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I eagerly await the second fundraiser to rebuild the tower (twice!) and stick something like this on top.

Hello, here's the project overview on our website: http://www.lod.org/Projects/LightningFoundry/LightningFoundry.html I couldn't find the word 'cool' listed there but the word 'goal' occurs several times.

Hi John, The lightning initiation process still confounds experts in the field, which is understandable since the unpredictable nature and high altitude of lightning strikes effectively prohibit any close approach with scientific instruments. Several recent papers [Gurevich, Zybin, Dwyer] propose that ‘relativistic runaway breakdown’ effects might provide lightning with its amazing abilities. One conceivable way to study the lightning initiation process is to try and artificially trigger it. I'm proposing that it’s now arguably practical to build a machine large enough to recreate the conditions that theory predicts will trigger a relativistic runaway breakdown in air, on demand, and in a well-instrumented environment. More info on the project can be viewed here: http://www.lod.org/Projects/LightningFoundry/LightningFoundry.html Let me know if you'd like any more info. -Greg Leyh

Electrum was primarily a lightning sculpture. However, once it was operational we took the opportunity to climb into the electrode and measure the actual base currents of the arc, since the electrode easily accommodates a person while it’s at full power. I used a Fluke 2-channel battery powered oscilloscope, connected to two Pearson fast current transformers. One CT was around a metal 'fishing rod' that I would poke out of the electrode to attract arcs. Here’s some of the waveforms we captured: http://www.lod.org/Projects/electrum/techdata/waveforms.htm Note the appearance of unexpected high frequency bursts that appear on the crests of the wave in the last two images. They have about a 400nsec time constant. They occur only on the *negative* crest, in a time frame where the output voltage is essentially DC. I still don’t have a good explanation for these odd bursts. With the Lightning Foundry, we’ll be looking instead for relativistic runaway breakdown events in air. Specifically we’ll use wide spectrum radio receivers to look for narrow bipolar pulses, and gamma-ray detectors to survey for evidence of relativistic particles.

What sensors are you employing to measure this lightning bolt? I don't know much about The Electrum Project or what sort of data it produced for lightning on demand so can you give us very technical details of the sensors in this experiment? Is this more a proof of concept or academic endeavor? Am I missing something on your balance sheet or from Electrum's site about sensors, result sets and data?

Your kickstarter page lists a goal of some $348,000 to do the full experiment as per your cost breakdown. You are now at $32,000 with five days to go meaning some of these components are not going to be affordable. Could you please explain what is being cut or if you're doing the experiment at all?

http://www.enterprisemission.com/
http://www.xenotechresearch.com/
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/
http://www.divinecosmos.com/
http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/
http://einstein.stanford.edu/
http://www.biocybernaut.com/
http://www.lod.org/
http://noosphere.princeton.edu/
http://www.sitchin.com/
http://www.lenr-canr.org/
http://www.zptech.net/
http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/dag/meditationroom.htm
http://www.starchildproject.com/

That should keep everybody busy ..

this............
http://www.lod.org/Projects/Other//index.htm

Is this wireless enough for you? http://www.lod.org/

Please. That's kids stuff!

What you really need for an effective deterrent is a 110,000 volt, 30 barrel taser gattling gun. More details here. Choice quote:

"Most spectators experience some degree of sinus discomfort after several firings, due to the high brissance of the plasma explosion."

Hah. I'll bet they do. :-)

Please. That's kids stuff!

What you really need for an effective deterrent is a 110,000 volt, 30 barrel taser gattling gun. More details here. Choice quote:

"Most spectators experience some degree of sinus discomfort after several firings, due to the high brissance of the plasma explosion."

Hah. I'll bet they do. :-)

It lights because the magnetron in your microwae produces a voltage potential across the light bulb's contacts (more precisely, across the filiment itself). It's the same principle as a flourescent bulb lighting up around high voltage (actually while inside a high voltage field).

you should check out www.lod.org for some kewl pictures of high voltage stuff; many have a dummy with a round flourescent bulb on his head. cool.

Well, if it ever gets built, the "largest Tesla Coil system that is theoretically and practically possible" might be a good place to research ball lightning. And many other cool things.

