what’s up guys welcome back it is
summertime and that means summertime
grilling so for this video I thought it
might be fun to try messing around with
barbecue charcoal and high voltage
electricity now for this experiment
today I’m bringing back my neon sign
transformer this lovely little unit
converts house power to twelve thousand
volt 30 milliamps which isn’t a whole
lot of power but it is very high
potential which will definitely make you
squirm if it touches you the wrong way
now if you’ve ever really studied your
charcoal briquets Oh probably realize
that they’re just pyrolized wood of
course there are a few other components
added in to help with your barbecue
experience but for the most part this is
just compressed
pyrolized sawdust now since we have
access to 12,000 volts of electricity
and a piece of wood I want to show you
something kind of interesting if we take
our two high voltage electrodes and
touch one to the piece of wood and then
bring in the other one you’ll notice
absolutely nothing happens at all that’s
because wood is not conductive where
should I say it’s not very conductive
everything has a dielectric breakdown
but wood is very difficult to toss an
electric current through if I bring the
electrodes themselves close enough
together they’ll eventually strike an
arc on their own and the heat produced
from the arcs will actually scorch the
wood and begin to char it as that char
develops and the carbon goes deep enough
eventually it will develop an
electrically conductive path that when I
bring the two electrodes close to that
it lights up a path that kind of
resembles lava flowing down the side of
the volcano the only difference is this
is electricity flowing through the wood
not lava let’s keep this going a little
bit and see how far we can push it and I
can actually draw that pathway out all
the way to the side of the wood
[Music]
there that’s pretty cool
[Music]
that’s pretty cool would by itself is
not conductive but once you burn it a
little bit you can actually conduct
electricity through it or at least
through the carbon cast that you created
within it and this is actually a
well-known fact hundreds of years ago
back when Thomas Edison was developing
the light bulb because he actually used
pyrolized bamboo as the filament for his
light bulb so here’s the question I have
today if we can get burnt wood to
conduct electricity so well then what
would high voltage electricity do to
charcoal I mean theoretically this stuff
is basically just carbon so it should be
conductive right so for this first
experiment I’m going to take this piece
of charcoal set it down on these paver
stones and first of all just see if we
can even run electricity through it at
all all right here we go so we’re going
to touch one side here so that’s
connected and then theoretically this
electricity should just arc out and
straight into the charcoal oh I actually
had to get kind of close there but you
can see that is conducting very cool
bring one close the other close and now
it makes contact because that has just
established a route now if I hold it
here and try it somewhere else maybe up
here I have to get within about a
quarter of an inch right to spark up but
then once that connection is made
I can draw the arc out about two inches
[Music]
[Music]
now if I prop these things up and leave
them electrically connected to the
charcoal long enough I’m pretty sure we
can build up enough heat to get these
things to ignite but before we do I just
want to try another experiment with a
few more bricks of charcoal to see if we
can get the electricity to hop from one
to the other all right so I’ve got a
second charcoal briquette set up the
question now is will it jump the gap
between the two let’s find out
three two one contact nope it doesn’t so
we apparently have to start this one off
let’s go ahead and bring this close so
we can develop a path right there and
then once that’s developed let’s see
what it does now boom it actually does
jump the gap that’s cool and now we can
move these all over the place wherever
you want and it’s going to stay right
there in that middle point that’s been
established cool so apparently two works
let’s try four I’m guessing we’re going
to have to start these off individually
so get that one going in there that one
go in there going this way turn and
[Music]
oh look at that
[Music]
that was cool right there
so you can see that even though we’re
using four different briquettes once we
started them all they connect very well
together with electricity I could just
bring it close and they all connect they
all turn on they all turn off they all
turn on they’ll turn off and starting to
smell like really good barbecue because
while we’ve been playing with
electricity these briquettes have
absorbed enough heat that they’ve
actually started themselves in fact at
this stage we could really just take
