GM VOLT LAUNCH w/ CUSTOM BUILT TESLA COIL

THE PROJECT:
General Motors was unveiling their Volt automobile in the Canada market, and as part of the live site event in Toronto they asked Circus Orange to give a Tesla Coil demonstration. Luckily we have a lot of experience with high voltage special effects (HVFX) and we just so happen to own the largest non-scientific Tesla coil in Canada. 

The only performer in this particular show was our 8’ high Tesla Coil.  To make the coil even more impressive we fabricated a large pedestal tower with three grounding balls mounted on custom trusses suspended ten feet out from the coil. 

Every half hour we fired this monster of a machine up for a minute, causing 3-million-volt electrical “streamers” to slice through the air randomly striking one of the three grounding balls positioned around the toroid (top of the coil).  The impact on the audience was amazing.  The sound, the smell (HVFX create ozone) and the spectacular electrical streamers mesmerized the crowd, who gathered and asked many questions about the machine, electricity and how it drove these new state of the art vehicles.

PROJECT RECAP:
It was both fun and scary to work with high voltage special effects on such a large and public display.  The risk analysis and assessment portion of this project was more involved than most of the other jobs we have ever done.  Electricity is still a mysterious force and not something to be taken lightly, especially when we were stepping it up to 3 million volts in the middle of the busiest public square in Canada.   That being said, we worked with our client to create a safe, secure demonstration that impressed a whole lot of people.  We worked with some amazing experts and we learned a thing or two in the process. 

LINKS
Tesla Coil Demonstration Video