internet TV program who gave me a “What were you thinking award”.

Supercharged (nearly) 2008
Creative Differences is a production company in the US that raised the possibility of a TV series. This was their “Dr Shock” promo pitched to US Discovery Channel. The plan was for 13 half hour episodes. It wasn’t accepted but it was nice to be asked ….

Above is the promo. It was rejected with the comment from Phil Fairclough : Thoughts from Discovery development exec to ponder: It’s great fun, but doesn’t deliver enough “why are we bothering” to me – no big point to it. Good info along the way, but it’s not driving to or coming from a bigger piece of knowledge – not really satisfying a larger curiosity other than “how will he build a force field?”
Suppose I need some myths to bust ….

Discovery Channel Canada

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Discovery Channel TV episode 1 shown Sept 4, 2007 in Canada. Runs 5:14 mins and includes smoke rings, electric shocks, capacitor discharges and sparks in the pool.

Original Video – More videos at TinyPic

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Original Video – More videos at TinyPic

Scitech Tesla Upgrade

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I have upgraded the Tesla coil at Scitech. This is a non profit organization whose mission is to increase interest and participation by Western Australians in science and modern technology. It has been open since 1988 and has 250,000 visitors annually.

On the wrong side of the Faraday cage (above), doing the demo in Feb 2003. An earthed PVC rod with steel wool on the end gives a sparkler effect if the sparks are hot enough. To the right in the photo is Scitech’s TC which needs some work.

My interest and involvement was sparked (pun intended) by its Tesla coil which was made by Stan Deyo in around 1988. It has functioned reliably with little modification since. The black and white double exposure publicity shot at the time is shown below on the left.

I was able to see the Tesla coil in Feb 2003 with my son, Michael. He expressed disappointment at how short the sparks were, having only seen my Tesla coil at home. It was reeally not performing well with perhaps 2 foot streamers despite using a 5 kVA pole transformer. Truly, here was a noble cause worthy of assistance.

The best picture I could get showing only small streamers (above right). Despite retuning, doubling the topload, and doubling the capacitance only about 3 foot sparks could be obtained. The staff were keen to upgrade and I gave a demo of my 4 inch coil and micro wave oven transformer supply, which gave sparks up to 4 1/2 feet above (top photo).

This is the upgraded Tesla coil installed 2003.

In June 2003, my 6 inch coil was installed with a significant improvement in performance (above). The sparks are now a lot hotter and are out to around 4 feet. The length can be estimated by the 36 inch length of the secondary to the base of the toroid. Still less than hoped for but a much noisier and more impressive display.

Schitech demonstrators, Renae and Chris in my Faraday cage inside their cage at Scitech in 2011. This was for a radio promotion that was planned but didn’t get off the ground due to public liability issues. A custom cage was planned but didn’t eventuate despite everyone’s enthusiasm.

Technical specifications (original) 2003
The original Scitech TC components included a 5 KVA pole transformer 250 V to 12.5 KV with a soft start and extensive mains filtering and monitoring. It is ballasted with 3 paralleled heater elements which glow red hot after a minute or so of continuous operation. It has fuse limiting to 16 A.
The motor is an ARSG running on DC 180 V with 8 tungsten 1/2 inch rotating electrodes and 2 stationary.
The 2 tank capacitors are each 20 nF mylar (total 40 nF at 20 kV).
The previous primary was around 2-3 turns and the secondary is 6 x 30 inch with around 420 turns.
The topload was a 5 x 12 inch gold plated copper toroid.
The construction of this coil and the Faraday cage was of very high quality and the long service a testament to this.

Technical Specifications (upgraded) 2003

The coil during modifications (above) with the new double layer primary and new secondary. The double layer was needed to accommodate the larger number of primary turns (8 above, 5 below) in the same physical space as the previous 3 turn coil.
My changes were to:
1 Replace the secondary with 6 x 32 inches with 1280 turns (previously 6 x 30 with 400 turns).
2 Replace the primary now tapped at 8 of the 13 turns.
3 Use a larger topload of a 12 x 29 inch toroid with a smaller 8 x 20 toroid beneath it.
4 Add my Cornell Dubilier MMC capacitor of 45 nF to the existing capacitor (total 89 nF).
5 Run the motor from 200 V DC (previously 180 V).
6 Fit low profile strike rails.
7 Use an inductive ballast (below) instead of the resistive one.

