Ramsey Electronics PG13 Instruction Manual page 35

A Jacob's Ladder
The classic experiment to make an impressive display! We have some
current limitations with this high voltage power supply, and we need a lot of
current to make a decent Jacob's Ladder. Because of this we will need to pull
some tricks to make the spark move for us.
For one, we cannot connect one post to the high voltage and the other one
to ground. This loads the supply too much, and it is unable to maintain a
healthy spark. Instead you will need an "air" load of a soda bottle of water.
What you'll need:
•
Stiff metal wire. Coat hangers will work for this, as will heavy binding wire.
•
A non-conductive base that you can drill into. A hunk of plastic or Paraffin
wax will do, though Paraffin may melt around the posts when things get
hot.
•
A soda bottle filled with tap water.
What to do:
1. Cut two pieces of wire to about 1 foot long. These need to be fairly
Jar HV
straight for the most part, and stiff to hold the shape you
will put in them. (See diagram on the left).
2. Bend each wire identically as shown. The lower part
of the bend should be about 1 inch long.
3. Drill two holes into your non-conductive base that
are about 1 inch apart. This is to make the two pieces at
their closest about 1/4 of an inch apart.
4. Run a wire from the far bend in the piece as shown
to the HV terminal.
5. Fill your soda bottle with water, and dangle one end
of a wire inside, and the other to the bend on the other
piece.
6. Turn on the PG13; you should see an arc between
the two pieces.
You will probably need to bend things around to get
optimum climbing. It took me about an hour to get mine to
work, so have some patience. To improve things you can
use a clear 2" tube over the outside of the ladder, with
holes in the base to let air in, and an open top end. Then
the rising heat caused by the spark will help push the arc
up for you.
PG13
•
35