Nikola Tesla’s contributions to modern technology can’t be overstated, and the fact that some of his original designs are so darn cool to look at is really just icing on the cake. But even he probably never imagined a world where his resonant transformer, better known as a “Tesla coil,” could be turned into a wearable weapon.
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Popular YouTuber SmarterEveryDay was doing a segment on Nikola Tesla when he tracked down someone who is probably the biggest Tesla fan on the face of the planet. His name is Cameron Prince, and not only does he run an impressive website dedicated to Tesla, he also has some homemade versions of Tesla’s designs, like a nine-foot Tesla coil that sounds like it could destroy a city.
But as impressive as the rest of Prince’s collection is, the real star of the show is his portable Tesla gun, which he built from a design created by a friend. It’s basically a Tesla coil designed to be held in your hand, and it draws power from a huge, water-cooled backpack that’s crammed with electrical bits.
The gun itself has a built-in display and control panel, and there are various settings to play with that affect the size and range of the electricity it spews forth. It’s an extremely intimidating piece of hardware, though as the video shows, the bolts of handheld lightning it produces aren’t actually all that dangerous.
Prince himself notes that the current of the gun is low enough that it shouldn’t cause any problems with vital human functions like heartbeat, though it’s still probably a good idea not to try such a thing at home. In fact, don’t try anything you see in this particular video, ever, just to be safe.
