When he finally began his exposure after 11 hours of preparation, he badly wanted a nap, but instead found that his were hands full keeping the local deer at bay. He turned on talk radio, and rattled a container of wire nutsevery ten minutes or so to keep the apple-loving animals away from the trees.
Inspired by the science class project where fruits or vegetables are used topower a clock or LED light, Charland wired together 300 apples still on the tree to power a lamp. He put a zinc-coated galvanized nail into each apple and a bare copper wire into the other end to create a current through the electrolytes (charged particles) in the fruit. Electrons flowed from the zinc electrode (where the zinc reacts with the acid in the apple) through the light and into the copper electrode, which transferred electrons back into the fruit. Every ten apples provided about 5 volts, powering an LED for several hours. Charland writes: