Those of you who have been following this site for a while know that we are big fans of high voltage toys like Tesla coils and plasma balls. Plasma balls are glass spheres filled with low pressure gases. A high voltage electrode in the center ionizes the gas. When electrons recombine with ion, light is emitted. You can touch these balls to have the electric field inside the globe reorient toward you. These toys are made in a variety of sizes but not all of them are sound reactive.
Plasma toroid generators are even more fun. They come with a glass ball filled with a noble gas. You have different ring colors depending on the gas. The coils outside the globe generate a high frequency magnetic field that forces the plasma into a loop. As it turns out, you can build speakers with plasma balls and rings. Our plasma toroid speaker has a couple of knobs that let us adjust the position of the ring. As you play music around these, they put on a show. The above video shows these high voltage toys in action.
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