Image: Electrice sideshow act 1914 - lighting candle with fingers

Description: "Electrice - The Girl Who Defies Electricity", a carnival sideshow performer in 1914 who passed high voltage electricity through her body. Here she is lighting a candle with sparks (a brush discharge) shooting from her fingers. The high voltage comes from a Tesla coil visible behind her, connected to the electric chair (right) which she is touching with her left hand. The Tesla coil produces very high voltage; up to several hundred thousand volts, so it can create sparks of several inches, but has very low amperage, and because it is alternating current with a high frequency (in the radio range, 100 kHz to 2 MHz) it does not cause the sensation of electric shock. Although it didn't give her a shock, the sparks could give her skin burns and the act was somewhat uncomfortable, sometimes she would wear copper thimbles on the end of her fingers. It was also very dangerous and could kill her if the coil was misadjusted. Today passing Tesla currents though the body like this, painful or not, is considered extremely hazardous, so DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME.
Title: Electrice sideshow act 1914 - lighting candle with fingers
Credit: Retrieved October 4, 2015 from Electrice, "Doing and Daring for the Public's Pleasure" in Popular Electricity and the World's Advance, Popular Electricity Publishing Co., Chicago, Vol. 6, No. 9, January 1914, p. 1045, fig. 1 on Google Books
Author: "Electrice"
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No