LIGHTNING LABORATORY

CD 1967012 E&MP44.077

Electricity

1936

The result of shooting a bolt of man-made lightning through sand is shown here by Dr. P.L. Bellaschi, center, lightning expert, as he extracts a solidified, glass-like tube, or artificial fulgurite, from a sand bucket in the Westinghouse high-voltage laboratory in Sharon, Pa.

In a hundredth of a second a surge of electricity from a surge generator, or "lightning-maker", shown at left, raised the temperature of the sand to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit and left its shape in the sand, duplicating fulgurites formed by natural lightning in desert sands. 

Original Caption by Science Service
^©Westinghouse