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Please, don't try anything that you're about to see us do at home.

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Ever.

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Test-lose an unmitigated genius.

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Plus, Grant Torian Carey.

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Dude.

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Investigate the case of the exploding lava lamp.

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Woo!

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Woo!

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They don't just tell the myths.

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They put them to the test.

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You think we should do it?

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I mean, there are some who believe that the device this small has the potential to bring this entire bridge crashing down.

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Yeah, sure. I'll hook it up.

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Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Get it back, get it back.

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We gotta do a little bit of science before we get to the finale of the myth.

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And what science it is.

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Because Adam and Janie will be testing a mythical invention of the 19th century scientific savant,

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Nikola Tesla.

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With contributions to fields as diverse as robotics,

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ballistics, electricity, and magnetism,

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he's been described as the man who invented the 20th century.

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But his work has also fed speculation about death rays,

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design control,

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and this harmless looking, hand-held, earthquake machine.

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Tesla's earthquake machine.

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I read about this when I was like 19 years old.

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He claimed that he had built this device to make a mechanical generator of some kind,

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but that he had bolted it as a test to a girder in his building

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and tuned it up through the frequencies until he had matched the building's frequency

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and all hell broke loose.

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The building began to shake around them.

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They all ran outside to find pandemonium.

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They thought there was a big earthquake.

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The fire department was there, the police department was there,

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and Tesla had to take a hammer to his device to stop it from doing its damage.

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A crack-bot genius, hand-held earthquake machine,

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and all hell breaking loose?

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It's the stuff mythbusters dream about.

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And after a trip to the patent office to source Tesla's original designs,

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Adam and Jamie are all over it like white-on rice.

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I'm totally on the same page as you about this.

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With the plans before them, the plan of action is refreshingly simple.

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Build their very own earthquake machine and see if it works.

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And after a few hours' research, the guys have an understanding of the design's mechanics.

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Tesla's earthquake machine is actually based on something he used

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in a whole bunch of different inventions and patents,

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and it's what he called the mechanical oscillator generator.

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Which, thanks to the graphics department, looks like this.

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A pocket-sized system of pistons and an air cushion work together,

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reciprocating a central linear rod.

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The speed of this vibration can be adjusted or tuned to match the resonant frequency

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of the target object.

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And Tesla claimed the resulting positive feedback could be harnessed to destroy anything.

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Tesla's device is all about resonance.

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It reciprocates at the same frequency that the object that it's attached to

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is capable of responding to, and supposedly the whole thing is like this feedback thing

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that just gets out of control and the thing flies apart.

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To harness the destructive power of resonance,

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Adam wants to build Tesla's oscillating earthquake machine from scratch.

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But ever the pragmatist, Jamie has found a shortcut.

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Are you ready for the oscillation?

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That's what that is.

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Tesla's device is actually very simple.

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All it does is reciprocate.

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And in fact, there's a very common device everybody's familiar with called a jack hammer

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that does nothing more than that.

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You're right.

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So by modifying the jack hammer's motor, they'll have an earthquake machine,

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in line with Tesla's original design.

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Hell, let's try it. We can knock this out before lunch.

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With the mechanical oscillation taken care of,

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they simply have to control the frequency of the vibration.

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I'm tuning it by adjusting the amount of back pressure.

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You're changing the frequency.

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And next, they replace the chisel from the jack hammer with a small rod.

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Then they machine the piston parts that will house the air cushion.

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And with just the air cushion to attach, it's time for a quick test.

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Everybody want to feel? Yeah.

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All right, end segment.

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This myth is a really recent one actually comes from 2004,

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where apparently a guy killed himself with a lava lamp.

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Actually, I heard this one's true, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how he did it.

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I mean, what was he doing? It's like, was he impatient?

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He didn't want to be in the car.

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He was like, what's going on?

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He was like, what's going on?

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He was like, what's going on?

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What's he doing? It's like, was he impatient?

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He didn't want to wait for the light to heat up the lamp,

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and then he stuck it on the stove,

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or he might have just been like us and he was just experimenting with a lava lamp.

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In 2004, a Washington state resident was found dead at home.

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Cause of death, a large piece of glass shrapnel to the heart

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after a lava lamp left on a stove exploded.

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But how on earth did this groovy symbol of the 60s turn lethal killer?

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If anyone can get to the bottom of this, it's our very own MSI unit.

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Mythseen investigators, Carrie, Tori and Grant are on the case.

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Okay, well, sounds simply enough. What is the plan?

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Well, I'll go get some lava lamps.

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I'd like to make a target.