It weighs 30 kg and has a core iron cross section area of 47 cm²(= 7.3 in²). The inductive ballast (above) made from a modified 440 V to 240 V transformer rated at 5 KVA bought at a junk yard. The four ‘C’ cores were taken apart with gentle persuasion from a large hammer, and an ‘air gap’ made by using a cardboard or acrylic spacer between the cores. By using 0 to 6 mm spacers the current draw on the 240 V winding can be adjusted from 1 A to 30 A. This corresponds to an inductance of 1.0 down to 0.04 Henries.

The resonant charging capacitors (also shown above) of 74 uF is the sum of the 7 polypropylene capacitors that I had. It is in series with the ballast and in parallel with the pole transformer. Using these capacitors results in a higher voltage across the pole transformer input. Testing with a 10 KVA transformer as a load with a 240 V supply resulted in 280 V across the transformer with the capacitors compared with 195 V without. In other words this arrangement gives a higher voltage than the supply and will limit total current draw which generally sounds like a good thing. In practice, however, it did not improved the performance or current draw and has been left out.

External links

Try something else

Photo Date: 2003 – 2008

Various displays

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A temporary page with a lot of stuff on it for later distribution to separate posts

My public display equipment that I have built includes:

Future plans
Vortex cannon (Physics Dept 2006)
My public displays that I have given include:
University Open day for Physics Dept 2006

Tesla Forum Presentation 2007
Hamfest 2007
University Open day for Physics Dept 2007
Gravity Discovery Center Tesla show 2007

University Open day for Physics Dept 2008
Cosmology Gallery opening 2008
Rotary Presentation 2010

Other peoples displays
Big Day Out (Syd Klinge’s coil on tour in Australia Jan 2005)
Big Day Out (Carlos’ twin coil on tour in Australia Jan 2006)

Vortex cannon 2006
This was made for the Physics Dept after they saw my other vortex cannon in action and felt it would be good for school displays. Features of this one:
Portability – well it is a wheelbarrow so easy to get around. Uses a 220 liter compost container.
Large rear diaphragm (70 cm) to shift a good amount of air.
Diaphragm is more flexible and lower for kids to use.
All up cost with new parts was AU$220 (apart from 4 old bike tubes). No screws and can be disassembled in a flash (well sort of falls apart).
It uses a commercial fog generator such as used in discos. The fog is a proprietary mix of propylene glycol and triethylene glycol in water.
But the best part is that it looks mean with a light inside it and sights.

University Open day for Physics Dept 2006
I demonstrated the Tesla coil which brought people in with the noise who then got to see the can crusher, ferrofluid, laser lissajous figures or just get free shocks. The big vortex ring generator was the biggest attraction and few people went past without seeing or feeling it.

A spectator (Robin Wong) took some videos and posted them on YouTube which I happened to see by chance.

Above, the vortex generator in action. Direct YouTube link is here.

Above, the tesla coil in action. Direct YouTube link is here.

Hamfest 2007
This was organized by the Northern Corridor Radio Group and is the first one I have been to. I set up my 4 inch TC in the Faraday cage and also ran the mini coil. Liability insurance was arranged through the groups policy for the event. Seemed pretty well attended and I picked up a couple of NST’s and bits and pieces when I had a spare moment. Setup time for the cage is still almost 2 hours. There must be an easier way. I tripped a breaker turning off the variac (from zero volts), presumably the RCD. They didn’t have the keys to the control panel so had to do some creative work on the hinges to get power back.
Nice to have an audience that understands resonance.
University Open day for Physics Dept 2007
Similar to 2006 with the 4 inch coil in a cage plus the vortex generator. Popular as before. Also used the mini-TC. Getting a lot of mileage from this particularly when people draw sparks to a hand held neon tube. No shocks from the tube setup, but people who want to can have the 2 inch sparks jump onto their hand which does prickle a bit.
Gravity Discovery Center Tesla show 2007
This was a display of my 18 inch coil in a 60 ft wide domed building. Filmed by the Discovery Channel. A sample gallery shows the various effects.
Home open day 2007
This year I sent out a few more invites. This show is mainly for neighbours but in the end none turned up – still there were about 40 people. I put out my usual array of displays including ferrofluid, soldering demos, magnets and small power supplies and lights for the kids, Oscilloscope with microphone attached, lasers including HeNe and green scanner, HV displays of sparks, lifter, small TC, Jacobs ladder, smoke ring generator, CD in microwave and magnetic levitation.
The weather was not in my favour with high winds and intermittent showers but I did get to run the big TC and get some shots of people next to it.

