My Tesla Caught on Fire!

My Tesla caught fire! No, not my electric car... So I just finished building a Tesla coil kit (onetesla.com) and wanted to demonstrate it in a fun way. Using a motorized turntable, some fluorescent tubes and a plasma ball, I set it up playing Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones and began shooting video of the coil in different configurations.

For a little background, the tesla coil can create musical notes using its controller (called an interrupter) and the controller accepts MIDI files (converted to OMD format) using an SD card. Also, a tesla coil can cause nearby fluorescent lamps to glow from the static discharge. I wondered if a plasma ball would illuminate in the same way, so I purchased one and got amazing results.

The video was supposed to simply be the tesla coil playing the music. The fire at the end was not intentional, I assure you. As the turntable was spinning the fluorescent bulbs, I noticed that an arc was discharging from each bulb and completing a path to the ground floor through the rubber mat. As the turntable spun, I believed each bulb wouldn’t be lit long enough to start a fire from the arcing.

But mid way through shooting, I noticed some smoldering and went to grab a fire extinguisher in a nearby room just in case. Thank goodness I did, as just as I returned the smoldering had turned to flames. I quickly unplugged everything and extinguished the flame.

I had thought the fire was completely out, but if you listen closely to the video at the end, you can hear me say, “F..., it’s still going!” What a mess. In the end, nobody was hurt and nothing expensive was damaged (including the Tesla coil).

OneTesla coil kit by onetesla.com.

#tesla #teslacoil #electronics

Видео My Tesla Caught on Fire! канала Flux Condenser Vintage Audio Electronics