Nikola Tesla Books
HINTS FOR THE ELECTRICAL ENTERTAINER 225 full power with a dark stage. The streamers of fire leap out for several feet in all directions from the ball atop the transformer. The discharge makes a tremendous crackling and crashing noise which impresses the audience through its weirdness even before the curtain rises. As the curtain ascends, the center of the stage appears to be filled with a twisting, darting mass of slender, purplish fingers of fire which snap at the entertainer as he enters through the center door and walks down stage or toward the footlights. The current may, at this time, be shut off and the lights turned on full for the opening remarks which were discussed in a preceding paragraph. After the short preliminary address the performer may briefly explain to the audience how modern science enables man to make electricity his servant, and a servant whose services are to be respected but not feared. For instance, he can say that if he were to place his hands across the terminals of the low frequency transformer (pointing out the instrument, but not explaining its principles) he would receive a shock that would positively be fatal, since its voltage is in excess of that used in the electric chair. He may then go on to say that through a simple process of conversion which changes the nature of the current but which does not in any way materially reduce its strength, and which, indeed, serves to increase its voltage to near or quite the million mark, he is enabled to apply that erstwhile destructive force to the good of mankind, curing diseases, relieving pain and in countless other ways fulfilling the claim that electricity is man's greatest servant when intelligently handled. The performer may then show how the tremendous current can be taken through the body without danger, even though its voltage is hundreds of times that used for purposes of electrocution. A metal rod is grasped in the hands, and while standing on an insulated
