We consider electricity as something dangerous, something that has to be avoided at all cost, because it can cause life-threatening physical injuries, if not immediate death. Most of the time, we don’t even think of electricity at all. Electricity has become so ubiquitous that we often do not realize that it’s there until it is gone – during power outages and load shedding. But, have you ever stopped and imagined that electricity can also be entertaining and artistic? Have you ever thought that the “bzzzzzzz” that is usually used to denote the “sound” of electricity in shows and movies can be musical?
In technical terms, a human being can witness electricity “sing” through a “zeusaphone” or “thoramin”, a form of plasma speaker. This equipment is a variation of a solid state Tesla coil that has been engineered to produce musical tones by modulating its spark output. According to research, the resulting pitch is a low-fidelity square wave-like sound that calls to mind an analog synthesizer. How do humans hear the tone? The musical tone directly results from the passage of the spark through the air. Though some tones can be produced, this method of creating “music” may be limited, owing to the fact that the solid-state coil produces square rather than sinusoidal waves, but some people who have tried it say that producing simple chords were possible.
Though highly nerdy, the concept of a “zeusaphone” has made its way to popular culture. In Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, released in 2010, the hero named Dave (Jay Baruchel) demonstrated the workings of a singing Tesla coil to his crush, a girl called Becky (Teresa Palmer). In explaining how it was possible for electricity to sing, Dave said that the coils were firing at such a high frequency that the sparks literally created sound waves as they fly through the air.
A thoramin has also been already used in the concert scene. In a 2011 performance piece, titled Biophilia, performer Björk used the sound of a singing Tesla coil in the song, aptly called “Thunderbolt”.
Did you know?
The term “zeusaphone” was coined by Dr Barry Gehm of Lyon College, in 2007. It is a play on the name of the “sousaphone”, giving tribute to the mythological Greek god of lighting, Zeus. “Thoramin”, on the other hand, was suggested by one Dan Butler-Ehle. The name was a play on the word “theremin”, including the name of Thor, the mythological Norsk god of thunder.
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