Inside Our "Crab Trap" Faraday Cage...Some of Our Most unique Photography

Coiling on 07/23/01 --- Mark Stolz (top 4 pics) and Aron (bottom 2 pics) in a different makeshift cage, using a ladder for a frame! Arcs exceeded 11 feet tonight, a new record for us!

The cage allows us to get extremely close to our big tesla coil without being harmed. Lightning bolts come off of the coil, jump about 8 feet through the air (depending on how close the cage is to the coil), and blast the side of the cage where we sit. It's a VERY unique experience being inside. The arcs are super-loud and super-bright, but if no breakout terminal is used to direct the arcs toward the cage, bright purple streamers flicker all around you 10 feet to your left to 10 feet to the right, hitting the ground and close objects. Then all-of-a-sudden with no warning, one will hit the cage right in front of your face. You can feel the pressure waves shaking your clothes. But sometimes, the arcs will jump clear over the cage and hit it from the back. Getting hit from the back always a little "weird" - - you hear it and feel the air vibrating as the arc hits, but all you can see is the cage and ground light up around you...

A quick and crude test was done to see if a digital camera could hold up to any high-voltage RF fields inside the cage. The cage was moved to about 7 feet from the coil, and we placed a 6' flourescent lightbulb vertically inside the middle, resting it on a piece of plywood. After this was done, the coil was run up to full power while we watched to see if the bulb would light. Only the bottom half lit up dimly, so we figured the cam could take it. At full power, we were able to light the same bulb up in hand at a distance of 40 feet...and we were snapping photo's at a distance of 25 feet so we weren't too worried. I mean, come on, it's only an expensive digital camera (OUCH!). Fortunately, it held up perfectly with no problems, and left us with some impressive photos.