We’ve seen Tesla coils before, but nothing quite like this. Rob Flickenger has thrown caution to the wind and has built one extraordinary Tesla Gun. And it really works, complete with an incredible 20,000 volts and 2,000 amps of pure electrifying excitement.

Inspired by the Tesla Gun in The Five Fists of Science graphic novel, this real life Tesla gun is a handheld spark gap Tesla coil powered by a drill battery. It’s about the size of a small rifle and it is able to send out those crazy Tesla sparks at anything within about two feet of its business end. Naturally, it gets pretty hot and heavy pretty quickly, so all the components had to be up for the job.

There is definitely some MacGyver-ing going on with the 18V drill battery, plus the ferrite core of a flyback transformer that came by way of an old television set. The primary coil is made fom high voltage wire and high-density polyethylene insulation, while the secondary coil is made from 2.5-inch ABS pipe wrapped in 20-gauge enameled wire. You get the aluminum toroid out the business end.

Flickenger assures us that while electricity is dangerous, this is no more dangerous than a baseball bat. Tell that to the idiot who will inevitably try to recreate this toy and zap his way straight to the emergency room.

[Source]

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Yup. We all come to that point in our lives where we have more money than we know what to do with. We can’t decide if we want a fine German luxury sedan to drive up to the country club or if we want to take out an exclusive cell phone that costs just as much money and only does half as much. If you find yourself in the latter camp, you’ll want the Ulysse Nardin Chairman.

All kidding aside, this is the world’s most expensive Google Android smartphone and, get this, it’s actually fully operational. You have to appreciate some of the Steampunk-esque elements like the mechanical watch rotor, because you can actually wind up your phone to give it a little more juice on the go. Or you can get your live-in maid to do that for you.

So, what does $50,000 buy you? There’s 32GB of memory, a 3.2-inch touchscreen, biometric fingerprint reader, 8MP camera, and the knowledge that you have the most expensive Android phone in the world… until someone decides to deface it with Swarovski crystals. For an extra five grand a year, you can sign up for a special Ulysse Nardin program to have the Chairman polished twice a year. They’ll upgrade you to Ice Cream when that’s available too.

Not satisfied with Gresso and Vertu? Turn to Ulysse Nardin at BaselWorld this week to check out the Chairman before getting your virtual assistant to buy one for you from Russia, US, and certain parts of Europe.

[Extravaganzi]

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Its asymmetrical titanium casing houses the three satellites on a carousel, each with a four-sided hour indicator which itself rotates as it orbits the timepiece’s centre. Beneath this carousel are two other dials: A day/night indicator and an oil change gauge. Yes, oil change.

The watch’s self-winding system is regulated by dual turbines visible from the back of the watch.

“The beauty of the UR-110 is in its apparent simplicity. The development of UR-110 mobilized our entire team for nearly two years,” says Felix Baumgartner of URWERK. “Among the challenges posed by this complication was working out the optimal architecture for supporting the central carousel and the rotating hour modules. We finally opted for a technical solution that is radically different from any of our other creations: instead of ball bearings, a fixed axis runs the full height of the watch, providing maximum rigidity and minimum play. The whole complication is perfectly balanced on this axis.”

The watch is water resistant up to 3 ATM, or roughly 100 feet.

To get your hands on the watch, you’ll have to find one of the handful of URWERK’s authorized retailers, none of which are posting a price. In the meantime, you can watch the video and pretend you own one.

[URWERK]

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