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Electrical field glow jewelry

Better than glow necklaces.
  (+7, -1)
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Fluorescent lights will glow in an electrical field. It is possible to light a bulb in your hand if you are near a high power line, just from the excess thrown off by the lines. I propose to harness this effect for club dancefloor jewelry.

People on the dance floor would wear jewelry full of mercury vapor - essentially fluorescent bulbs. I envision these as large: multistranded necklaces, bracelets, anklets, belts, harnesses, whatever. The jewelry would be inert most of the time. On the dance floor, hidden machines sweep and pulse the area with electromagnetic radiation, causing the jewelry on all dancers to light up and pulse in synchrony with each other.

Other glow tubes and structures in the floor, pillars, and ceiling would also glow and flicker along with the dancers.

In a dark room, it might be possible to lose the effect of people in a crowded room, and instead see only the light effects. I wonder if it would be possible to sculpt the broadcasted electric fields such that different tubes and structures in the room lit up to form pictures? Jewelried dancers positioned between objects would become part of the picture. This picture would not be static, but could actually move and change by varying the broadcast field. You could make it look as though giant glowing lions were rampaging about the dance floor.

bungston, Mar 23 2005

Who Knew? http://www.pureener...004/pylon_ambience/
I have *got* to try this one!

P.S. If this is not an argument for not believing the people who tell you overhead power lines are safe, I don't know what is. [DrCurry, Mar 23 2005]

Great microwave games page. http://margo.studen...te.nl/el/microwave/
[bungston, Mar 24 2005]

[link]






       ...and everyone gets cancer.
Cats Whiskers, Mar 23 2005
  

       I've lit up fluorescent bulbs in the microwave. Was not aware you could do it near high power lines too. Must do some field work...
DrCurry, Mar 23 2005
  

       Cool link about the art, [Curry]. I was intrigued by the magnet in a copper tube thing mentioned in the link.
bungston, Mar 23 2005
  

       You might have charged people wearing insulated shoes, so that their movement generates the required electric fields: Movement actuated displays!
neelandan, Mar 23 2005
  

       Brilliant! (btw, filament bulbs also light up in a microwave, with a variety of unexpected colours. Not sure exactly why, but presumably there's an arc induced, rather than induced current running through the filament?)
Basepair, Mar 23 2005
  

       'Hmmm... I wonder what High Voltage tastes like...'   

       - Homer Simpson
froglet, Mar 23 2005
  

       [basepair] Probably induced current - I accidentally once left a wire-cored snappy around the top of a polythene bag, which I then put in the microwave - the wire heated up and rather neatly melted the top of the bag off.
AbsintheWithoutLeave, Mar 23 2005
  

       [+] Now available at Cyberdog - your very own EMP generator. Now you can wear your electro-luminescent jewellery at home! Also guaranteed to take out next doors' car.
moomintroll, Mar 23 2005
  

       [Absinthe] but the light tends to arise from a spot that moves around and doesn't correspond to the filament, and it tends to be weird colours. Give it a go - it's fun. I always float the bulb in a bowl of water, but I have no idea why.
Basepair, Mar 23 2005
  

       Don't filament bulbs have metal bases? I would think that the bases would shoot sparks in the microwave.
bungston, Mar 24 2005
  

       They should if they have sharp pointy bits. (Smooth metal doesn't usually arc, which is why it's OK to have a stainless steel liner in the microwave). I guess you'd expect the little pins (on the sides of a UK-style bayonet bulb) to arc. Perhaps this is why I was shown this trick with the bulb floating (base down) in a bowl of water.
Basepair, Mar 24 2005
  

       Perfect for dancehall: "Signal di plane!"
calum, Mar 24 2005
  

       "and everyone gets cancer", is that one of the songs they cut from 'Team America'?
MikeOliver, Mar 24 2005
  

       Umm... Glass beads encasing mercury and other carcinogenic fluorescent chemicals does not sound like a very good idea to me.   

       I also suspect that producing electromagnetic fields might cause watches, cell phones, and credit cards to stop working.
ye_river_xiv, Nov 16 2007
  
      
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