Music from the Fireplace

Summary of “Flame Amplification”
By James Joseph

James Joseph, from Popular Electronics Magazine, published an article describing the procedure to make a plasma speaker using a sweltering flame with two tungsten steel electrodes positioned near each other in the flame, fueled by and acetylene-oxygen welding torch, to conduct electricity. The ions in the oxygen and acetylene, when combined, function as a power conversion of the amplitude-modulated input, or impressed data onto an alternating current waveform, to an audio output. In the same way that a regular loudspeaker “pushes” on air near it, an ionized flame with an electric current being conducted between the electrodes “beats” against the air around it creating audio energy (Joseph, 1968).

I think this is one of the most awesome articles I have ever stumbled upon. It fascinates me that something like this has been done and what possibilities it brings to mind. Imagine playing Christmas carols from the roaring hearth in the winter or Caribbean music from tiki torches by the poolside in the summer. A question that immediately came to my mind was “ If it is called a “plasma speaker” then what other “plasmas” could be used?” The first plasma that came to my mind was Jello. When I read an article, I immediately think about how to recreate it in more conservative means, and for me, that means Jello! Since the flame is, in itself, the first omni-directional loudspeaker, water wouldn’t be an adequate plasma due to the fact it would need to be contained and that would decrease the air permeation. The flame speaker is absolutely the bees knees, it was a little bit dense in scientific terminology but I would highly recommend this article if you like electricity and all the amazing things it does.

Joseph, J. (2005, October 6). Flame Amplification. Retrieved September 10, 2014, from Popular Science website: http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/PopularElectronics/May1968/Flame_Amplification.htm