Iron wire demo and where to buy the supplies

Update (12/1/24): You can order the wire online from Ace Hardware now - either in 50 ft lengths or in 1540 ft lengths.

For some ridiculous reason, one of the hardest supplies for material science teachers to procure is the iron wire for our iron wire demonstration. It should be the simplest thing in the world to get because it's one of the least complicated things to make, but - for some of us - it's amazingly hard to find just the right wire. Though the TruValue near Chillicothe, MO seems to stock it in bulk, my local TruValue doesn't understand what I want with it and doesn't have it on hand.

Here's (above) a picture of the iron wire (anchor wire, stovepipe wire, black wire) that is exactly what we use in the summer camps, and here's a video of the demo as we perform it, too. That's Master Teacher Caryn Jackson there on the right. She has a nice variac (and some 15-amp fuses) to use. Some of us envy her for her awesome variac.



...and the same as narrated by Beth Eddy...