these briquettes put them in a grill and
get ready to start cooking hot dogs and
hamburgers which is really cool because
we started these things with electricity
not just any electricity though high
voltage electricity and that my friends
is how you start your barbecue like a
mad scientist but here’s one more trick
now if you want to see an even more fun
and slightly dangerous approach try
stacking your briquettes down in the
bottom of your grill
take one of your high-voltage electrodes
and connected to the frame but at this
point you don’t want to touch it because
if you do it will shock you then if we
take the other electrode and put one
hand behind our back we can stick it
down inside draw an arc and ignite the
rest of the briquettes as well it’s
certainly not an efficient way to start
your barbecue but you got to admit it’s
pretty cool
there you have the guys while my grill
is warming up and getting ready for hot
dogs and hamburgers tonight let’s recap
what we learned here today we start off
this experiment today playing with high
voltage electricity and a piece of wood
and what we learned was that wood by
itself is not naturally conductive but
if we strike an arc and use that arc to
burn the wood eventually the char will
go deep enough to run a carbon arc
through the wood itself Carbon is
conductive and since charcoal briquettes
are basically dis carbon we tried an
experiment to see if they’d conduct
electricity as well and they did now
with a fresh charcoal briquette we
brought our high voltage electrodes to
the sides almost to the point of
touching but once they actually struck
an arc we could stretch that arc a
couple of inches long fascinating one
piece of charcoal worked pretty well so
we brought in another one to see if we
would jump the gap and it did so we
brought in two more and made a cool
little pattern hopping electricity
between them all and in playing with the
different designs we watched the
briquettes absorb so much heat from the
electricity that they actually started
themselves to the point where we could
transfer them to our grill and use them
to cook our food so there you have it
guys that’s how to use high voltage
electricity to start your grill this
summer not a very practical or efficient
method by any means but definitely a lot
of fun thanks for joining me for this
experiment today we look for the next
one talk to you then so cool right on
you hear my finger’s shocking that’s
dangerous
[Music]
summertime and that means summertime
grilling so for this video I thought it
might be fun to try messing around with
barbecue charcoal and high voltage
electricity now for this experiment
today I’m bringing back my neon sign
transformer this lovely little unit
converts house power to twelve thousand
volt 30 milliamps which isn’t a whole
lot of power but it is very high
potential which will definitely make you
squirm if it touches you the wrong way
now if you’ve ever really studied your
charcoal briquets Oh probably realize
that they’re just pyrolized wood of
course there are a few other components
added in to help with your barbecue
experience but for the most part this is
just compressed
pyrolized sawdust now since we have
access to 12,000 volts of electricity
and a piece of wood I want to show you
something kind of interesting if we take
our two high voltage electrodes and
touch one to the piece of wood and then
bring in the other one you’ll notice
absolutely nothing happens at all that’s
because wood is not conductive where
should I say it’s not very conductive
everything has a dielectric breakdown
but wood is very difficult to toss an
electric current through if I bring the
electrodes themselves close enough
together they’ll eventually strike an
arc on their own and the heat produced
from the arcs will actually scorch the
wood and begin to char it as that char
develops and the carbon goes deep enough
eventually it will develop an
electrically conductive path that when I
bring the two electrodes close to that
it lights up a path that kind of
resembles lava flowing down the side of
the volcano the only difference is this
is electricity flowing through the wood
not lava let’s keep this going a little
bit and see how far we can push it and I
can actually draw that pathway out all
the way to the side of the wood
[Music]
there that’s pretty cool
[Music]
that’s pretty cool would by itself is
not conductive but once you burn it a
little bit you can actually conduct
electricity through it or at least
through the carbon cast that you created
within it and this is actually a
well-known fact hundreds of years ago
back when Thomas Edison was developing
the light bulb because he actually used
pyrolized bamboo as the filament for his
light bulb so here’s the question I have
today if we can get burnt wood to
conduct electricity so well then what
would high voltage electricity do to
charcoal I mean theoretically this stuff
