(Reuters) – Magician David Blaine climbed atop a wobbling platform above a
high-voltage Tesla coil in a tent on a Manhattan pier on Tuesday, dressed in a
20-pound chain-mail suit, and proceeded to shoot purplish arcs of lightning out
of his hands and the top of his head.
High-voltage Tesla coil: high-voltage Tesla coil
Arcs of lightning: lightning arc
The event – an unusual sort of press conference at which journalists were
asked to stop their ears with foamplugs – was a preview of a stunt he will
undertake starting on Friday, when he plans to stand on a 20-foot-high platform
for 72 hours without food amid an artificial lightning storm cracklingbetween
low-current, million-volt Tesla coils.
"I had wanted to do this for years," he said.
The magician’s past endurance stunts include sitting in a box suspended
above the River Thames in London for 44 days with only water, and standing
unharnessedon a 100-foot-high pillar in New York City for 35 hours.
He described how this latest idea grew out of an image he had of himself at
the center of a giant plasma globe. Realizing the idea would require him to
exist in an airless vacuum – a feat beyond even Blaine’s prowess – he adapted
the idea to instead use Tesla coils.
Grow out of: produced in
Plasma globe: plasma ball
"Being in the middle of a lightning storm, it feels so amazing, being in an
environment you shouldn’t be in," he said.
Blaine’s stainlesssteel chain-mail suit is a so-called Faraday suit, an
adaptation of the principle of the Faraday cage in which an enclosure of highly
conductivematerial shields whatever is within the enclosure from an electric
field.
It is a version of the sort of protective suit some linemen wear when
working on high-voltage power lines or hobbyists make for themselves when
playing with homemade Tesla coils.
Stuart Weiss, Blaine’s doctor, said the main risks of the stunt include
exposure to the ozone and nitrousoxides that are a byproduct of ionized air,
which humans should not inhale in large quantities.
A ventilation system will ensure Blaine has breathable air and a special
visor in his helmet will protect his eyes from the ultraviolet radiation of the
arcing electricity.
Ventilation system: ventilation system
Ultraviolet radiation: ultraviolet radiation
Because Tesla coils are noisy, he will wear noise-cancelling earphones that
will also allow him to hear and communicate with people on the ground, including
members of the public. He will suck water through a tube, urinate through a
catheter, and has been fasting to avoid the need to defecate.
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