New high-voltage spin on old idea

KIRK HARGREAVES/The Press

TRICK LIGHTING: engineering student Kerry Tunstall shows electrical currents as art.

Relevant offers

Education

School unapologetic for chewing gum expulsion Former principal gets community work New degree to boost te reo ACT banks on charter schools New degree to boost te reo Critics dispute Family First findings on day care Massey education students' year begins Principals give Govt an 'F' on class sizes Christchurch schools use recruitment firm Boy genius may finish school at 15

High-voltage electrical engineering combines with the fine arts to produce a lightning arc drum in the University of Canterbury's electrical and computer engineering department.

The lightning arc and a singing Tesla coil are the work of electrical engineering graduates after four years of study.

Department spokeswoman Jullada Homtientong said building the devices showed graduates could turn concepts into reality.

The lightning arc drum enabled drawings and sculptures to be made using electrical corona, "streamers" and power arcs.

The singing Tesla coil was a "new spin on very old technology", she said. More than a century ago, Serbian physicist Nikola Tesla discovered a way of creating huge voltages using resonance, but the outcome was "untamed".

Recent advances had allowed a much more controllable version of Tesla's invention that produced different musical notes using high-voltage sparks.

- © Fairfax NZ News