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I can maybe go get some real human ribs to make a really good torso.

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What do you want to do?

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I'll do the math.

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While Grant calculates what to do with his day off,

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Carrie and Tori get down to business.

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Our super sleuths have a two-stage investigation.

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First, if a lava lamp is left on a stove, will it explode?

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And if it does, could the resultant shower of glass and goo

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lead to a lethal piece of shrapnel to the heart?

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So to recreate the scene, the first thing they'll need is a rack of ribs.

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That is so cool.

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And here at the bone room, you can satisfy all your skeletal needs.

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He actually had to get a shard of glass exploding and going through the rib cage,

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through whatever connective tissue was here and then into the heart.

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So you're going to actually have to get it through one of the holes and through all that muscle

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and depending on how fat the person was, the fat and tissue and then into the organs.

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It's just some bad luck.

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Bad luck, our team will try to recreate back at the shop.

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And while Carrie gets her ribs to go, Tori has seen the light.

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Tori, lava lamps.

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I just want to check this one out because it's got sparkles and glitter.

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Ah!

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They get hot.

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The third degree burns help focus Tori's mind.

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And before long, he's headed back to the shop with a good selection.

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Where Grant has been looking for some inside info on the prime suspect.

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For this myth, I've been trying to find out exactly what's inside of a lava lamp.

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Although the biggest manufacturer of lava lamps in the U.S. keeps their recipe secret,

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with a little bit of searching we've been able to find out that lava lamps have inside them

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a lot of things that are potentially flammable.

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Mineral oils, wax, alcohol.

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Meanwhile, Carrie is working on putting some fake flesh on her real ribs.

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I know it's not going to be a totally accurate representation of the human body,

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but the way the lava lamp exploded is a shot of glass went flying through the air

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and pierced his heart through his rib cage.

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I just want to see what kind of chance glass has of getting that far into the human body.

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To do it, Carrie is casting a ballistics gel bust around the human rib cage.

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By suspending the ribs in position, she'll have a close structural analogue of a human torso.

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I'm trying to figure out exactly where the rib cage is going to end on this dude.

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To confirm the story that glass shrapnel from an exploded lava lamp can pierce the heart,

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Carrie gives Barry the ballistics bust a fake heart, which, if punctured,

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will leak its fake blood and simulate his death.

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With his internal organ in place, he's ready to put on some weight.

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And after a night in the fridge chilling out, Barry's all set for the great lava lamp experiment.

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That is beautiful.

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God, that came out good.

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Adam and Jamie are testing the myth that Nikola Tesla built and successfully tested a pocket-sized earthquake machine.

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And after studying the patents and original photo of the device, Adam is hanging on Tesla's every word.

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I was experimenting with vibrations. I had one of my machines going and I wanted to see if I could get it in tune with the vibration of the building.

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I put it up notch after notch. Suddenly, all the heavy machinery in the place was flying around.

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I grabbed a hammer and broke the machine. Outside in the street, there was pandemonium.

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The police and ambulance arrived. We told the police, it must have been an earthquake.

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I told my assistants to say nothing.

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To investigate these extravagant claims, Adam and Jamie are building a mover and shaker of their own.

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Based on Tesla's original patent, they've come up with this.

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We're about to fire up Tesla's mechanical oscillator.

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We promise that if this device works, we will use our powers only for good.

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It's like two or three hertz. We need to increase the speed a little bit.

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Adam thinks they haven't nailed the spirit of the design, but Jamie just wants to move on.

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It's not working the way it's supposed to because all we've got here is a piston going back and forth.

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The way it's described, one of the key aspects of it in Tesla's description is the air spring.

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As far as I'm concerned, this is what Tesla described. You have minor variations.

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I don't think this is the device. You really have to separate out what your opinion is from the facts of the device.

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We haven't even come close here in terms of the frequency that it's moving at and that air cushioning thing.

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But the problem is, the air cushion that Tesla described as frictionless is causing friction.

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And slowing the device down.

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This device isn't working. We could waste a lot of time on making something that works better than this one,

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but it's still not an efficient way of demonstrating the principle involved.

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The great and powerful Jamie Hanuman has spoken.

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It's a classic Mythbusters standoff. Adam wants due diligence and Jamie wants efficiency.

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But like an old married couple, they soon compromise.

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I'm going to have another look at this device and see if I can't tune it to get it as close to Tesla's device as I possibly can.

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So Jamie gets to replace the air cushion with mechanical springs.

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And Adam gets the increase in top speed he wanted.

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Ooh, nice!

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Adam's happy and agrees that the switch to mechanical springs is in line with Tesla's ideas.

