Lightning: Does lightning oscillate? As a first approximation, what is the voltage, current, resistance, energy, power, damping, potential gradient, and rate-of-change of current?

By the use of some new experimental data of the resistance of conducting vapors the conclusion is reached that the current in a streak of lightning oscillates. Starting with experimental value of 4500 volts per centimeter, as the average potential gradient for the electrostatic field between the thunder-cloud and earth, some astonishingly high values for the factors involved in lightning resulted. For more than a decade the average current in a lightning stroke of 10,000 amperes has been accepted. The calculations in this paper show a value as great as one-and-a-half-million amperes. Some of the other factors correspondingly large are as follows: The energy stored in the electrostatic field is 700 kilowatt-hours. The maximum power expended in the discharge is 860-billion kilowatts. The frequency for the particular stroke calculated, one mile long, is lower than former estimates, — about 50,000 cycles per second.