an intersting phtographic element to this:
" Tesla brought back from Colorado was pretty photographs, including the
famous one that shows him calmly sitting in a chair reading while many
megavolts of lightning flashes above his head. In distributing the
photograph, Tesla was forthright about the fact that it was a double
exposure: first the sparks were photographed with no one nearby, and then
the machine was turned off while Tesla seated himself near it and the
photographer set off a flash charge. "
the image from the 1890's is so famous now, yet few realize it was
photographic 'trickery' that brought it to exist.
anyhoo, the point - Years back I read in an electronics magazine of a boy in
the 20's or 30's in the US with a keen interest in physics but a
particularly bad grasp of maths who built a large tesla coil - which when
fired up managed to blow the coils in cars for quite some distance around.
a mischievous person could potentially harm digital data at a distance
without needing to gain access. note too that it doesn't need to be the
classic 'tesla coil' design to harm, neon transformers too when pulsed could
zap stuff
If anyone feels the desire to pratt about with a tesla coil I'd advise them
not to.. but if you, firstly learn the maths to ensure the frequencies
generated are permitted and safe and secondly, here's a page about how to
deal with a relatively small one safely. I draw your attention to "The most
dangerous components in the Tesla Coil are all part of the relatively low
voltage (10,000-volt) circuitry"
http://scipp.ucsc.edu/edu/tesla/teslacoil/safety.html
