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SELECTION GALLERY (PART 1A)

This begins the "selection gallery" series of articles.

[ Selection galleries : Part 1A | Part 1B | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 ]

Ignition coil based electrical phenomena A

Ignition coils are found in combustion engines to generate high-voltage pulses for the spark plugs. Two can be configured in anti-parallel to give twice the usual voltage output. Ignition coil drivers can be constructed by hobbyists, or commercial equivalents can be purchased from websites such as rmcybernetics.com. This article features a selection of photos and videos without much explanation or technical information about the electrical phenomena displayed.

Preview images can (usually) be clicked on for larger versions of the image.

Some photos from the earlier stages of the project

The earlier learning curve stage of the project only used a single canister-style ignition coil.

After getting familiar with operating the Canon PowerShot S100 during an earlier setup with a single ignition coil:

Ordinary lengthy lower frequency sparks

These photos and videos involve two high performance canister-style ignition coil towers configured in anti-parallel. The maximum spark length achieved was about 15cm, indicating a peak voltage of about 90kV; at this distance the discharges were relatively weak, and for most of the photos and video captured, the spark length was around 8cm to 12cm:

Using the hook handles of two metal skewers as electrodes:

A close up video of ~10cm sparks occurring at 50Hz between two metal skewers as electrodes:

Click here to see a similar video taken at 240fps (1/8th speed). It demonstrates that there are only individual sparks and not multiple simultaneous sparks as suggested by some of the photos due to the camera shutter speed used.

Now with a setup which used multiple electrodes, with two photos from different camera settings:

Click here to see a video of the above setup which used multiple electrodes.

Next, LEGO Darth Sidious (Star Wars) using 'force lightning', attempting to replicate a scene from Episode VI:

Now Yoda is getting in on the action:

Video of Yoda with lightsaber vs Sidious: S100-M5423-800x450mq.mp4 .

Video of Yoda without lightsaber vs Sidious: S100-M5390-800x450mq.mp4 .

Now a non-canonical shot!:

Sparks travelling through and/or around objects

With some luck the sparks would travel along the surface rather than the air:

With the correct settings, the sparks could travel through paper without burning it:

The sparks preferred to travel around this nylon cutting board and appears to 'stretch' like a rubber band:

Sparks travelling around a sheet of clear acrylic plastic:

An unfortunate LEGO gunslinger being electrocuted for unspecified crimes, followed by a green LEGO tree:

Now for some attenuated discharges flowing around and through a thin lid for a plastic container:

This time through an even thinner photocopy transparency sheet of mylar:

It eventually burns a hole through it, click here and click here to see two different videos of this setup.

Through a black air-core sheet of plastic:

Passing through organic material

At high voltages the electrical resistance of plants is not much of a barrier to pass currents:

Click here to see a video of the above setup which used a potato and fork for electrodes.

Here is an attempt at some quasi- Kirlian photography i.e. using a regular camera instead of the usual contact print:

Different settings (lower frequencies than the few hundred hertz used above):

Another photo of (two) potato electrodes:

There are more captures of high-voltage electrical phenomena from ignitions coils, but these were placed in another article:

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Next: Selection gallery - Part 1B (Ignition coil based electrical phenomena B)

[ Selection galleries : Part 1A | Part 1B | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 ]

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