The Best Burglar Alarm in History

4 years ago Science

tesla coil carPhoto:
All images via TeslaDownUnder

When Nikola Tesla got creative with transformers and driver circuits at the turn of the 20th century he probably had no idea that others would have so much fun with his concepts over a hundred years later.

One such guy is an Australian named Peter who runs a website called TeslaDownUnder, which showcases all his wacky Tesla ways, or rather electrickery, as Peter calls it.

This is just one of them:

Getting Ready
getting readyPhoto:

Finishing Touches
finishing touchesPhoto:

Total Protective Field
tesla coil carPhoto:

In 2007 he persuaded his son to play a part in his experiments, all he had to do was sit in a car but his son was quite sure it was a good idea to be in it when the idea was to eventually be completely surrounded by a high-voltage electrical field. And you wouldn’t blame him, but his father assured him it was all perfectly safe (even though he had bought extra insurance on the hire car “just in case”).

Second Time Lucky
second timePhoto:

3/4 rotation
3/4 rotationPhoto:

A Tesla coil was placed on top of the car with a rod projecting out and bent towards the ground, from which the sparks would fly. A wooden counterweight was then placed on top to make sure it stayed in place. When the electric current was switched on and the rod turned to encircle the car, under long exposure the results are electrifying.

Source TeslaDownUnder

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Comments

Old Comments

ben says

Jul 5th, 2009 at 12am
will you show me some application of tesla coil??? thanks

Mr Truth says

May 23rd, 2009 at 12am
Neat! Looks almost like one of those barrier thingamajigs from the Zelda Twilight Princess game when you fight one of the Twilight Realm creatures, except it's to protect an object instead of fencing you in a battle arena. :O

Mr Truth says

May 23rd, 2009 at 12am
Forgot to add. I bet that's expensive to built and will cost a grand.

Grant Brady says

Dec 23rd, 2008 at 12am
Each one of these photographs is actually several dozen photos of several rotations worth discharges (each rotation takes several seconds) that are digitally combined in photoshop as per their website. It would require an huge amount of power and speed for a real photo to look like this.

shitsngiggles says

Dec 22nd, 2008 at 12am
I just want to know why the car starts out being blue, then silver and finally ends in red?

Rigby5 says

Dec 21st, 2008 at 12am
No, it does not take a lot of electricity. The amperage is actually extremely low. It is the voltage that is extremely high. A Tesla coil is basically a huge transfomer. The current is so low that it is not really dangerous. The voltage is high, but it is just a large static discharge, like from rubbing wool. It can hurt, but is not likely to harm.

Laurence says

Dec 20th, 2008 at 12am
Does no one realise that these photos where taken on a long exposure it really looks like this: http://tesladownunder.com/TeslaCarTheftProtectionSparksOn.jpg

design says

Dec 20th, 2008 at 12am
I expect this to be adopted to fit chastity belts in the future.

Ed says

Dec 20th, 2008 at 12am
This is great. How much power does it need to run?

davesworkout says

Dec 20th, 2008 at 12am
simply amazing. wouldnt go near that car!