The scope photo shown above, is the measured wand side of the Black Box 2 (BB2).  The Violet Wand uses a mechanical vibrator to generate the high voltage spikes that are needed for normal functionality.  In the photo you can see the "chop effect" of the mechanism on the left and middle.  The high voltage spikes are the discharge of the coil to a load, in this case a person.  Remember the base line in the photo is the top of the 120 volt wave that powers the wand.  Riding on the base wave are the noise and spikes from the high voltage kick-back of the wand.  In the photo the spikes were in excess of 900 volts, and that would normally go right back into your house electrical circuits!  Clock radios beware!  With the Black Box 2 in line, the wall-plug side is a pure sine wave as your house expects. 

People say "why can't I just use a surge suppressor strip?"  Surge suppressors are designed with a device called an MOV.  MOVs can "suck up" excess energy from a few cycles of house current that goes over the break-over voltage of the MOV.  If it is only a few cycles the MOV can cool and continue working.  In the case of the Violet Wand the violation is continuous and an MOV will overload and fail.  More expensive surge strips offer a warning light that lets you know if you are protected or not.  The cheaper ones offer no such warning and the protection is uncertain.  The Black Box 2's heavy duty circuitry is designed to absorb the ongoing spikes that a wand generates. 

All this is great for keeping your "house clean" but what about safety?  First the BB2 has a GFCI to disconnect if 10 milliamps of current flows to the ground pin.  This is now standard equipment in kitchens and bathrooms on modern homes.  Secondly, as you can see in the photo of the BB2, there are 2 green lights and a red light.  The green lights tell you that the line connections are correct.  You must have 2 green lights lit to continue safely.  The red light is a stop light.  It indicates that the unit sees no ground connection.  Without a good ground you are gambling with your/others lives.  A properly wired "U" ground wall outlet is essential for proper operation of the BB2.  The safety lights come on as soon as power is supplied to the unit, regardless of the power switch being on or off.  As soon as it is determined that power is "good" you can switch on the power switch and a blue power light comes on indicating that power is supplied to the outlets.  The switch is also very handy for some of the Violet Wands that do not have power switches.  

Protecting the world?  Well part of it.  The BB2 is rated at 10 amps, this is way more than needed to handle a wand.  The average wand draws about 50 watts, in the neighborhood of 1/2 amp.  So why the overkill?  The extra capacity is used to suppress the kick-back spikes that could damage your home electronics.  Other uses for the BB2 are as protection for your high-end audio gear to block power line trash from entering the good equipment.  The BB2 protection technique has been successfully used in party environments where multiple wands were operating and protection of audio gear was necessary.  Its 10 Amp rating can handle most needs up to the major Rave events!  The power switch is a 10 amp, magnetic circuit breaker.

The violet wand operates almost exactly as the Tesla coil described. The main difference is that the violet wand does not use a transformer, at least in the hand held models. Basically the wand uses another coil set up as an electro magnet. This set up is sometimes called a “Wagners Hammer”. The pulsing AC current from the wall outlet causes the electro magnet to attract and then repel a permanent magnet that is attached to one side of a set of electrical contacts. By moving together and then apart the circuit is made by the contacts and then broken, very fast. This is the buzzing noise you hear when using the wand. This making and then breaking the circuit establishes our electrical pulse. When you adjust the intensity on the wand, you are positioning the permanent magnet closer to or further from the electro magnet. At low intensity the permanent magnet is far from the electro magnet. The electro magnet, when it is activated, has less of a pull on it because it has to overcome this distance. The contacts open and close at a slower rate. This has the effect of de-tuning the primary coil from the secondary and therefore there is less output (the pushes on the swing are coming at not quite the right frequency. The swing climbs, but not as high as it could.) Incidentally, this is why at low levels the violet wands output will drop as its position is shifted. The distance between them is so great that the pull of the electro magnet is not enough to draw the permanent magnet towards it. Turning the wand upright adds a gravitational pull to the permanent magnet as well as the pull of the electro magnet. It is only with the gravitational pull assisting that the contact can open and close at all. Therefore the wand will work when held upright, but not when tilted.