when I was younger...

[Jean]

I remember when I was 12-15 and played with EI transformers , I was trying to make some sort of high voltage transmitter to affect my parents tv in the next room . So I was playing with a transistor based relay circuit, timed to click every few seconds and instead of turning a light bulb on I had it turn the 2nd coil on bunch of different transformers and used the primary with some long wires for "antennas" .

Stupid huh ?

Feel free do add your own stories

[till]

We, (a friend of mine and me) made a chain of transformers to get a high voltage, and shorted the last winding with a relays. The relay was controlled by some multivibrator to turn on and off with some Hz, so it made a lot of sparks between contacts. It was a pretty marconi style transmitter, but not for long as we had not many relays and they lived only a short time in this ciruit....

[Circlotron]

At about age 11 or so, I got an old output transformer from a radio (ideal as it turned out because it had a gapped core and so it worked well in flyback mode) and put the primary in series with a small electric motor running off a 6v battery. The motor commutator interrupting the current worked just fine. I could draw a continuous 5mm arc from the secondary wires of the transformer.