Ken Shirriff writes:
What do xenon lamps and the invention of radio have in common? The box below is a 1960s German high voltage unit that CuriousMarc obtained as part of an auction. After some research, we determined that it is an Osram1 igniter2, which generates a 40-kilovolt pulse3 to ignite a xenon arc lamp. The unit didn’t work, so I opened it up, figured out its circuitry, and fixed it, so we could generate some sparks. The circuit turned out to be very similar to a Tesla coil, although the sparks are much smaller.
See the full post on Ken’s blog.
Check out the video after the break.