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He talks about the fact that the work that is being done by the air spring could be done by mechanical springs.

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And the only reason he prefers the air spring is because it has no inclination to break.

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You can feel that over here.

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Yeah, no, it's a real deal.

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The reason we're going with the two-foot bars, because it's exactly what Tesla said,

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that he busted apart the first time he tried this out.

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For a long time nothing happened, he said.

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But at last the great steel link began to tremble and finally broke.

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Crow bars could not have done it, but a fuselage of taps, none of which would have harmed a baby, did it.

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That's the kind of response we're looking for.

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I am taping an accelerometer to this bar.

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This is hooked up to a frequency analyzer, which actually should tell me exactly what the resonating frequencies of the bar are.

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And it should also tell me when I've got it properly excited to the maximum degree.

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We're ready to go.

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Adam is monitoring the feedback.

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I think you can go up.

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And Jamie, on regulator duty, is adjusting the frequency of the earthquake machine.

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You're at about 32 hertz.

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At 32 hertz, with the earthquake machine running at top speed, there's no sign of the steel bar resonating.

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My inclination would be, let's turn it up on full and leave it for half an hour,

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see if it actually does anything to the bar.

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According to Tesla, it didn't happen instantaneously.

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What did happen was a failure of the prototype.

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My guess is if I put it back together, it would run now for a little while.

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Jamie resurrects it, but it's not long before it dies again.

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This is like my worst nightmare.

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And again, we can't even get a long enough test to prove that it doesn't work.

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I mean, I guess we have proved that it doesn't work, but not in the way that we intended.

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It seems the mechanical springs Tesla said would have an inclination to break are breaking.

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And after a long and frustrating day, spirits and quite possibly minds are following suit.

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The build team are in MSI mode.

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Myth scene investigators Carrie Grant and Tori are hot on the trail of a lethal lava lamp.

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Detectives Byron, Imahara and Belachy are staging a reconstruction to answer two questions.

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Will a lava lamp explode if left on a stove top?

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And if so, will the blast be powerful enough to send a lethal piece of glass into a human heart?

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I think most people sit and watch lava lamps like this.

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Yeah, that's about the right position.

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With Barry the ballistics bust assuming the position, everything and everyone is ready.

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Ready?

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Three, two, one. Run.

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Now they just have to wait for things to warm up.

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Starting to bubble, there it goes.

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It's starting to move.

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And pass the tie making a few predictions.

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Underneath that little hat is a metal like a bottle cap.

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I think that's going to blow off first before the glass ruptures.

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I have a feeling this is going to work.

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You got a high pressure situation inside the bottle.

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There's nowhere for that pressure to go except out.

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It's going to turn that bottle into a bomb.

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Oh, jeez.

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Well, it didn't explode, but you were right.

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The top popped off and the bottom blew out.

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I call that an explosion.

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Explosion or not, it looked pretty dangerous.

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There was hot oil and wax erupting in a volcanic geyser.

233
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But no glass shrapnel in Barry the ballistics bust.

234
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:50,000
Yeah, he's clean.

235
00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:52,000
Let's clear out to the smoke finishes.

236
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:55,000
We didn't get any shards of glass in the bust.

237
00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:59,000
What happened was the cap gave way, released all the pressure,

238
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:01,000
released all the liquid inside.

239
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:04,000
As soon as the liquid was gone, the heat from the stove

240
00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:07,000
actually shattered the bottom of the bottle.

241
00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:10,000
So we didn't get that explosion that the myth's talking about.

242
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:15,000
No explosion means there are still plenty of loose ends in this story.

243
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:20,000
But what is clear are the two reasons why you shouldn't put a lava lamp on a stove.

244
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,000
The first is written into the safety instructions.

245
00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:29,000
Do not use any other means to heat up the lamp other than the bulb provided.

246
00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:31,000
And the second is this.

247
00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:41,000
Jamie and Adam are tackling Tesla and his incredible earthquake machine.

248
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:46,000
With two failed prototypes, confidence in the myth is low.

249
00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:48,000
So it's time for Plan B.

250
00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:53,000
My opinion is if we're going to do this right, we have to come up with a way of visualizing,

251
00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:58,000
demonstrating visually what we're talking about when we're talking about resonance and resonant frequencies.

252
00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:00,000
Well, resonance can be kind of tricky.

253
00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:06,000
Why don't we start with water, you know, create a wave action that we can see.

254
00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:12,000
So the plan is to build a wave tank, rig a quick and dirty reciprocating device,

255
00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:16,000
tune it in and create a mini tsunami.

