Introduction: Electric Pickle Lamp

By
About: Married to Domestic_Engineer (but I call her Meghan).
Plug a pickle into a 120V AC outlet and watch in glow.

Materials:
  • Pickle
  • AC power cord
  • Thick copper wire
Procedure:
  1. Cut and strip the power cord.  Wrap together the neutral and ground wires.  Cut the live wire about 6 inches shorter than the neutral/ground.  This will reduce accidental shorts.
  2. Cut 2 pieces of thick copper wire, about 3 inches long  I used a piece pulled from a household electrical wire (the kind that go in the wall)
  3. Stick the wires in the pickle
  4. Connect the AC power cord to the copper wires.  I've used a cheap set of jumper cables between the power cord and the pickle. 
  5. Plug the the power cord into an electrical outlet.
  6. Wait for the pickle to glow.  It took about 10 seconds to get going.
  7. Unplug everything.
  8. Be careful -- safety eighth!
Science:
The sodium in the pickle burns yellow.  Yellow street lights are sodium-vapor lamps.

Video 1:


Video 2