University Open day for Physics Dept 2008
Similar to the last 2 years with the 4 inch coil in a cage plus the vortex generator. Setup on my own though as my usual assistants/slaves (aka sons) had pressing engagements with girlfriends etc.
Popular as before. Also used the mini-TC. Also ran my videos on a laptop.
Cosmology Gallery opening 2008
This was the opening of the Cosmology Gallery in the Gravity Discovery Center in Gingin. It was covered by 5 TV channels and opened by the then Premier, Alan Carpenter. I provided the “Big Bang” to signify the cosmological relevance . I used my capacitor bank at about 4 kJ exploding some steel wool inside an acrylic enclosure. This is one TV news coverage of theCosmology Gallery opening.

Rotary Presentation 2010
I now have a reasonable Powerpoint presentation which includes various videos and animations which I presented to a group of around 30 Rotarians. Followed by a brief demo of the briefcase Tesla coil.

Future plans 2006
In public displays I would like to have a big vortex generator mounted on a trailer on a swivel mount so it can be fired. Perhaps hired out. No major public liability issues with this one unlike high voltage stuff where it would cost me $1500 premium for 6 Tesla shows for the standard $10 million cover.Big Day Out (Syd Klinge’s coil on tour in Australia Jan 2005)
The Big Day Out is a rock concert that tours major Australian cities with over 40 , local and international bands. One of the side attractions (the main one for me) was Syd Klinges’s ‘Cauac’16 foot coil running at 100 KVA. I was fortunate enough to meet Syd and his entourage and discuss coil details. He runs from a portable generator rated at ?170 KVA 3 phase ?480 V using if I recall correctly one 11 KV pig for each of the 3 phases each individually ballasted. The out put is rectified using over 1000 1N4007’s to DC then through an RF filter to the base of the coil and the spark gap which is ARSG using 1/2 inch tungsten electrodes. Tank cap was two 0.1 uF custom made units. Resonant frequency is 59 kHz. The secondary is 10 feet tall and 16 feet total height. The winding is crosslinked PVC coated. Toroid is chicken wire covered.

Some shots of the day with attendance 44,000 in Melbourne.

Big Day Out (Carlos’ twin coil on tour in Australia Jan 2006) This year the BDO featured a show by Carlos who has Lightning for Hire in New Zealand. Carlos has previously done performances with a single coil (review here) with the performer in a conductive suit standing on the coil. For the first time at the BDO he used twin coils with duelling professional performers for a very impressive show. I imagine it is a world first as well and has now been seen by well over 100,000 people.

The performance starts with the two performers performing some gyrations with streamers coming off their extremities. Then they bow towards each other and the spark forms between their two heads perhaps 10 feet apart. Later they use metal staffs in a mock battle with sparks forming as the staffs are pointed at each other.
The power (12 kVA) is from a portable generator and he has a homemade transformer running 22 kV and a .07 uF mylar capacitor (for all of you ‘mylar is hopeless’ types). Coils are about 8 ft by 18 inches with a small steel corona ring attached to an aluminium plate that the performer stands on. There are large PVC supports and a PVC ladder.
Carlos said that he was working on a 25 kVA DC 3 phase system with charging reactor but he blew some expensive HV diodes and was reluctant to use a potentially unreliable system for the BDO.
The suits are made of fine steel mesh and butchers chain mail gloves are used.
All in all an impressive show (and the music was good too)Big Day Out (Carlos’ twin coil on tour in Australia Feb 2011)
Carlos who has Lightning for Hire in New Zealand has now done the BDO for 8 years and has done shows in Europe, UK and Japan.