256
00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,000
Dude, that is so tripping.

257
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:27,000
What I love about this test is it really illustrates Tesla's theoretical ideas perfectly.

258
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:32,000
When you push a kid on a swing, each of your pushes doesn't make him go all the way up.

259
00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:36,000
It's the sum total of them. You're adding energy each time.

260
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:38,000
Dude, look at that. You hit a sweet spot again.

261
00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:41,000
Look at that. That's twice the sweet spot that you were hitting before.

262
00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:44,000
That was a minute variation in speed.

263
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:45,000
That is so cool.

264
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:51,000
Like that was a difference on this meter from 1.5 to 1.6, and at 1.5 it was almost a flat calm.

265
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:52,000
Right.

266
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:56,000
At 1.6 it's starting to almost bounce out of the chamber.

267
00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:02,000
Re-energized with all things Tesla, Adam and Jamie decide it's time to get back to the earthquake machine.

268
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:05,000
Our first air powered jackhammer did not work.

269
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:11,000
I mean, we just modified it so much that it began failing in ways we can't fix.

270
00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:17,000
We looked at going and getting another one and Jamie has, he has an air powered auto tool for hammering.

271
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:18,000
Hold it down.

272
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:21,000
That's pretty fast.

273
00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:25,000
This is 10 times better than that.

274
00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:33,000
It's so close to Tesla's design, the only modification required is a steel plate so it can be attached to the target object.

275
00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:39,000
This is actually Jamie's personal massager. He's all like, honey, I feel really sore.

276
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:45,000
Would you work on me for a bit? And his wife's like, and he's like, oh, that's right.

277
00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:47,000
Lower.

278
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:52,000
That's how he has such big shoulders.

279
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:58,000
Accelerometer's in, the device is clamped in. I'm ready to go.

280
00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:06,000
They take it through the air hammer's full range of frequencies, but with no sign the steel bar is resonating.

281
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:15,000
I'm measuring the frequency that our device is applying to the bar, and it's right about 50, 52 hertz.

282
00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:21,000
But Tesla said that it was a while before destruction ensued, and if it's good enough for Tesla...

283
00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:28,000
Well, the lowest natural frequency of the bar is in the 100, like 4 or 500.

284
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,000
We're not going to get that with any device we've got here.

285
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:35,000
I'm looking forward to trying this on some other types of steel.

286
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,000
Cue the steel bar alternatives.

287
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,000
Scully.

288
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:51,000
First, a two foot section of two inch square tubing, and this time they get a little action.

289
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:53,000
Yeah, isn't that cool?

290
00:20:53,000 --> 00:21:01,000
That's the highest amplitude on that primary 20 hertz hit, and you can see it's shaking around more than any other time.

291
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:06,000
So we're starting to see potentially the kind of excitement that's possible.

292
00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:12,000
It's just we need to get a bar that's tuned to this device, and this device tuned to that bar.

293
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:16,000
It's low frequency, and then we should see some real vibration.

294
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:22,000
And the best chance they have to do that is test a bar with a lower resonant frequency,

295
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:27,000
like this 20 footer, which has a harmonic as low as 7 hertz.

296
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:33,000
But after hours of tweaking the system, there's no sign of any action.

297
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:38,000
And in Jamie's mind, this myth has already been consigned to the busted bin.

298
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:45,000
Currently my impression is that this idea of putting this little tiny thing on some massive structure

299
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:50,000
and by tuning it just so, getting the whole thing to resonate,

300
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:55,000
you're not going to have like a flea jumping up and down on a girder,

301
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,000
and if he does it at the right frequency over and over again,

302
00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:01,000
then all of a sudden magically the whole structure goes down.

303
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:09,000
I mean that's what Tesla is talking about with this principle of this magical resonance that he's creating.

304
00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:11,000
Shall we pull it off?

305
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:13,000
Yes.

306
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:23,000
So far, MSI San Francisco have yet to break the case of the lethal lava lamp.

307
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:27,000
Barry the Ballistic Bus took a burning hot shower,

308
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:32,000
but without an explosion, he's free of any deadly shrapnel wounds.

309
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:34,000
So far.

310
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:37,000
Alright, so this is test number two.

311
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:40,000
We're going with the lava lamp with the bottle cap top instead of the safety cap.

312
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:48,000
This kind of bottle cap will hopefully be stronger and will hold that pressure inside allowing it to explode.

313
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:50,000
And that's what we're looking for here in this myth.

314
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:54,000
But ten minutes in and it looks like...

315
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,000
Oh, I hear something. I can see it leaking.

