This is my take on one of Tesla’s famous photos in which he demonstrated remote power lighting a globe.
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Tesla’s Globe
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Tag Archives: Sparks
Gallery-Tesla
A Tesla coil makes dramatic lightning like displays of electric power such as these sparks to me in a Faraday Cage.
The “Modern Thinker” above is my interpretation of Rodin’s classic statue the “Thinker”. It conveys the concept of the modern electrical age with the barrage of electrical interference in our lives. So much is happening and demanding our attention that it is difficult to “think”.
Believe that?. Me neither. I just like making pretty spark photos….
By the way, no photoshopping anywhere on this site. It’s all what the camera sees. Check out the Modern Thinker page for the construction of this.
Above, a Tesla Xmas tree from 2009 made of Tesla coil sparks That’s how we do it in Oz. Merry Christmas.
Above, the recreation of the Red Alert Tesla coil using a real one. My most complicated photo.
Above, the Tesla trooper from Red Alert in action with a real Tesla coil.
Above shows “Tesladownunder car theft protection”.
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. It was featured on some big sites and hundreds of blogs and was also popular in Russia and Japan.
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 is my recreation of Tesla and his wireless light globe compared with the original.
No photoshopping – ever.
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.
Above, Tesla coils with sparks from 2 inches (5cm) to 11 feet (3.3m).
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.
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Modern Thinker
The “Modern Thinker” above is my Tesla coil sparks interpretation of Rodin’s classic statue the “Thinker”. It conveys the concept of the modern electrical age with the barrage of electrical interference in our lives. So much is happening and demanding our attention that it is difficult to “think”.
Eye of Sauron
This is a Tesla coil with high voltage sparks coming from the end of a rotating rod. It looks dramatic in a long exposure exposure of 22 seconds. The first thing that came to my mind on seeing the photo was the Eye of Sauron.
For more details and photos:
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Australia’s Got Talent – Videos
I was invited to perform in the auditions of Australia’s Got Talent in Perth, Western Australia which screened on May 10th Channel 7. These are the videos of the show.
The setup and details are on the separate Australia’s Got Talent Setup page.
Here is a 7 second animation of the 2 minute act.
Below is my publicity and performance from the official site. Dr Electric if you please…
Below is the performance from my hidden video camera (used for safety monitoring). It includes the original sound track and lots of other stuff not seen in the televised show.
The performance had major problems however and the audience and judges had to wait for 6 minutes for me to get going.
Firstly I had left the power switch off, then there was the more complicated technical problem of my spark gap motor not self starting. Hence, power applied and no action. The problem was hidden under the skirt of the coil. Now this is dangerous because there is huge pressure to fix things fast and a risk I won’t realise power is applied and it suddenly starts.
All was well in the end, however.
I got passed through the next round but was eliminated after that. I must have been one of the few contestants that didn’t want to go to the next stage in Melbourne in view of the time and cost and a lot of technical issues.
Below is my recording of whole show. Almost a complete flop …. See how it panned out and how the Gods were not pleased. It’s a long clip (8 mins) and not that action packed. Perhaps skip this one.
View the Wikipedia entry for Australia’s Got Talent 2011.
Jump to the Australia’s Got Talent video official site
Link to the gallery photo on Australia’s Got Talent.
Audience 1.7 million for episode 1 rising to 2 million for some later ones.
Above shows the main two stunts I did. Left shows how to burn CD’s and a wooden rod that I am holding goes up in flames. The right shows sparks onto a metal cage that surrounds me .
The music is an original soundtrack done by my son, Michael Terren who (was then) an 18yo pianist and composer studying at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. The music has a pounding industrial theme and runs for 2:17 mins.
Resonant Air-Core Transformer (Australia’s Got Talent) by Michael Terren
Interestingly, I appeared in almost all of the promos for AGT including other episodes and even the second round which I wasn’t in. The sparks onto the cage can be very brief but striking.
All in all an interesting experience. I learnt a lot electrically as well.
The setup and details are on the separate Australia’s Got Talent Setup page.
Photo date: March 23, 2011
Exploding Stuff
Exploding stuff is simple and fun. Just put the conductive stuff to be exploded across the capacitor output and it will vaporize (unless it’s a hot dog). The capacitor bank is discharging 5 kJ in to some steel wool for more impressive sparkler effects.
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Mini Tesla Coil
This is a mini Tesla coil, made from odd parts from other projects and a neon sign transformer that runs from 240 V mains.
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Quick Tour
OK – a 2 minute tour.
I am mainly a High Voltage and Tesla coil enthusiast. I like big sparks.
I also have hundreds of other projects here which involve electrical, pulse power, laser, magnetism and other weird stuff. All documented with thousands of photos.
Some of the high voltage photos are unique artistic creations and have appeared on TV around the world.
Right that was 10 seconds….
Best projects:
Check out a 16,000 Joule 12,000 volt capacitor bank for hugely powerful discharges. Half a gigawatt of peak power used for Can crushing, coinshrinking, exploding wires, exploding watermelons and many other experiments. Perhaps look at the Xmas tree 2009, the Red Alert Tesla coil, Jacob’s Bi-ladder, making liquid oxygen, Discovery Channel videos of my stuff, my new record spark length of 11 feet, multicolored sparks, the Tesla Envy video – up VERY close to huge sparks, Dalek cage, swimming with 100,000 volts, video of car theft protection, “Eye of Sauron” and a sparks for beginners project with only 3 components.
Other capacitor banks with electronic switching drive projectile devices such as a rail gun and coil gun. Other HV stuff stuff includes voltage multipliers, Van de Graaff generator, Jacobs ladder, lifters and other high voltage supplies. Various lasers including a homemade ultraviolet nitrogen laser, NdYAG, HeNe, Blu-ray laser, and CO2. Also magnetohydrodynamic drive, 800 A spotwelder, huge smoke rings, liquid nitrogen, ferrofluid, magnetic levitation, miscellaneous electronic projects and a few half baked ideas…
I did a modern interpretation of Tesla’s famous photo with his wireless light globe. My performance in the heats of Australia’s Got Talent. Highlights in recent months include work on a proposal to NASA to view my light from Space. The light is used on the World’s brightest LED bike light (below) and World’s brightest portable LED flashlight . Also see the Xmas tree 2010. Had a visit from SteamPunk enthusiasts for a night of Tesla goodness.
That’s another 60 seconds for speed readers.
So spend the next 50 seconds flipping through some photos and you’re done…
Above, the World’s most powerful LED bike light
Merry Christmas folks ! That’s what we’re like downunder.
The World’s brightest LED flashlight shown above lighting a lighthouse.
HV Antivirus
See how 60,000 volt sparks protect a computer from viruses—or at least flying insects …
“Continue reading” for details about the photography and high voltage behind this.
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Michelangelo
My high-voltage spark version of Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam”.
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