How to Make a High Voltage Kirlian Photography Device
by mircemk in Circuits > Electronics
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How to Make a High Voltage Kirlian Photography Device
Kirlian photography is named after Semyon Davidovich Kirlian who began his work with high voltage photography in 1939. If an object on a photographic plate is connected to a high-voltage source, an image is produced on the photographic plate. You can use a transparent electrode instead of a plate and capture the images with any modern digital camera. This case is described in the video above.
Description
The device basically consists of two parts: Transparent Discharge Plate and High Voltage Power Supply. The transparent plate is a glass around which a container is formed by means of a plastic or other frame of insulator. The metal object to be "photographed" is placed on the underside of the glass and it rests with a metal part which is also one electrode. The plate is filled with salt water in which the other electrode is immersed.
Build Instructions and Schematic
The high voltage source consists of a flyback transformer with a suitable driver that oscillates with a frequency from a few tens of kilohertz to two hundred kilohertz and more. By experimenting I found that the high voltage frequency does not affect the final product much. So you can use practically any high voltage source with an output voltage of 20kV or more. Below is a link to the high voltage flyback source I used in the video. I also uploaded a simpler driver with 555 timer IC.
When we turn on the device in a dark room, a beautiful pink corona forms around the object. Otherwise I would say that the live impression is much more impressive than what can be seen in the video and photos The Kirlians thought these photos could accurately predict emotional and physical states and could be used to diagnose illnesses, but these claims are unsupported by the scientific commun. Kirlian photography might be fun to produce and look at, but it is by no means a supernatural event. It does not capture auras, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the metaphysical. It is merely a natural reaction of photographic film to the corona effect of high voltage electrical energy, which makes it a simple light trick, and nothing more.