316
00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,000
Tari's theory has a few holes in it.

317
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:06,000
But despite the leak, the cap holds and the pressure continues to build.

318
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:09,000
Sweet. Yeah. Yeah. Fire.

319
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:13,000
And the escaping flammable lava makes things even more interesting.

320
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:16,000
Oh, that is looking a little out of control.

321
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:21,000
Oh, wow. Yeah.

322
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:24,000
Look at that. It's just extinguishing itself right now.

323
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,000
Okay, that was an explosion.

324
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:35,000
Awesome. Yeah.

325
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,000
With the explosive potential of the lava lamp confirmed,

326
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:47,000
our team of forensic investigators check out the scene and more importantly, Barry.

327
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,000
The bottle is completely disintegrated.

328
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:51,000
Here's a small shot of glass.

329
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:54,000
How deep was it?

330
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,000
It was just surface.

331
00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:00,000
Based on what I've just seen, I absolutely believe that this could be lethal.

332
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:05,000
I mean, the amount of energy that we got out of one of these bottles with no modifications whatsoever,

333
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:08,000
this is right off the shelf, that's a lot of energy.

334
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:12,000
And I think that that could definitely blow a piece of glass right into your heart.

335
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:16,000
So our next scenario that we're going to try is the experimental one.

336
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:19,000
We're going to try to get that cap so it's solid on top of the bottle

337
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:23,000
and see if we can't get more of a compression and explosion

338
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:27,000
and maybe get a fracture from this bottle that would have created the shards that killed him.

339
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:33,000
To improve the bomb-like qualities of the lamp, Tari seals the cap, but not very well.

340
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:37,000
That's it. Poxy gave up.

341
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:43,000
With the lava lamp contents escaping, they decide to stage an intervention.

342
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:48,000
A squirt of cold water from a spray gun should help things along.

343
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:53,000
The theory was the shock of the cold water would cause a glass fracture.

344
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:03,000
Look at your face with priceless.

345
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:07,000
Let's go see how he survived or not.

346
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:13,000
Now that is a result.

347
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:16,000
That's crazy. That is a result.

348
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:21,000
You know, I think eventually, given the number of bottles that we had,

349
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:27,000
we probably would be able to get a result like this without having secured the bottle cap on there.

350
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,000
It seems to me that it's just luck of the draw.

351
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:34,000
Every time we had a lot of energy behind the explosion,

352
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:38,000
I think it's just a matter of time before we get one that's mortal.

353
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:41,000
Alright, so exploding lava lamp, what's the verdict?

354
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:43,000
I think we have it confirmed.

355
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:47,000
Yeah, we show that there's enough energy in a lava lamp being heated up on the stove

356
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,000
to throw a shard of glass at lethal velocity into the body.

357
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,000
And I think my scenario as to why the stove was on low

358
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:58,000
and why he was leaning over it when it exploded is actually really plausible.

359
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:03,000
So MSI San Francisco have confirmed the details of this tragic story.

360
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:09,000
And if this isn't a warning to always read the safety instructions, nothing is.

361
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:13,000
But the kitchen pyrotechnics ain't over yet.

362
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,000
You know what? I don't think we can stop right here.

363
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:18,000
One, we haven't had enough explosions.

364
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:24,000
Two, there are a lot of products that people might be tempted to heat up on a stove top like a can of beans.

365
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:29,000
I can go with that. What about like potted meat? That's in a can.

366
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:30,000
There you go.

367
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:31,000
Baby formula.

368
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,000
I mean there's a lot of things we can keep testing.

369
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,000
You know, as a public service to our viewers.

370
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:37,000
Exactly.

371
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:44,000
Jamie and Adam have been testing Tesla's earthquake machine for days.

372
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:48,000
And the Richter scale is showing a big fat zero.

373
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:51,000
There have been a few good vibrations.

374
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:53,000
Scubri, blah, blah, blah.

375
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:58,000
But certainly nothing like the results Tesla boasted about in his twilight years.

376
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:03,000
After a lifelong feud with Edison and in deep financial trouble,

377
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:07,000
the Serbian born inventor made some outrageous claims.

378
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:12,000
He was still producing great work such as the first principles for radar.

379
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:19,000
But he also suggested he could build a death ray capable of destroying 10,000 enemy airplanes.

380
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:24,000
And of course he famously claimed that with a few well-timed explosions,

381
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:28,000
he could split the earth in two like an apple.

382
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:33,000
But Tesla's claims and the results so far are a world apart.

383
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:39,000
So we're a little bit stuck because the designs that Tesla drew out don't seem to really work too well.

