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to an increase in electric potential between certain measurements have determined that the voltage parts, which results in electric discharge. Electric difference between the Earth and the ionosphere is discharges can appear within a cloud, between two —_ 400,000 volts. The force lines of the electric charge plus clouds or between a cloud and the ground. The latter is — the fields that come from the Sun act vertically on the of interest to us: a gigantic short-circuit between the _ sides of the pyramid. Magnetic equipotentials show a sky and the ground. great density of the magnetic field at the top or apex of In 1750, Benjamin Franklin discovered that electricity the pyramid. The electric field voltage grows 100 V/m is not evenly distributed over all the elements of a with height. The Earth's negative field is the greatest conductor's surface (except in the case of a sphere); its | and most dense at the apex of the pyramid. At the top distribution depends on the extent of curvature of the of the Pyramid of Cheops (also known as the Great observed surface elements. Generally speaking, higher Pyramid and the Pyramid of Khufu), there is a voltage of charge density is located on their edges, on protuberant 14,600 V. (See fig. 1). and pointed parts rather than on round and flat ones. The Cheops Pyramid has its own electric capacity, the Statistically, lightning always strikes along the path ability to accumulate a certain amount of electric which is more conductive, i.e., the path with the higher — charge. If too much electric charge is brought to the charge density. Franklin found in his experiments that pyramid, the excess discharges at the top of the he pointier and more conductive the lightning rod, the = pyramid. According to word of mouth, the apex of the easier it was to attract lightning during an electrical | Cheops Pyramid originally consisted of a pyramidion storm. That is why he designed made of solid gold—an excellent is metal lightning rod with a conductor. gilded point. The voltage at the top of the However, since then, there Magnetic equipotentials structure depends solely on as been controversy over i height. That is why Tesla built a whether lightning rods should show a great density of the tower, a tall-standing structure. ave a point or a ball at the tip. magnetic field at the top or Tesla chose an eight-sided Nik a Tesla predicted in 1892 apex of the pyramid. The pyramid, but it could ave been at the ideal lightning _. a four-sided one or an infinite- antenna—a_ receiver and electric field voltage grows sided one, a cone. The voltage emitter of lightning strikes— * * would have been the same in should have a blunt, not a 100 V/m with height. all cases. The symmetrical form pointed, tip. In 1918, he was of the structure would have granted US patent no. 1,266,175 increased its static stability and on a lightning protector design because of a fault in _ resistance to earthquakes. Franklin's theory: the pointed rod ionises the Why did Tesla build a sphere, 21 metres in diameter, surrounding air, rendering the air conductive and thus _ on top of the pyramidal tower? What was accomplished raising the probability of a lightning strike. A paper by doing that? The fact that the sphere was spikeless itled "Lightning Rod Improvement Studies" by C. B. _ meant that the voltage on the sphere would have been Moore et al., published in the Journal of Applied Meteorology evenly distributed over its entire surface. The voltage in May 2000, further confirmed Tesla's theory (see hat would have been discharged from the top of the tp://tinyurl.com/d7mcne). pyramid would have been taken over by the sphere, thus So, while Franklin invented the lightning rod, the __ increasing the total electric capacity of the whole tower. echnical solution to attracting natural lightning from nstead of having the discharge taking place on one clouds, Tesla wanted to make a device that would create = point at the top of the pyramid, it would have taken ightning in cloudless desert areas and thus induce place on many points all over the surface of the sphere. rainfall. The conclusion is that by adding the sphere to the top In the discharge tunnel of a natural lightning strike, of the pyramid, the electric capacity of the device would e temperature is about 30,000°C, the electric charge ave been increased, and this would have raised the reaches 40 MV and the electric current is around 110 kA. __ possibility of creating far stronger lightning. is estimated that the energy of an average lightning Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower was designed to electrify strike is about 40 MWh. Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower was he atmosphere in a split second and produce a supposed to use a transformer to create high voltage hunderstorm and rainfall, as well as to provide the and, instead of natural lightning, produce high-energy means for worldwide wireless communication. To our ionic smouldering discharge. Tesla envisioned an eight- great misfortune, the tower was never completed; it was sided pyramid with a half-sphere on top as the basis for — dismantled during the First World War. Tesla never got this device. Why? he chance to do the experiments that he'd planned on Tesla claimed that Earth is a spherical capacitor plate Long Island and apply rain engineering in desert with the ionosphere as the other plate. Recent conditions. Magnetic equipotentials show a great density of the magnetic field at the top or apex of the pyramid. The apex of the pyramid. The electric field voltage grows 100 V/m with height. 44 ¢ NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2009 www.nexusmagazine.com