The First Tesla Coil

This is the first working tesla coil I ever made. These are at about 200,000 volts, with a 5 second exposure on my DSLR. A great way to find imperfections or sudden angles in a metal object is to put a huge voltage difference between it and the surrounding atmosphere. Electrons like to fly off pointy bits more than they do dull or rounded bits, and enough electrons flying through an atmosphere creates this beautiful electric blue haze, called the 'corona discharge', or just the 'corona'.