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Re: neat TC demo effects?

> Original Poster: "Nathan Ball" <nateburg-at-hotmail-dot-com>
>
> And so now I am wondering, what are some neat things to do in a tesla coil
> demo? I've got a box of over 200 AOL cds and such that are fun to fry, but
> what else is there to do?

Affix the end of some magnet wire (or any other thin wire) to the toroid.
Run the wire out from the coil like a clothesline, and affix the other end
to an insulator like a piece of pvc pipe on end, or a fiberglass rod.  Now
string all your microwaved AOL CDs on this!

My other favorite is to bring a wire down from the toroid and onto a
horizontal plane of glass.  I big window works well.  The sparks look
beautiful branching out across the surface.

Lighting up fluorescent tubes at a distance is a fun but cliche thing to do.

Ditto for the electrostatic motor pinwheel effect, but it's still cool for
those who haven't seen it.

2 x 4 lamp.  Drive a nail into each end of a fresh-from-the-depot
two-by-four.  Connect one end to the toroid, and the other to ground.  You
can light up the wood and make it catch fire with a good sized coil.  It
will take some experimention to figure out the length of wood to use.  Bad
to do this one indoors, and bad to substitute PVC pipe for the wood ;-)

Put a nail on the toroid, and add various salts to the nail.  Different salt
anions will give different color arcs.  With hot corona, the color will
travel some distance out the arc.  Sodium = yellow, strontium = red, Copper
=  bluish, Lithium = pink, Barium = ??? green?.  I forget them all, but none
are hard to come by.

If you're using a fairly biggish power supply, don't underestimate the
entertainment power of the supply transformer(s).  Pigs and PTs can generate
some fierce fiery arcs, as can a large bank of 60mA or enhanced NSTs. I also
like to do a 45 degree angle jacobs ladder, with an "arc trap" at the end
(end of the horns bent towards each other, directly above one another).  The
arc climbs slowly up the ladder, then gets trapped at the end where it looks
like a 5" long torch flame.  It will hang at the end of the ladder
indefinitely if you set up the spacings just right.  Kids love the fiery
arcs!

-Adam
adamsmith-at-mediaone-dot-net