Here’s the latest interactive I built for the Spark Museum of Electrical Invention. It is a reproduction of the "Electricity is Life” device by Midland Manufacturing. They were sold from from 1899 to 1909, and were advertised as both a strength tester and electrical therapy device.
As with previous projects, I built this using a combination of the Glowforge and traditional tools in my machine & wood shop.
While I tried to be as faithful to the original as possible, I didn’t see much point in reproducing the antique induction coil circuitry within. So hidden inside the box is an Arduino controller, and a servo motor to control the needle. The Arduino does control a high voltage power supply however, so the more you push down on the handle, the bigger the shock!
Although devices like this can deliver a pretty strong shock, they are relatively harmless, the AC output frequency is about 10KHz, to which skeletal muscle is very responsive, but myocardial (heart) muscle is not.
So, you made a “game” out of a TASER…LOL! Just like when I was on the job…the more you push me the more likely I’m going to make you “Ride the Lightning!”
Very similar to something that Dave & Busters have (had?) in their restaurant/arcade/fun-zone locations. They implemented theirs into a chair so you sit down and grab the electrodes. Shocking but not really painful.
That’s great! I’m sure your reproduction is faithful, nice work John. Love the marketing, ‘See who can take the most’. Well, let’s drop a coin in this thing and get this competition going!