is basically just carbon so it should be
conductive right so for this first
experiment I’m going to take this piece
of charcoal set it down on these paver
stones and first of all just see if we
can even run electricity through it at
all all right here we go so we’re going
to touch one side here so that’s
connected and then theoretically this
electricity should just arc out and
straight into the charcoal oh I actually
had to get kind of close there but you
can see that is conducting very cool
bring one close the other close and now
it makes contact because that has just
established a route now if I hold it
here and try it somewhere else maybe up
here I have to get within about a
quarter of an inch right to spark up but
then once that connection is made
I can draw the arc out about two inches
[Music]
[Music]
now if I prop these things up and leave
them electrically connected to the
charcoal long enough I’m pretty sure we
can build up enough heat to get these
things to ignite but before we do I just
want to try another experiment with a
few more bricks of charcoal to see if we
can get the electricity to hop from one
to the other all right so I’ve got a
second charcoal briquette set up the
question now is will it jump the gap
between the two let’s find out
three two one contact nope it doesn’t so
we apparently have to start this one off
let’s go ahead and bring this close so
we can develop a path right there and
then once that’s developed let’s see
what it does now boom it actually does
jump the gap that’s cool and now we can
move these all over the place wherever
you want and it’s going to stay right
there in that middle point that’s been
established cool so apparently two works
let’s try four I’m guessing we’re going
to have to start these off individually
so get that one going in there that one
go in there going this way turn and
[Music]
oh look at that
[Music]
that was cool right there
so you can see that even though we’re
using four different briquettes once we
started them all they connect very well
together with electricity I could just
bring it close and they all connect they
all turn on they all turn off they all
turn on they’ll turn off and starting to
smell like really good barbecue because
while we’ve been playing with
electricity these briquettes have
absorbed enough heat that they’ve
actually started themselves in fact at
this stage we could really just take
these briquettes put them in a grill and
get ready to start cooking hot dogs and
hamburgers which is really cool because
we started these things with electricity
not just any electricity though high
voltage electricity and that my friends
is how you start your barbecue like a
mad scientist but here’s one more trick
now if you want to see an even more fun
and slightly dangerous approach try
stacking your briquettes down in the
bottom of your grill
take one of your high-voltage electrodes
and connected to the frame but at this
point you don’t want to touch it because
if you do it will shock you then if we
take the other electrode and put one
hand behind our back we can stick it
down inside draw an arc and ignite the
rest of the briquettes as well it’s
certainly not an efficient way to start
your barbecue but you got to admit it’s
pretty cool
there you have the guys while my grill
is warming up and getting ready for hot
dogs and hamburgers tonight let’s recap
what we learned here today we start off
this experiment today playing with high
voltage electricity and a piece of wood
and what we learned was that wood by
itself is not naturally conductive but
if we strike an arc and use that arc to
burn the wood eventually the char will
go deep enough to run a carbon arc
through the wood itself Carbon is
conductive and since charcoal briquettes
are basically dis carbon we tried an
experiment to see if they’d conduct
electricity as well and they did now
with a fresh charcoal briquette we
brought our high voltage electrodes to
the sides almost to the point of
touching but once they actually struck
an arc we could stretch that arc a
couple of inches long fascinating one
piece of charcoal worked pretty well so
we brought in another one to see if we
would jump the gap and it did so we
brought in two more and made a cool
little pattern hopping electricity
between them all and in playing with the
different designs we watched the
briquettes absorb so much heat from the
electricity that they actually started
themselves to the point where we could
transfer them to our grill and use them
to cook our food so there you have it
guys that’s how to use high voltage
electricity to start your grill this
summer not a very practical or efficient
method by any means but definitely a lot
of fun thanks for joining me for this
experiment today we look for the next
one talk to you then so cool right on
you hear my finger’s shocking that’s
dangerous
[Music]
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