amazing work, nerds
March 19th, 2008O.k., this is officially described as:
"Twin Solid State Musical Tesla coils playing Mario Bros theme song at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon sponsored by DC Cox (Resonance Research Corp) in Baraboo WI."
Nice. What you need to know is that the music is actually somehow generated by the sounds of the sparks themselves, and not through any kind of speaker. More info:
The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software. These coils were constructed by Steve Ward and Jeff Larson. Video was captured by Terry Blake. What is not obvious is how loud the coils are. They are well over 110dB.
As someone in the youtube comments section put so eloquently, amazing work, nerds.
I also love hearing the nerd audience delight in the spectacle. Right when it starts one guy can’t help it and unleashes an unbridled "Yeahhhhhh!"