Looking into these early electrical experiments and recreating them is the unlikely space [Sam Gallagher] has staked out with the “Experimental History of Electricity,” a growing playlist on ...

He wanted to add a Van de Graaff generator ... to get the electrostatic motion, [James] had to resort to spraying the balls with RF shielding spray. We liked that he did some experiments to ...

In a controversial experiment ... could theoretically work by having the generator pass through the Earth's magnetic field, parts of which remain static, producing a current.