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Re: Moody Bible Inst. Tesla Coil (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 1997 20:35:30 -0500
From: Thomas McGahee <tom_mcgahee-at-sigmais-dot-com>
To: Tesla List <mod1-at-pupman-dot-com>
Cc: robert.michaels-at-online.sme-dot-org
Subject: Re: Moody Bible Inst. Tesla Coil
> >
> > Subscriber: robert.michaels-at-online.sme-dot-org Thu Feb 20 22:50:16 1997
> > Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 23:04:08 GMT
> > From: Robert Michaels <robert.michaels-at-online.sme-dot-org>
> > To: tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
> > Subject: RE: Re: Secondary CURRENT
-snip snip snip-
> >
> >
> > Your post reminds me of some spectacular demonstrations
> > conducted by the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. The
> > last of these which I recall occurred some 25 years ago.
> >
> > The Institute had a medium-sized theatrical coil, secondary
> > about 3 x 5 ft. It must have been tube-powered because it
> > was dead silent save the (relatively quiet) discharges.
> > This coil had a flat-plat as terminus.
> >
Robert, that particular coil was most likely the same one I described
in a recent post. I saw it in 1964 at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida.
It was powered by a modified Marx generator. The reason it sounded so
silent was that the spark gap sections were all enclosed in a double-sealed
case to reduce both the spark noise and the light usually emitted
by the apparatus. Besides the Tesla coil they also demonstrated a tuned-rod
sound detection system that allowed you to hear a person whispering
several hundred feet away, and a see-in-the-dark scope using a 6032 infra
red image tube. The person doing the demonstrations controlled many of the
pieces of equipment with a sort of rotary telephone dial that he had
attached to his belt.
The Tesla coil was the real show-stopper! They sometimes attached something
like
a cherry bomb to the top of the coil so that when they turned it on there
was
an explosion at the top of the coil. This unexpected explosion really made
people
jump in their seats! I believe they stopped doing that in some of the later
shows. Probably didn't want any heart attacks in the audience!
> > In a typical demo, a large metal bowl was first placed on the
> > flat plate and the coil energized. Arrogant blue-white
> > streamers 3-4 ft. long danced around the rim of the bowl
> > and clawed their way into the atmosphere.
> >
> > Next, the bowl was removed and a man stood barefoot (but
> > otherwise fully clothed) atop the flat plate. When the
> > coil was again energized, he was enveloped in a hissing,
> > sizzling brush discharge.
> >
Sometimes he would step into a foot bath of salt water before standing
on the plate to get a better electrical connection. They had also
experimented with a special kind of shoe, but it turned out to be
easier to just do it barefoot.
> > The power was cut and he was handed a two-by-four the bottom
> > foot or so of which had been wrapped in foil. This was held
> > overhead, vertically, with both hands. The power was again
> > applied. A discharge worked its way up from the foil and
> > along the two-by-four. After a few moments the wood began
> > to first smoke and then ignite.
> > - - - - - - -
> > On one occasion I was privileged to talk to the demonstrator
> > after the show and learned a few tricks of the trade. For
> > one, it's essential not to have any metal about one's person,
> > the fly of one's trousers included. For another, a heavy
> > pencil line (invisible to the audience) had been drawn along
> > the length of the two-by-four.
The demonstrator once accidentally did the demo with a few coins in his
pocket, and got some nasty RF burns from the coins, and literally
burned a hole in his pocket!
Another thing that he sometimes did with the two-by-four was to drive a
long nail into the end of the two-by-four where he held it with the
SEVERAL layers of aluminum foil. This would cause the arc to issue
from the inside of the wood, sometimes rather startlingly. They
switched to the method of using an external pencil line after one
particular pine two-by-four literally exploded from the internal
steam generated by the heat.
By the way, when the two-by-four began to burn, the arc would follow
the path of the flame and rose sometimes as high as 20 feet due to the
ionization caused by the flame. I mention this because it is very
dangerous.
A Tesla coil that will normally only throw a 4 foot streamer will throw
a much longer one vertically when the air is ionized by a flame. If you are
not careful, this ionized streamer can readily reach up to the ceiling of
an auditorium and pass excessive RF currents over the body of the
demonstrator.
Fr. Tom McGahee
> > - - - - - - -
> > Ever since, I've wanted to try this myself: stand on the top
> > of an operating coil. Nude. With another person. Of the
> > opposite sex. Unfortunately I've never had the equipment,
> > inclination (i.e. guts), opportunity, and person of the
> > opposite sex (with the guts) all together at the same place and
> > time. Alas.
> > Yours for whole-body discharges,
> >
> > Robert Michaels
>
>
> Robert -
>
> Check out some of my pic's at:
>
> http://www.funet.fi/pub/sci/electrical/tesla/pictures/turner
>
> Look at the 'brent_xx.jpg' series of photos. I can be seen
> sitting on top of an insulated platform connected to my larger
> coil system tossing sparks off metal rods, my finger tips, etc.
>
> - Brent (bturner-at-apc-dot-net)