Bird zapper, a test undone

I’ve had a rotten day, and maybe you too could use a laugh (aside from the must-see “big ass table” video JT brought to comments). The other day I found the prototype above under a few years of dust in a remote nook of the lab, never tested or returned. Its goal is to disuade birds from perching on your spreaders and leaving a mess, and to do so it converts small quantities of 12v DC into 8,000–15,000 volt DC 600 HZ current. Don’t ask me how, but I was told that the resulting zaps are very effective at avian behaviour modification! However, though the developer has had a string of hit products since, this one never came to market. I’m guessing for the same reasons I somehow never got around to plugging it in, a behaviour I’m rarely guilty of. (I am often slow returning things, but this is a record.)