384
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:46,000
And we might eventually get there, but I understand Grant has advice that might speed things up a little bit.

385
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:49,000
Okay, you ready? Here we go.

386
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:56,000
That's it Jamie. That's what we wanted to build.

387
00:27:56,000 --> 00:28:02,000
It's an electromagnetic linear motor and Tesla will be smiling in his grave.

388
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:05,000
This is precisely what Tesla's describing in his patent.

389
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:09,000
I mean he says he doesn't care exactly how you achieve that movement,

390
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:12,000
but that it's frictionless you could potentially do it with a magnetic coil,

391
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:14,000
even though he suggested air cushion.

392
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:16,000
I mean this is it. This is it.

393
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:24,000
Amazingly Grant turns out to have in his possession for an outside consulting gig exactly the motor that we need.

394
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:30,000
It's driven by magnets which Tesla posited was possible and a reasonable way to do this machine.

395
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:33,000
I cannot wait to get going on that thing.

396
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:40,000
Grant's actuator is so perfect that with a simple clamp to the 20 foot bar it's ready to go.

397
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,000
Now we're getting something here.

398
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:45,000
Yeah, it's starting to rock.

399
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:52,000
With a computer controlled accuracy of one hundredths of a hertz something Tesla could only dream of.

400
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:55,000
I got something.

401
00:28:55,000 --> 00:29:03,000
They're having much more success fine tuning Grant's almost frictionless motor to the steel bar's natural frequency.

402
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:06,000
Holy Christ.

403
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:09,000
Dude!

404
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:14,000
My box. Let's stop it.

405
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,000
Okay, stop it.

406
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:27,000
It's about tuning the amount of vibrations per second precisely to what the bar needs.

407
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:34,000
It's that every time the bar flexes when it comes back up that you're hitting it boom right at the top of that arc.

408
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:38,000
And again it goes back down, it comes back up, bang you're hitting it right at the top of that arc.

409
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:40,000
That timing is absolutely critical to this.

410
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:47,000
And we saw that once you get that timing right and you eliminate the ability of the bar to move and bounce and lose its energy,

411
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:50,000
the deflection was just diabolical.

412
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:58,000
I can't with all my weight standing in the middle of this deflect it as much as it was being deflected by this actuator,

413
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:01,000
which only weighs what, like five pounds?

414
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:09,000
Well we got some results from our first test but we didn't get anything like what Tesla described as far as this atom by atom destruction.

415
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:15,000
And he said one thing he did was bolt it to an iron bar and the other thing he did was bolt it to his building

416
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:22,000
and maybe we're going to get a lot more response out of this device if we bolt it to a scale model of Tesla's actual lab.

417
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:28,000
Let's build a scale version of 48 East Houston Street where his lab was and try the device out on that.

418
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:30,000
So scale testing it is.

419
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:34,000
And a quick research break ensures they have accurate mini blueprints,

420
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:41,000
not just for size but also structural integrity and material strength.

421
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:50,000
Then with judicious use of the fast forward button, Adam and Jamie have a replica of Tesla's lab built in no time at all.

422
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:53,000
We have our 1-6 scale version of Tesla's building.

423
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:58,000
Now we have to have a 1-6 scale of Tesla's resonator.

424
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:02,000
This micro cassette recorder fits the build perfectly.

425
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:09,000
And once it's attached to one of the scaled down steel beams, they're ready to go.

426
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:23,000
We should match the oscillation of your device to the sound of this thing rocking back and forth then we'll get really close to the resonant frequency, okay?

427
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,000
That's pretty darn good.

428
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:30,000
Alright then I think we should just let it sit for a while. Tesla said nothing happened at first.

429
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:36,000
Despite Adam's confidence in the test parameters, the Earth and Mini Jamie are unmoved.

430
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:38,000
Let's give Grant a call.

431
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:41,000
Yeah we need to go bigger.

432
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:44,000
Of course if we use Grant's device, scale is going out the window.

433
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:50,000
This isn't even remotely what you would consider pocket sized in scale. It's something like a car.

434
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:58,000
But even with the scale equivalent of an oscillating car and hours of tuning and tweaking, there's no evidence of destruction.

435
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:01,000
So the myth is on extremely shaky ground.

436
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:07,000
But desperate to give Tesla his due, Adam has one last test up his sleeve.

437
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:15,000
I think that it's the final piece to resistance of this myth. We take your linear actuator out to a big steel structure like a bridge.

438
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:19,000
We try it on that. Then we can call this one busted.

439
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,000
You get me the bridge, I'll be there.

440
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:28,000
So this is the classic story of somebody has a tin of beans.

