How Tesla coils work (and can play jazz) | with David Ricketts
Loud, crackling Tesla coils. Glowing plasma toroids. Beautifully strange Victorian discharge tubes. And, by the end, a full jazz duet played entirely in sparks.In the same theatre where Nikola Tesla first demonstrated his resonant transformer in 1892, Innovator-in-Residence David Ricketts and the Ri's Michael Cutts return for a live, demonstration-only show tracing the physics of the spark from first principles: what a spark actually is, how 12 volts can be turned into tens of thousands, why Victorian audiences were obsessed with glowing "ghost cups," and how a rapid series of tiny bangs becomes music.
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Chapters:
00:00 Welcome and the First Spark
02:44 What Is a Spark? The Physics of Air
04:43 From Static Electricity to Faraday's Induction
13:20 Building a High-Voltage Transformer
18:58 Tesla's Breakthrough: Resonance
24:04 Jerry the Tesla Coil, and Tesla at the Ri in 1892
26:16 Why We Don't See Electrons, But We See Sparks
31:58 Glowing Gases: Neon, Argon, Xenon and the Aurora
44:06 Blackbody Radiation and the Colour of Lightning
46:38 How a Tesla Coil Makes Music
57:36 Recap and Grand Finale
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About the speakers:
David Ricketts is an Innovation Fellow in the Technology and Entrepreneurship Centre at Harvard University, working with organisations including Mastercard, Ubisoft, Disney, General Motors and Ferrari to accelerate innovation. His academic work has appeared twice in Nature, and he is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the DARPA Young Faculty Award for his research on nano-electromagnetic devices. His innovations include reprogrammable self-assembling matter, player-tracking technology developed with Disney/ESPN, and advanced wireless power systems for next-generation vehicles with General Motors Research.
Michael Cutts is the Ri's Content Producer for Heritage and Demonstrations, working at the intersection of scientific history and live performance. He researches the Ri's remarkable legacy while designing and delivering demonstrations for the Faraday Theatre, television and international audiences. He studied Ecology at the University of East Anglia, worked on pink pigeon conservation with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, and completed an MSc at Imperial College London and the Natural History Museum.
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This was filmed at the Royal Institution on the 20th of July 2026.
⚠️ This show uses high voltages and gases including ozone. If you have a pacemaker, cochlear implant, or a breathing condition such as asthma, please take care with prolonged loud sound and strobing light in this video.
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