My office has decided to have a Halloween office party theme of Rome this year. I quipped about coming as "The Electric Gladiator." I was taken by surprise at how strongly my comment grabbed everyone's imagination. So, now I need to figure out a way to make a respectable presentation as an electrified Roman gladiator.
I am asking for help getting it put together. Keep in mind that I work in a computer center. Although everyone in the office denies this is a concern, I don't believe that a lot of open sparks are a good idea in the office. So, I am leaning more towards using lights (light bulbs, black lights, LEDs, EL displays, whatever I can find), with very limited (if any) use of electrostatics. Even so, if I could deliver a strong spark to my office manager, I will count it as a win for the day (he probably would, too). He is coming armed with a pair of spike-studded balls on chains, and he intends to challenge gladiators (especially me) to combat.
Two other limiting factors: I don't want to spend very much money and I don't want to do a lot of construction. I would prefer not to spend anything, but I might be able to justify spending $50 for a really good idea (especially if I win the costume contest of $100). Several years ago, I built a high voltage power supply that operated off a 6 Volt battery, but I had to return the main component to the man who loaned it to me; I am able to design and build simple high voltage power supplies. I am simply trying to avoid doing so.
Maybe something operating off a 9V battery? Does anyone know of a solid-state converter that will convert 9 Volt DC to (say) 3kV A.C.? I was thinking of maybe using a Class C amplifier to get the brief voltage spike I want.
I would appreciate your assistance on this project.
Thank you.