441
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:32,000
He doesn't have a bowl so he's going to heat it up straight on the stove.

442
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:38,000
Forgets to open up the lid, the pressure builds, and it explodes.

443
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:44,000
I think you're right, dude.

444
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:49,000
Beans.

445
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:53,000
Not as exciting as the lava lamp, this can of beans.

446
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:58,000
But where there's heat, beans, and pressure, there's always an explosion.

447
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:03,000
Oh, dang it! That was disgusting.

448
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:06,000
Disgusting, but I bet you want to see it again.

449
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:11,000
Oh, this is so gross! Look at that! Oh my god, it's in the shape of a can!

450
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:15,000
That was awesome!

451
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:21,000
So the pop-top popped and there was a stinky eruption, but it wasn't exactly lethal.

452
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:22,000
Next.

453
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:25,000
Okay, so this time we're going to use a bigger can of beans.

454
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:30,000
It's the kind of can that you actually need a can opener to get into the beans.

455
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:39,000
So it doesn't have the pop-top with the little tab, so hopefully it's going to take a lot more pressure to make this explode.

456
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:46,000
The heat's off, so all they've got to do is sit tight, wait for the boom, and avoid getting arrested by the pun police.

457
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:53,000
I have bean there. Yeah, Grant likes beans safe. This is bean the funniest day.

458
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:57,000
Half an hour into the experiment and the bean can is yet to blow.

459
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:01,000
The mythbusters, well, they're still monkeying around.

460
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:13,000
Woohoo!

461
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,000
Oh my god, the ad!

462
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:22,000
I could taste beans in the air.

463
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:23,000
Yeah.

464
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:27,000
Now you see it, now you don't.

465
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:31,000
Next, it's a pop-gun of potted meat.

466
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:35,000
Woo! You were right! Look at that! It's in a block!

467
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:37,000
And it's cooked! Let's eat.

468
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:38,000
What do we got next?

469
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:42,000
Well, the list says a mortar of milk.

470
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:46,000
It doesn't look too aggressive. It looks like it's just slowly leaking out.

471
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:48,000
Woo!

472
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:50,000
Nice!

473
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:52,000
It was a milk rocket!

474
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:56,000
That was great.

475
00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:00,000
Oh, look, there's a huge shirt of glass going right into the ribs.

476
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,000
Oh, gross.

477
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:06,000
Which leaves just one item on the team's to blow up list.

478
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:09,000
The mother of all lava lamps.

479
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:11,000
Big Bertha.

480
00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:13,000
So quiet.

481
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:15,000
A little too quiet.

482
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:19,000
It was almost in slow motion.

483
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:22,000
Wow, those are giant pieces.

484
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:24,000
Oh my god, that was so cool.

485
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:25,000
Wow.

486
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:28,000
The pieces that came off that were definitely like spears.

487
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,000
They were huge.

488
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:35,000
Alright, let's wrap up our day with results.

489
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:36,000
What do we get for the lava lamp?

490
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,000
Lethal. Lots of energy. Lots of shrapnel.

491
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:40,000
Can of beans.

492
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:43,000
Well, depending on the size of the tin that you're using,

493
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:47,000
I would say it's definitely lethal, especially to you, possibly your neighbors.

494
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:51,000
Okay. How about the can of potted meat?

495
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:54,000
Probably not lethal, but very messy.

496
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:56,000
And finally, the milk in the jar.

497
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:59,000
The milk in the jar, I guess the only way it could kill you is if you had your head

498
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:01,000
and you were looking directly down at it.

499
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:02,000
It could be lethal.

500
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:05,000
Okay, so I guess we've learned something here today.

501
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:08,000
Don't put anything on the stove unless you have a pressure release.

502
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:20,000
Tesla's earthquake machine has proved to be a test of Jamie and Adam's patience

503
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:22,000
and working relationship.

504
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:26,000
But Adam has insisted they try one last experiment.

505
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,000
You get me the bridge, I'll be there.

506
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,000
And what a bridge.

507
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,000
We're on the Carcanus Bridge.

508
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:35,000
Now, this is obviously a huge steel structure.

509
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:38,000
This was built circa 1927.

510
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:44,000
So, as far as a resonant steel structure, this is it.

511
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,000
It's quite the structure.

512
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:49,000
It is. It is an awesome structure.

513
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,000
But when Adam said, we promise that if this device works,

514
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:54,000
we will use our powers only for good.

515
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:56,000
He was lying.

516
00:36:56,000 --> 00:37:00,000
It's time to use Tesla's device to bring the bridge down.

