What is it about thousands of volts being discharged that brings people closer together? Here’s another video of a Tesla Coil playing techno music. Ah, such crappy tunes never sounded so electrifying. ;)



  1. Jason Zagar says:

    Hey John, I believe that’s the same video as last time.

  2. Gasparrini says:

    Nope, it’s not, the other video had two Tesla Coils. This one only has one.

  3. The Freaky Tiki says:

    I am trying to figure out what the song is that’s being played. It is not an “electronica” type song… is it from a different video game? Anyone recognize it?

    The Tiki

  4. John Paradox says:

    Welcome to Sparking Man!

    J/P=

  5. Matthew says:

    mario in the underworld (level 1-2 maybe?)

  6. GregA says:

    How are they modulating the frequency? Im thinkin they are no longer using the home made nail through board spark gap.

  7. Matthew says:

    From the youtube page, explains little about the modulation process…

    This is a solid-state Tesla coil. The primary runs at its resonant frequency in the 41 KHz range, and is modulated from the control unit in order to generate the tones you hear.

    So just to explain a little further, yes, it is the actual high voltage sparks that are making the noise. Every cycle of the music is a burst of sparks at 41 KHz, triggered by digital circuitry at the end of a “long” piece of fiber optics.

    What’s not immediately obvious in this video is how loud this is. Many people were covering their ears, dogs were barking. In the sections where the crowd is cheering and the coils is starting and stopping, you can hear the the crowd is drowned out by the coil when it’s firing.

    This Tesla coil was built and is owned by Steve Ward. Steve is a EE student at U of I Urbana-Champaign. He and Jeff have been going to Teslathons, which is where they met.

    It’s been suggested that a good name for this coil would be the “Zeusaphone”. “Thoremin” has also been mentioned, though personally I think we need Theramin type inputs for that.

    To answer a few questions I’ve received, YES, someone did yell “Play Freebird!” after the first round of music.

  8. BubbaRay says:

    Plasma speakers have been around for 50 years, but the Tesla speaker is more fun to watch. And as an added bonus, the room smells like the aftermath of a thunderstorm from all the ozone generated. 🙂

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_speaker

  9. Gwendle says:

    Would be neat to hear Smoke on the Water played on one.

  10. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    #10 – NOW THAT is funny!

  11. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    #3 – Is it Popcorn?

  12. corbin says:

    ading the obvious joke. Its electric boogie woogie woogie

  13. chris says:

    Reminds me of an old article I bookmarked some time ago off the old SWTP website…Acetylene torch speakers….

    http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/PopularElectronics/May1968/Flame_Amplification.htm

  14. BubbaRay says:

    #16, Chris, now that’s what I remember. All we need now is a 4 to 6 foot tall focused flame to get those freqs between 10Hz and 2KHz. (and wintertime!)
    Thanks for the link!!

  15. Hey, ok, I get it, I guess – but does this really work?


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