Friday 21 June 2013

How to build a Van De Graaf generator....

So, you'd like to be able to zap people with lightning bolts. 

Hell, who wouldn't?

But you aren't lucky enough to be a mallet wielding Norse lightning god*, which means you're looking for another route. 

Well, rather than have people start playing around with the mains** I've dug out three videos for you. 

The first is a demo of the things you can do with a Van De Graaff generator - which includes making miniature lightening bolts...... 


.... The next two are how to build a VDG generator. By the way, I'm not taking any liability if you hurt yourself doing this. But if you apply a smidge of common sense, and take your time, you shouldn't.

Oh, and never, ever, use one of these on someone with a pacemaker.





A friend of mine built one of these for a project at university, and he had lots of fun zapping the rest of us. 

Ba***rd!

Still I got him back with a Gauss gun (I'll get to how you build those, trust me).

*Unless you are one, in which case: Great work with the thunderstorms! Please leave my flat alone.

** Never EVER dick about with the mains, especially in the UK. It's not the voltage or the current that is especially bad, although they aren't nice. What's bad is: The mains current oscillates on a frequency that's very close to the frequency that the nerves controlling your heart work on. So a mains shock doesn't just cause burns, IT JAMS THE SIGNAL THAT KEEPS YOUR HEART  BEATING. 

Leave it alone unless you're very confident that you know what you're doing.

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