Re: Wendover Coil Vs USAF lightning TesT?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts" <m.j.watts@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

HI Ed,

On 19 Apr 2005, at 9:13, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> "Original poster: Ben McMillen <spoonman534@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi all,
>      Along the lines of lightning tests..
>
> Has anyone here in the US that's an IEEE member read the
> article in this month's issue titled "Stealing Celestial
> Fire" ? It looks to be along the lines of the 'N2 laser
> triggered spark gap' thread we had awhile back..
>
> For those of you who haven't read it..
>
> They're using a Teramobile (titanium sapphire) laser to
> create a plasma channel between a charged electrode and a
> grond point. The laser is capable of 100 fempto-second
> pulses with a max power of 5 terawatts. Rips the electrons
> right form the air, creating what they're calling a
> 'filament'. From the pictures it looks like one heck of a
> triggered gap. The idea is to scale it up a bit to reduce
> lightning strikes at airports.
>
> Someday I'll have a job like this.. ;)
>
> Coiling In Pittsburgh
> Ben McMillen"
>
>  What IEEE journal are you referring to?  The IEEE comic book
> (Spectrum)?  I seldom bother to read it but think my wife hasn't
> thrown away the latest issue so I'll look for this article; sounds
> vaguely familiar.  The analogy to a triggered gap sounds like a prety
> good one, although I doubt anyone who had such a monster system being
> interested in the tiny little 30 kVA TC's guys on this list build!
>
> Ed

I found the article on the Web by plugging Stealing Celestial Fire
into Google.

Malcolm