“Lighting the Gas” by your Own Electricity

We have often heard of people who could simply walk across the room, scuffling their feet over the carpet, and who accumulated enough static electricity to light the gas when they presented their finger to the gas tip, a spark jumping to the fixture.

Very few people, however, can do this, and the writer has never seen it done, but here is a sure way to do it every time. If you own a Violet Ray machine, this is to be placed in another room or wherever desired, so that the person or persons concerned do not see it, and a piece of heavily insulated wire is run under the carpet or rug to a piece of sheet metal just under the gas fixture. To light the gas, the key may be turned and the next instant an assistant should close the switch or turn the socket key connected to the Violet Ray machine, when the high frequency discharge will pass through the carpet via shoe nails to your body, and thence from your finger tip to the fixture.

There are several different ways of performing this trick and a little experimenting will make the presentation operate more smoothly. Some people use a Violet Ray machine of the hand type for lighting burners on gas stoves, it simply being necessary to present the glass electrode to the gas burner when the sparks jumping to the burner will light the gas which has been turned on a moment previously.

Mysterious Lamp Bulbs

A bell transformer is connected with the primary of a Ford spark coil. Between the secondary binding posts are connected a spark plug and the primary of a Tesla transformer. The secondary winding of the Tesla transformer is connected to the metal bottom of a showcase.

The Tesla transformer can be constructed out of five turns of No. 6 copper wire for the primary, and the secondary can be made of 200 turns of No. 30 silk covered wire, wound on a glass tube and boiled in paraffin. This will impress high tension and high frequency upon the metal bottom of the showcase and will light up the vacuum of a couple of lamp bulbs which are left lying on the bottom of the showcase. The best effect can be obtained by using a black lined showcase. Contributed by William Hamers.

Mysterious Lamp

Take a spark coil and put it on either 14, 8, or 6 volts A. C. or D. C. Run a wire from one of the secondary terminals to a little metal plate so you can touch it unobserved.

Then, when ready to surprise and impress the audience, touch this plate with one hand and hold an electric light bulb by the base in the other. Request someone to step forward and all you have to do is put it against his body anywhere and it will light up with a pretty bluish-violet light, like a violet ray. Put a small metal cap or tinfoil on top of each bulb and connect it to the coil.

Contributed by Leslie F. Carpenter.

Makes Your Hair Stand Up

Unless you saw hair standing on end, you would scarcely believe that such a thing were possible, but here is an actual photograph of a demonstration. A grounded plate is held over the head of the victim while his hand touches the ball electrode of an Oudin resonator.