Shoot lightning with this crazy Tesla gun

One of the oldest tropes in science fiction is of mad scientists trying to harness the power of lightning. Because, you know, if you control lightning you’re always going to win.

Thing is, our attempts at becoming Zeus haven’t exactly been portable (which sucks if you’re a super-villan trying to hunt down your nemesis). Until now that is.

Author and DIY enthusiast Rob Flickenger has built a gun that shoots lightning anywhere from 20 to 61cm and produce 100 000 volts of electricity.

Flickeneger claims that the gun, essentially a portable Tesla coil powered by an 18V battery, is more art piece than weapon. “If you hit somebody over the head with it I’m sure it would hurt,” he says.

The mad scientist, I mean inventor, says he would not have been able to build the gun without the help of hacker collectives that contributed to the project.

It’s unclear whether or not Flickenger lives in a hollowed out volcano and has a pool full of sharks.