[sdiy] Re: WAY OT humour - New synth DIY site ?

[oleavitt at ix.netcom.com]

While on the subject of mad science...

I have been able to make a candle flame 'sing' by placing it between a pair of metal plates connected to the secondary of of a step up transformer (such as a TV flyback) with it's primary connected to the output of an amplifier.
If you apply high voltage DC to the plates the flame will lean to one plate or the other depending on polarity. Apply AC and the flame will vibrate wildly and make noise.
I have also tinkered around with making electric arcs sing - Kind of fun, as the arc changes shape at different frequencies.
Singing Jacob's Ladder:
(osc->amp->transformer->pair of carbon rods)

Check out the Telharmonium:
http://www.synthmuseum.com/magazine/0102jw.html

There's more good stuff here:
http://www.synthmuseum.com/magazine/time0010.html

Oren


On Wed, 1 May 2002 21:09:13 +0100 Paul Maddox <Paul.Maddox at Wavesynth.com> wrote:

Rainer,

> > I've heard of people programming other things to play tunes on,,,
> > stepper motors etc?
>
> Ah, well, just remember the 1541 drive music for good old Commodore disk
> drives :)

me too,
you havent lived unitl you've heard this!!!

Wanna know how it worked?

The commodore drives were designed SOO cheapily they had no home sensor,
So when you switched the drive on, it would pull the head back one track 40
times (40 tracks on a disk),
even if the head was on track 1, so you would hear 39 knocks...

You could change the speed (hence pitch) by forceing the head forward the
correct number of tracks then back again,
It was crude but I got mine to play twinkle twinkle little star!

Amazingly the drives seemed to still work!

Paul