What is it? I know there's not much to go on, but it's all I got at the moment.First of all, Rachel is showing her lack of tact in referring to the items in the background as "artifacts". Just because some of us are older and more experienced does not mean that she is seeing relics of a distant past!
Just a quick note about the footstool. Best piece of furniture ever! Not only did it serve as a footstool, but it had a comfy soft top to sit on, and better yet, was great fun to roll back and forth across the room.
Back to the phot0: What we have here is a Jacob's ladder. Basically it's a transformer with two slightly diverging wires attached to the anode and cathode. When the circuit is closed an electrical arc jumps the gap at the bottom and works it way up until it reaches the ends and pops off and the cycle starts again. If you look closely at the top of the wires you can see the arc!
I built this for a science project in Wayne R's science class. I borrowed the transformer (originally used in a neon sign) from Boss Vance. I was demonstrating the device to the class, perched on Wayne R's stool behind his desk, when I reached around to bring it closer to me. ZAP! I flew backwards off the chair landing on the floor behind the desk. People later told me that they had never seen Wayne R move so fast! So not only did I demonstrate Jacob's ladder that day, I also showed what 10,000 volts* could do!
*10,000 volts sounds like a lot, and it is, but it's the amps (or power) that is the real killer. Although I don't recall the exact amperage, I suppose it was measured in milliamps, or thousandths, of an amp.
6 comments:
It looks like some kind of lighting rod makers or something to conduct an electrical event - probably one of your science projects in school. I do however recognize several artifacts in the background - the china hutch, the sewing basket, the footstool that Elizabeth recovered many years later, the tote on top of the footstool, the chair under the sewing basket. Hope that counts for something!
I do remember this. But I have no idea of what it is or why it was built. If I remember right the electricity would go up the two prongs and arch at the top. Was this a science project of yours? You always seemed to be building things...model airplanes, bombs,...
I also thought it was some kind of science project. Rachel, you forgot to mention the orange chair that is now a bluish chair. Also, I think Julia Young recoverd the can footstool. Didn't mom use the original as an object lesson in RS and Julie Young was so embarrassed how bad and tattered it looked that she took it and recovered it?
I also remember that it was some sort of science project that John made, and the arc was kinda of a bluish color. Didn't we also try to interrupt it with either a pencil or some other object?
Hey Rachel, there is also a tin underneath the chair. It had a winter scene on it.
I didn't ever recover Mom's, but I made a couple and that was enough. Those things are NOT easy to do! Mom was gracious enough to be the featured speaker at one of my RS Socials in Ivins. She brought her stool to that one too.
Can't remember if you made for school or just because, but I know like Sharon that we used a pencil to break the current as it went up the two poles. I don't think it burned the pencil. Do you still have it?
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