NEED HELP IDENTIFYING a "V" shaped electricity experiment?

Question

its a visual Display for showing elctrical current. they use it as props in those old monster movies or mad scientist movies from the 50's and 60's

there two metal rods forming a "V" and the electricity travels up

i cannot for the life of me remember the name or can even find a picture of it to describe what i mean.

it's not the van de graaff by the way .

many thanks

Answer 1

It's called a "Jacob's ladder".

Answer 2

I couldn't answer your question well as I think they are purely for show and serve no real purpose in physics or in any industrial site. I found this though which is kind of cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx_genera...