When the mad scientist running the show got inside the cage at the top, he first said, ``and now we're going to have a highly graphical demonstration of Faraday's law.'' He said that he didn't think anyone had ever been inside a running Tesla coil before, because nobody had ever built one large enough to get inside of before. Afterward, he said, ``I feel odd, but it's not entirely unpleasant.''

(This is why I like San Francisco. ``Hey, let's go check out the World's Largest Tesla Coil tonight'' just isn't the kind of thing you're going to hear in other parts of the world.)

Another interesting site is www.austinrichards.com . I think this was the guy at Burning Man this year who had a tesla coil mounted on top of a delivery van: he was standing on top of the truck wearing a Faraday suit and waving a metal rod around, letting the lightning hit him directly, the whole time shouting through a loudspeaker, ``I am Doctor Megavolt'' or something like that. It was sublime.

http://www.lod.org/electrum/spkyburn.jpg

Redmond, here we come... (just kidding, kinda...)

Seriously tho, the Statement of Intent impressed the heck out of me... Seems like it would have been something simpler, like "WE WANTED TO BLOW SH!T UP! yeah baby..."

What I really love is the "all natural" Electrum Project in which 'The viewer is bathed in the raw force of nature.' Yeah... be bathed in a pile of their own sh!t if they're not careful.

The big question? Can Uncle Billy run 300 feet in the time it takes that thing to arm?

Redmond, here we come... (just kidding, kinda...)

Seriously tho, the Statement of Intent impressed the heck out of me... Seems like it would have been something simpler, like "WE WANTED TO BLOW SH!T UP! yeah baby..."

What I really love is the "all natural" Electrum Project in which 'The viewer is bathed in the raw force of nature.' Yeah... be bathed in a pile of their own sh!t if they're not careful.

The big question? Can Uncle Billy run 300 feet in the time it takes that thing to arm?

I can't believe I forgot to link in this psychotic little page on their site. These guys have actually hacked together a Taser Gatling gun using their prodigious electrical skills.

Whoa.

For people like me, who grew up in Northern California and walked outside a few months back in slack jawed amazement for his first exposure to a lightning storm, mass electrical generators of any kind are damn cool, simply because we don't get much of that around here.

The equivalent, of course, is when you take someone from the east coast, or the midwest, and toss a 5.0 quake at them. No big deal to Californians...Armageddon to everyone else ;-)

Actually, there are some very, very cool tricks that can be done with static generators. When I was very young, we picked up a "negative ion generator"--essentially a device that used some technology to create a standing static charge. Connect the leads to a big metal bowl, fill the bowl with flour or salt, and as you move your positively charged hand into the bowl, negatively charged particles literally fly onto your hand, (I assume) electrostatically coating it. Fun for the entire family.

Nothing, of course, like being in that metal cage. My god! That thing was built in my hometown! How could I have never seen it :-)

Yours Truly,

Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com

I can't believe I forgot to link in this psychotic little page on their site. These guys have actually hacked together a Taser Gatling gun using their prodigious electrical skills.

Whoa.

For people like me, who grew up in Northern California and walked outside a few months back in slack jawed amazement for his first exposure to a lightning storm, mass electrical generators of any kind are damn cool, simply because we don't get much of that around here.

The equivalent, of course, is when you take someone from the east coast, or the midwest, and toss a 5.0 quake at them. No big deal to Californians...Armageddon to everyone else ;-)

Actually, there are some very, very cool tricks that can be done with static generators. When I was very young, we picked up a "negative ion generator"--essentially a device that used some technology to create a standing static charge. Connect the leads to a big metal bowl, fill the bowl with flour or salt, and as you move your positively charged hand into the bowl, negatively charged particles literally fly onto your hand, (I assume) electrostatically coating it. Fun for the entire family.

Nothing, of course, like being in that metal cage. My god! That thing was built in my hometown! How could I have never seen it :-)

Yours Truly,

Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com

Meanwhile, over at a the Lightning On Demand web site, a very pissed off Marc Andreesen enters the address of the Redmond conferance room into the Electrum 130kW LOD web site and ZAP! Bill G. is struck by lightning.

I can dream, can't I? :)