Can Crusher Display for Uni

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This can crusher display crushes cans in milliseconds using a very high current pulse.
“Continue reading” for more details and photos. Continue reading →

Tesla coil for Physics Dept

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The Physics Dept of the Uni of Western Australia had this Tesla coil which dates back 40 years. Made in Germany according to the nameplate. Apparently runs at 1 MHz but lots of problems with the Leyden jar caps. It still not functioning despite various attempts so despite the historical interest it was felt a new one was needed of more modern design. So I put my hand up.

For more details and photos: Continue reading →

I, Frankenstein

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A screen grab from the trailer of I, Frankenstein. Were some of these sparks based on mine?
For more details, 6 photos and a video:
Continue reading →

Gallery-Media

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My wife was browsing Zazzle (as you do) and came across this tee shirt with my picture of the Red Alert Tesla coil on it. No I didn’t authorise it (but I bought it anyway).

Media

Tesladownunder on Australian TV
The site has attracted a lot of Australian media attention since 2008 and has now been on 9 TV news segments.
Australian TV coverage of Tesladownunder on this page includes:

Australia’s Got Talent, Ch 7, 2011
GWN news, Ch 7, Dec 25 2010 – Worlds Brightest Bike lights.
WIN News Ch 9, Feb 21, 2009 – Xmas tree.
A Current Affair, Ch 9, Sept 21, 2009 – High voltage power lines.
Today Tonight, Ch 7, Jan 2009 – Tesla coil effects
Today Tonight, Ch 7, May 2009 – Modern Thinker
WIN News Ch 9, Dec 23, 2008. Australia and 16 other countries “Elec-trickery”
Ten News, Ch 10, 2009 – Cosmology Gallery Opening

Now this ABC video didn’t get to TV but was setup to do so.

http://vimeo.com/76846587

Sword swallowing

This is the GWN 7 TV news segment from the news site. Space Cowboy tricks

Australia’s Got Talent Channel 7 Australia. 2011
Audience 1.7 million for episode 1. Here is a 7 second animation of the 2 minute act.

Australia's Got Talent
This is covered in separate pages with on and off air videos and Tesla coil setup details.

GWN news, Ch 7, December 25 2010.
This was about the World’s brightest bike light with Christmas theme.
The GWN version (was) here. The Channel 7 version was a different edit.

WIN News Ch 9, Feb 21, 2009 – Xmas tree. This news item was reported and filmed by Tiffany Wertheimer. Topic was the Xmas tree 2009. Filmed by Dean Lomax with video effects by Jordan. Video runs 1:18 mins.

A Current Affair, Ch 9, Sept 21, 2009 – High voltage power lines. By John Mort. Shown across Australia. The topic was a report on the medical risks posed by high voltage lines. My opinion was on the basis of my high voltage knowledge and as a medical specialist to interpret the extensive literature. Early studies had suggested a leukaemia risk but later much larger studies that actually measured fields showed no risk. I would have no concerns living under a power line (and in fact have done so when living near Hyde Park in Perth).
The Eastern States version is on video from the ACA website here. Video runs 4:13 mins

Today Tonight, Ch 7, Jan 2009 – Tesla coil effects. Reporter is Mark Gibson and it was shown across Australia. Link is here. Took 5 hours to shoot and runs for 5 minutes.

Today Tonight, Ch 7, May 2009 – Modern Thinker. Reporter is Graeme Butler from Today Tonight and it was shown across Australia. Topic was the Modern Thinker. Took 6 hours to shoot and video runs for 5 minutes.

WIN News Ch 9, Dec 23, 2008. ”Elec-trickery”. This 90 second clip was reported and filmed by Tiffany Wertheimer. Also screened on Channel 9 news and A Current Affair to give wide coverage in Australia. Elec-trickery eventually went international to 16 countries with an example being MSNBC News in the USA .

Above, are a few pictures from the Win TV local shoot. The 5 kJ capacitor bank explosion of some steel wool and aluminium actually started 2 small grass fires which were caught on camera.

Ten News, Ch 10, 2009 – Cosmology Gallery Opening
The Cosmology Gallery Opening showed my pulse capacitor bank exploding some wire to simulate the Big Bang. Also showed the mini Tesla coil in action. It appeared on other channels as well.