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Registered Member #10
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424
This was a fun weekend.
The Space Cowboy likes nothing more than to juggle a chainsaw on a unicycle, abuse his body terribly, throw knives and yes, perform sword swallowing.
He is a world champion street performer, and 20+ times Guinness world record holder based in Byron bay, Australia. As if that wasn’t enough he contacted me to add a bit of spice to his act with some Tesla coil sparks. His aim was a “longest sparks to a swallowed sword†category for a Guinness World record. Well, it's a new category so anything would do. This is the initial view from my camera video, pending the main professional camera edit by by Dean Lomax.
For Guinness, you usually need to hold the performance for 10 seconds. Confirmation requires continuous video with a visible timer plus witnesses and clear measurements. The spark here was 3 foot ten inches onto the tip of the sword which was a balsa extension with some steel wool which burnt through by the end of the act. I made a low visibility ultra light umbrella-like spark shield out of fine Chrome-Nickel steel measuring 2 m across.
There were two separate earth wires one of which picked up a chain maille glove as well. There was still some tingle with that so I added a second glove. He was also on an insulating base to minimise ground leakage. The sword passes close to his heart so I wasn't really keen to have much in the way of any leakage current. I had a defibrillator on standby and he signed an injury waiver.
Of course I have tested all this on myself for safety - without actually swallowing the sword. There is redundant earthing and I am controlling the power.
A longer spark was also tried of 4 ft 7 inches but there is a tendency for the spark to drift off onto the shield. The central rod extension could have been increased but it can start to look out of proportion. A shorter spark is more intense and burns better too. There was a professional video cam, one GoPro "Tesla-cam" linked to an iPhone, my Nikon as a video as well as assorted still cameras. There will be a proper B roll edit for media release being made up including interviews. A Samsung Tablet in an elevated Faraday cage provided the in field timer. Survived direct sparks in testing.
The Space Cowboy homepage The Space Cowboy Wikipedia Chayne Hultgren Facebook
Oh, and I haven't mentioned his own little HV tricks and he brought his own Brightarcs musical DRSSTC. (I have never seen one before) But that is another story...
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Longest sparks onto a swallowed sword: World record attempt.
