HP Forum Archive 19

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blowin' shite oop Message #1 Posted by db (martinez, ca.) on 4 Nov 2009, 11:56 p.m. Our own dave j is featured on boingboing.net tonight. Go to BANG and scroll down to the offending entry. My only question is: how do the ausies end up being the only ones left alive in all those after the nuclear war stories? Ya think they'd blow themselves up. With style, of course!

Re: blowin' shite oop Message #2 Posted by Charles Oxford on 5 Nov 2009, 12:14 a.m., in response to message #1 by db (martinez, ca.) My kind of fun! What a great and cheap detonating device. You could blow up a car with a cr2032. ceo

Re: blowin' shite oop Message #3 Posted by Paul Dale on 5 Nov 2009, 12:17 a.m., in response to message #1 by db (martinez, ca.) Nice display. We used to plug components into the mains and switch on at school ;-) Pauli

Re: blowin' shite oop Message #4 Posted by DaveJ on 5 Nov 2009, 4:27 a.m., in response to message #3 by Paul Dale Quote: We used to plug components into the mains and switch on at school ;-) How crude! You can blow up almost any component with the mains. It's much more elegant to blow stuff up using low voltage :-> If I knew the video would have been this popular I would have put a bit more effort into it! I was just testing my new camcorder. Perhaps a second installment is in order... Wish I had a second cam set up that showed the thing shoot 50ft into the air with a big trail behind it! I still have no idea what BoingBoing is!, I take it it's a big deal or sorts? Dave. Edited: 5 Nov 2009, 6:04 a.m.

Re: blowin' shite oop Message #5 Posted by db (martinez, ca.) on 5 Nov 2009, 11:04 a.m., in response to message #4 by DaveJ Dave; It's a blog on steroids, more of a news site, with several +/- full time staffers. One of them is Cory Dockorow, the writer who also puts up each of his published books on Creative Commons for free download. They have a lot of overlap with the internet civil liberties group "Electronic Frontier Foundation". The banner says it's about Tech Gadgets Science Entertainment Biz Art+Design Culture Action News Weird Offworld. I think your stuff fits into several of those categories. - db

low voltage is fun Message #6 Posted by Frank Boehm (Germany) on 5 Nov 2009, 11:44 a.m., in response to message #4 by DaveJ My 0-30V PSU was good for a lot of fun "back then". - creating a lightning arc between 2 graphite tips of a pencil (this is great, you should try it) - use a graphite tip on a selenoid rectifier (I certainly wouldn't try that at home now <g>) and aluminium foil - blowing up various stuff 8)

So is high voltage..... Message #7 Posted by Michael Meyer on 6 Nov 2009, 8:10 p.m., in response to message #6 by Frank Boehm (Germany) I also have had great fun with my 18,000 volt neon sign transformer. Makes great Jacob's Ladders, just like the movies. In high school, I once taped off one terminal and connected the other side to a wire around my ankle. I could then roll pencils, scatter paper, and do other "telekinetic" tricks without touching with my fingers. Unfortunately, as you know, you don't have to actually touch the other terminal to complete the circuit. I was reminded of that once at home when I accidentally reached too close to the other terminal, which was uninsulated at the time. It "reached out" to touch me and I yelled out.... I still have a lightning patterned scar on my arm.... I don't think I'll try that again.

Re: So is high voltage..... Message #8 Posted by Walter B on 7 Nov 2009, 10:42 a.m., in response to message #7 by Michael Meyer Hmmh, there was a pretty famous character with a similar scar but on his forehead, wasn't it? <:-)

Re: So is high voltage..... Message #9 Posted by designnut on 7 Nov 2009, 2:51 p.m., in response to message #8 by Walter B The 18,000 volt transformer reminded me of engineers week at Missouri University where I set up an 8 foot long 18 inch Tesla coil with rotary spark gap excitation. It threw sparks in the air and I used old fluorescent lamp bulbs to pull and arc to me. Such fun, sam

High voltage Tesla coil Message #10 Posted by Karl Schneider on 8 Nov 2009, 11:32 p.m., in response to message #9 by designnut Quote: The 18,000 volt transformer reminded me of engineers week at Missouri University where I set up an 8 foot long 18 inch Tesla coil with rotary spark gap excitation. It threw sparks in the air and I used old fluorescent lamp bulbs to pull and arc to me. Such fun, sam Let us not forget that the famous photo of Nikola Tesla underneath "lightning" from his coil as he reads nonchalantly is actually a double exposure... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tesla_colorado_adjusted.jpg And, yes, I had seen the photo and knew this fact prior to finding it on the Wikipedia entry for Nikola Tesla. -- KS Edited: 8 Nov 2009, 11:36 p.m.

Re: So is high voltage..... Message #11 Posted by Michael Meyer on 8 Nov 2009, 9:31 p.m., in response to message #8 by Walter B And I think I was just as lucky to survive...

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