Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Insol's Tesla Coil




The coil needs tuning and gap polishing. If I weren't so lazy, the sparks you see here would be about two to three times the size.
















This is what happens when I hold a shop light tube up to the sphere, with the camera in my right hand. There's plenty of energy potential to excite the tube's mercury vapor, noble gas and phosphor into fluorescence.

11 comments:

The Conservative UAW Guy said...

Dude, you totally rock.
I'm even FIRST!, and you still rock way more than I...

Sweet, man.

GunnNutt said...

Hmmmm, you can certainly excite my vapors! *slap*

Anonymous said...

That's awesome. You're the man, insol!

Dr. Phat Tony said...

Are you going to be following in the footsteps of Bill Nye and start a childrens sciences show?

Peakah said...

How long till you go 'chris angel' on us and suit up in a chainmail suit and stand under the largest tesla coil in the world (I think somewhere in wisconsin) and test your mettle against 2 million volts? Or am I the only one who watches that show?

Uber said...

Ooooo pretty! If you do go 'chris angel' on us I'm telling everyone I know you and not including the "sorta" afterward. ;)



"excite my vapors" heh

Insolublog said...

CUG - I want to see more of your sweet armory, jimmyb.

GunnNutt - Who says science geeks aren't attractive?

fiar - Thanks FIAR. You da man!

DPT - I am too afraid some a-hole lawyer will sue me for exposing the kids to real fun.

Peakah - There's no way I could get away with lighting up a 2MV coil here in MA. It looks like Chris' chain mail had some problems. Medieval personal Faraday cages might work better with Van De Graff static generators, since they work by charge buildup, instead of high Q induction (Coil transformers)

Uber - Maybe I should consider MV coil time. It would technically be MUCH easier than that CO2 laser project.

Ssssteve said...

You sir are Awesome!! Soo Cool!! I hope you don't mind but I linked you on my blog! You write so well!!

Insolublog said...

sssteve - Thanks for the link and the praise. I hope to visit soon.

Peakah said...

Well, that settles that...

kateykakes said...

Most impressive!!!