517
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:01,000
This is intense.

518
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:05,000
So all they need to do is find a good spot to attach their earthquake machine,

519
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,000
turn it on, and tune it in.

520
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:12,000
There she goes.

521
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:13,000
There it is.

522
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:16,000
The oscillating machine is oscillating.

523
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:18,000
Increase the amplitude.

524
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:21,000
And now to tune it to the resonant frequency of the bridge.

525
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:27,000
If they can do that, this giant steel structure will be a pile of rubble in no time at all.

526
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:30,000
Oh, my God!

527
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:32,000
I'm just kidding.

528
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:38,000
Keen-eyed observers will note the guys are actually standing on the bridge they're trying to destroy.

529
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:43,000
Confidence in Tesla's machine isn't exactly sky-high.

530
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:48,000
Neither Jamie nor I gives a high percentage to anything occurring out here.

531
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:56,000
Nonetheless, I mean, Mythbusters is nothing if not a compendium of ways in which Jamie and I have been wrong.

532
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:02,000
Jamie, come here. Feel this.

533
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:04,000
Come here.

534
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:09,000
I feel a vibration that is oscillating here.

535
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,000
I'm going to freeze it and see whether it stops.

536
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:13,000
Okay, okay.

537
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:15,000
That's kind of cool.

538
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:17,000
And...

539
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:20,000
totally stops here.

540
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:21,000
That's freaky.

541
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:25,000
All of a sudden, this myth is giving Adam and Jamie a good vibe.

542
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:30,000
And it's not the traffic because that's on a completely separate bridge.

543
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:34,000
It totally feels like the whole structure is ringing to that, to that hurts.

544
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:38,000
Hold on, I'm going to go down the way and see if I can feel it over here.

545
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,000
I can totally feel it over here.

546
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:43,000
Wait.

547
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:50,000
I can totally... yep, there it goes.

548
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:52,000
But the best is yet to come.

549
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:56,000
After some more tuning, they find a sweet spot.

550
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:57,000
All the fun.

551
00:38:58,000 --> 00:38:59,000
Oh my God.

552
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:05,000
It feels like a big semi-trailer truck is rolling right by us right now.

553
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:11,000
And that's only six pounds of weight moving 25 times per second.

554
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:15,000
It actually makes me a little concerned, I believe it or not.

555
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:21,000
I've totally started to come out here and find this thing vibrating at the correct frequency

556
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:24,000
to be felt hundreds of feet away from the source.

557
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:26,000
That is totally amazing.

558
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:28,000
Did not expect that.

559
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:36,000
We were ramping the same weight and the same kind of amplitude of vibration

560
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:40,000
through the whole range of frequencies.

561
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:45,000
And you know, there's a little vibration, but then I hit that one spot

562
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:50,000
and all of a sudden it's like, hold on, this is different.

563
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:54,000
Something different was going on with that exact frequency.

564
00:39:54,000 --> 00:40:02,000
And as a result of that specific frequency, that specific tone that we're getting,

565
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:05,000
this entire bridge is vibrating.

566
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:09,000
Yeah, you can see it.

567
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:13,000
That's over 100 feet away.

568
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:17,000
Dude, that's six pounds.

569
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:18,000
I know.

570
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:21,000
That's, I mean, I'm a little spooked.

571
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:22,000
It's official.

572
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:28,000
We have two spooked mythbusters and some unexpected results on our hands.

573
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:36,000
This vibration from this device is traveling significant distances in this structure.

574
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:38,000
But it ain't no earthquake.

575
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:43,000
We've had it running for, I think, somewhere near an hour at this point.

576
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:47,000
And it's not doing anything but just making the vibrations.

577
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:49,000
The vibrations aren't building.

578
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:53,000
We tuned it up and down to find a really residence frequency.

579
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:59,000
If we've hit a real butter zone here and still this bridge is standing.

580
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:05,000
Do you know that some people think that Tesla was sent back in time from the future

581
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:08,000
to give primitive man the gift of electricity

582
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:11,000
and that he was an inspiration for Mark Twain's story

583
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:13,000
in Connecticut Yankee and King Arthur's court?

584
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:16,000
Well, he was definitely ahead of his time.

585
00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:19,000
And, you know, he was onto something with this resonance thing.

586
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:20,000
It was pretty cool.

587
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:23,000
Yeah, but I think we both know where this is going.

588
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:24,000
It ain't no earthquake.

589
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:26,000
It's no earthquake. It's totally busted.

590
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:27,000
Let's go home.

591
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:36,000
Hey, what do you think if we put a couple hundred pounds on that starter?