Gizmodo: zap

Happy Birthday, Nikola Tesla!

Adam Frucci — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:30:00 EDT

Nikola Tesla, the granddaddy of electricity, was born on this day way back in 1856. If only he were alive to see what kind of goofy crap we were doing with his namesake coils!

People love cheating death by standing right under some Tesla Coils going crazy, protecting themselves in Faraday Cages.

They also like playing music through Tesla Coils, especially super nerdy music like the Zelda theme song.

And people even use his toys to protect their computers, although that ones isn't all to practical. You can see that one in action above.

So for all that you've done for us, we thank you Mr. Tesla. Here's to another couple of centuries of shocking fun.

Omega Recoil Makes Art With Tesla Coils

Adam Frucci — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:20:00 EDT

Art is great, sure. But art made from bolts of electricity fired from tesla coils? That's my kind of art.

Boing Boing Video went and checked out Omega Recoil, a group of crazies who put on performances with gigantic Tesla Coils. And while I'm sure you'd love to read me opine about what their performances are like, why don't you just watch the video and see for yourself? [Boing Boing Gadgets]

British Boy Embarks On "Electric Shock Free-For-All" With Bulgarian Stun Gun

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:00:00 EDT

If that headline didn't grab your attention, I don't know what will. A British 13-year-old smuggled a stun gun he bought on vacation into school, and proceeded to go a little zap-crazy.

The kid bought the gun for $15 while on vacation in Bulgaria, which makes Bulgaria sound like kind of a badass place to go on vacation, and smuggled the device (capable of up to 30,000 volts) into school. He zapped three of his classmates, apparently not realizing that assault with a weapon is actually against the law, and was arrested shortly thereafter.

It's kind of a scary story, since "stun gun" could all too easily be replaced with "real gun," and the results would be a lot worse. This particular gun is not very dangerous, certainly not strong enough to kill anybody, but he probably didn't know that. The kid apparently "feels sorry" for acting like a jackass, which is nice of him, I guess. But the real villain here is the nation of Bulgaria. What gives, guys? Do you not have regulated crowd control arms sales or something? [Mail Online]

Scientist Tries to Create a Phaser to Shoot Lightning Balls

Adam Frucci — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:45:00 EST

Apparently, sometimes lightning comes in ball form, slowly falling out of the sky and exploding on contact. Unsurprisingly, people want to turn lightning balls into weapons. Oh, humanity.

Ball lightning is incredibly rare and hasn't been replicated in a lab, but that didn't stop Dr. Paul Koloc from getting funding from the Missile Defense Agency to research the things. He tried to create "magnetoplasmoids" a foot in diameter, presumably to scare the crap out of people and then kill them.

Said magnetoplasmoids would be shot at speeds of up to 7440MPH from a weapon called the "Phased Hyper-Acceleration for Shock, EMP, and Radiation," or PHASER. Yep.

Unfortunately, while he could create lightning balls up to a foot in diameter, he couldn't keep them stable. But maybe someday he'll figure it out. And that day will be terrifying. [Danger Room]

The Best Way To Cook Hot Dogs: by Tesla Coil

Kit Eaton — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:59:20 EDT

The most exiting way to cook hot dogs: connect a chain of 12 of them up and send bolts of multi-thousand-volt electricity through them. Awesome, and all thanks to the Nevada Lightning Lab and their 10-foot Tesla coil at Maker Faire '08. And amazingly, the coil they used is just a prototype for a 122-foot version they want to build for lightning experiments. Imagine the light show and cookability you'd get from that! [Lightning Lab via Oh Gizmo]

Cordless Drill Modded to Become a Tesla Coil

Adam Frucci — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:10:00 EST

I like me some tesla coils, so it's no wonder that I'm a fan of a power drill modded into a tesla coil. Sure, it's not playing the Mario Bros theme or playing out a scene from Red Alert, but it's still cool in my book. Who cares that a perfectly good drill was made that much less useful? It's cool. [TechEBlog via Geekologie]

Awesome Red Alert Tesla Coil Makes Quick Work of Allied Soldiers

Adam Frucci — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:03:43 EST

Command and Conquer: Red Alert was the first PC strategy game that I really got into, and it's still one of my all-time favorites. That's why I can't help but fall in love with this homemade Tesla coil setup made as an homage to the classic game. The picture above isn't Photoshopped at all; it's a single, 17-second exposure taken with a Nikon D70. That's not to say no special effects were used, however.

Because Tesla coils can't actually shoot long, single bursts of lightning at a target, wires were strung between the coil and its targets to act as a path for the energy to move down. The coil then sent out three-foot bursts along the wires. By using the longer exposure, the bursts all strung together to look like a continuous shock.

As for the figures, they're all handmade, from the cutout of the zapped Allied soldier to the Tesla soldier to the engineer. Be sure to check out the project page for a detailed breakdown of how it was completed with plenty of photos. [Project Page via Neatorama]

Cheapness Sends Student to the Grave via Computer Electrocution

Adam Frucci — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:15:00 EDT

From the Embarrassing Obituaries Dept.: a 20-year-old student in Shanghai was killed when his computer electrocuted him. Apparently, it was very hot outside, yet Wu refused to turn the AC on. His computer was overheating, so rather than go with the AC, he took the case off to let it breath. His sweaty legs hit some exposed wires, and he got zapped into oblivion. Yikes. Let that be a lesson to you: Don't be so cheap that you refuse to turn the AC on even when it's so hot your computer is about to crash. It could kill you. [Shanghai Daily via Weird Asia News]