New forms and uses of laboratory-created lightning

RECENT demonstrations of artificial lightning showed two significant developments. The first is the use in factory production-line tests of the high-voltage high-current surge generator; the second is the achievement in the laboratory of so-called “hot” lightning, which has all the components of natural lightning. The demonstrations were made by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company at Sharon, Pa., where the surge generator is being used to test distribution transformers of the completely self-protected type. The generator which produces the “hot” lightning is being used in the company´s research laboratories.