Hardware Hacking 17Chapter 5: The Celebrated Jumping Speaker of
Bowers County
You will need:
- A dispensable raw loudspeaker (3-8” diameter.)
- 1 or 2 “C” or “D” cell batteries.
- Some jumper leads.
- Some hookup wire.
- Some electrical tape or gaffing tape.
- A medium size nail.
- A sheet of copper, steel or iron, or a chunk of some conductive metal.
Creative mistreatment of loudspeakers goes beyond Motown, and even precedes
amplification itself. British computer scientist and musician John Bowers has
developed a beautiful electric instrument, evoking the spirit of 19th Century
electrical experimentation (think twitching frogs legs and early telephones) out
of nothing more than a speaker, some batteries, a few nails and some scrap
metal.
Hook up the “circuit” shown below:
Use electrical tape or gaffing tape to attach wire (strip the ends first) to either end
of a “C” or “D” cell battery (1.5volts.) Connect the other end of one of the wires
(it doesn’t matter which) to one terminal of the speaker -- you can solder it on or