plasma are lethal enough to kill on contact! In

this project we're using an old microwave oven

transformer to extract these traveling electric arcs.

In a previous video, I found a microwave in my

neighbors garbage can, and salvaged this iron core

high voltage transformer. This is heavy metal.

The primary winding is around 100 turns of

insulated wire, and there's somewhere around a

thousand on the secondary. I'll pull these clips

off the primary to expose its 2 terminals, and

pull this middle wire out of the way because I

won't be using that. I've got the secondary

winding connected to some 14 gauge wire and then

taped to a nail on the end of this wooden stick.

This setup should insulate my body from the

circuit. The other end of the secondary winding

is grounded to the iron directly and when I put

power to it, I can draw out some high voltage

electrical arcs. In order to get these arcs to

travel upward like this, I'll need to form a "V"

shaped spark gap. I don't have any metal coat

hangers, but I have some un-insulated 14 gauge

copper wire that should work. I'm cutting these 2

pieces roughly 2 feet long, and using this piece

of glass I salvaged from the door of the

microwave. Adding pressure and rolling the glass

back and forth seems to be an effective way to get

the kinks out. 3 inches of the wire is bent 90º,

then folded back in half, and using pliers to bend

the tips over, it looks like this. Holding

everything flat, I'll trim the tips, and curve

them over, and that's pretty much it. This small

piece of wood should work well as a base for the

spark gap, so two holes are drilled, and screws

added to hold the copper electrodes in place.

This wire is soft, so I can easily form it into a

"V" shape, so that the closest contact points are

3/8" apart. The top is just over 20 inches high

and about an inch wide. To make this insulated

safety stick, I simply hammered a nail into the

end of a wood 2x2, and proceed to cut the head off

using a hacksaw. The MOT voltage isn't high

enough to jump a gap this wide, so the nail body

will help it get started. To add power, I'll use

the cord I scavenged from the microwave. I've

added alligator clips to the wires, and made sure

the green wire is out of the way. The black and

white get clipped onto the primary coil, and these

separate clips connect to the secondary winding

and the outside of the transformer body. Now I

can plug the cord in, flip on the power, and with

one hand behind my back, aim this nail right

between the gap. And there it goes! This is

lethally high voltage, but not quite enough to

start on its own. The electrode wires diverge at

a very slight angle, slowly stretching the arc as

it travels upward. It's impressive how much it

grows at the top before it breaks. Shaky wires

make the arc less stable, and cut out before

reaching the top. I'm inside the house now to get

out of the wind, and when this one sparks, it

takes off like a rocket. The unballasted arc

behaves almost like a short circuit, drawing power

until the arc snaps, or the circuit breaker pops.

I can't think of any practical use for this. It's

simply quenching my curiosity. This airborne

electricity is rocketing upward because it's

heating the air around it, and the hot air rises.

They might look harmless enough, but don't touch

because contact with the exposed high-voltage

conductors can be lethal. That's why I have

gloves, and a safety stick. I've just narrowed

the spark gap, and now when it shorts out, I've

captured a glowing orb of electricity. I have to

look away because of all the UV radiation flying

out of this thing. I still have this high voltage

capacitor from a previous video and i'm wondering

what would happen if I added it in parallel with

the spark gap? Let's find out. Yikes! That's

one supercharged spark. Because this is indoors

it's easy to make this into an ozone generator!

Right now, this is ionizing oxygen and nitrogen

into ozone and nitrous oxide gasses. At least

until the breaker pops. And perhaps that's a good

thing since the gas is poisonous. Well I'm still

alive, so this is probably a good time to power

off and disconnect the cord. It's extremely

important to safely discharge the capacitor before

I remove these lead wires, and put everything

away. I can tell this transformer took some abuse

because it's extremely hot, and hard to hold onto.

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for watching!