This is the original junk box coil that I built while I was stationed at RAF Mildenhall in the UK. Note the 15KV/30ma neon sign transformer in the front, the cluster of four wine bottle capacitors (.006uF) to the right & rear, and the nine-electrode Richard Quick style static gap to the left & rear. The pedestal is an 18"x18" wooden table purchased at a boot sale in Banham, East Anglia, UK, for 5.00BP (about $8). The primary is made from #8 stranded, insulated copper wire wound on a plastic cake keeper lid. Tuning was done with a movable tap & alligator clip. Secondary is 460 turns of #22 stranded copper hookup wire with red plastic insulation wound on a length of 4" schedule 40 PVC pipe. Toroid is a short piece of plastic foam "water noodle" bent into a donut and wrapped with Aluminum tape. Best sparks were only about 16", but it was cheap to build and fun to tinker with. Operating frequency was quite high--probably over 500kHz. I dismantled this coil late in 1998 in anticipation of my move back to the USA. The secondary and the wooden table were eventually recycled into the
improved junk box coil.