Photographer captures electricity
wired.com
wired.com
As a kid I got my hands on a HV transformer from a rooftop light installation.
Two pieces of curved wires attached to the terminals, touch the base between the wires with a hammer and a spark would ride up the curve.
As soon as the spark extinguished that would temporarily excite the coil to an even higher voltage because of the circuit breaking, if you set it up just so that would be enough to jump the gap between the two wires at the bottom and the cycle would repeat.
Friggin' dangerous but lots of fun.
My grandfather built one in his basement. It zapped him once and sent him clear across the room.
If my mom had known what I was up to with that thing it would have been gone in a heartbeat.
It's a small miracle I got this old anyway, considering the fact that I chopped the top of a BLX15 with a dremel to see what it looks like inside.
I was young, stupid and apparently very lucky.
One of the major components of that casing is Beryllium-Oxide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium_oxide
Apparently it is entirely safe to handle, as long as you do not grind it to dust, which is exactly what I did, not wearing a respirator or any other safety measures, I never realized how dangerous that stuff was.
I was simply interested in seeing what the guts of a transistor like that looked like and the best way to do that without causing damage was to slowly grind the cap off.
Not a smart thing to do.
I only found out many years later. Fortunately I never had any Berylliosis symptoms so I think I got away clean.
Luck favours dumb people.
It's crazy how organic and of the natural world these look.