The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1910-04-21
Mem THINGS ABOUT
bolts FROM SKY
A WASTE OF ENERGY IN EVERY
SINGLE FLASH OF LIGHT
MING.
Or Eyes Deceive m-Whaf Light
ming Could Do-Much Work
Done For Mar.

Modern physical scientists are ever look
ing for new worlds to conquer. Having
already harnessed the streams and even
converted wave-forcc into electricity, they
are now giving exhaustive study to the
question O. the possible utilization for in
dustrial purposes of the power in the light
ning's fash. To every Intelligent cleo
trician, the play of lightning seems a
great waste of energy, says a writer in
the Philadelphia Record. An electrical
storm possesses enough potential energy
to drive a good manyI factory wheels.
A lightning ash several miles in length
casts athwart the earth an illumination
so great and intense that our highest
developed electrical lamps seem insignif-
cant indeed, in comparison
Recently brilliant flash on cloudy
day was estimated to give light equal
to one-foot candle power, and if enc watt
be allowed per candle foot then flash
Of lightning over a space of two miles
would represent an expended energy of
some 10000 kilowatt seconds. Ones imagi-
nation is staggered by the idea Of an ar
tiical lamp capable of spreading an il
Illumination like this through space! The
flash through space illuminates two miles
square of earth, which would require
many hundred thousand incandescent
lamps to equal.
That we have entertained many mis-
conceptions about lightning is apparent
from recent investigations. A lightning
flash frequently extends over several miles
of space. A single flash of 10000 volts
an inch would thus require a potential
differeIsce of about 1900, 100000 volts
for the entire length of two miles. Such
a voltage in the clouds is almost incon-
ceivable 1t is not in accord with all of
the most advanced ideas as to the ma
ture of electricity. 1t should, SO far as
we can conceive, annihilate whole COM
munities and destroy all human life with
in a radius of many miles of the flash.
But this does not happen. Ever since
man has inhabited the earth violent thun-
derstorms and electrical flashes have brok-
en- the monotony of summer heat and so
far as the records show no remarkable
visitation of unusual caIamit:es has resulted
therefrom. Yet the phenomena of the
lightning flash have puzzled scientists.
They could not understand why ozone and
nitric acid were not formed in enormous
quantities by even an ordinary flash.
EYES DECEIVE US.
But the secret of it now appears to
be that our eyes are not capable of re-
cording accurately this peculiar phenom
cnon of the heavens. As matter of
fact, SO to speak, it is an optical illusion.
1t is not one violent discharge, but Sc
ries of discharges. A flash of two or
more miles in length is made up of thirty
to fifty successive discharges, occurring
SO rapidly that their appearance seems
almost simultaneous to the eye. This
has been proven by the camera, which
measures light much more accurately and
sensitively than the human eye, upon which
an impression persists fer orly OF second,
and which cannot measure anything less
than this.
This being the case, lightning flash
of several miies in length may occur with
out creating any great potential differ
ence in the ends. The action of a dis
charge is much like landslide down Z
steep sand hill. A slight movement of
pebble may start several other particles
downward until the movement becomes
general, and landslide fellows. A
slight discharge Of electricity from cloud
is followed by another and another until
the total let loose is enormous. But the
total voltage discharged at any time is
a foot at the moment of discharge, with
an average potential difference between
different points of the cloud of 100000
volts.
Sensitive recording Instruments have be-
gun to measure the lightning flashes,
and in this way our knowledge concern
ing the electrical discharge Of the clouds
is being made more accurate. For in
stance it is pretty we'll known now that
the duration of the discharge is about
thousandths of a second,
a duration that is utterly incomprehensible
to the human mind. The average energy
of the discharg 10000 kilowatt seconds
would be equal to 100000 foot pounds
expressed in simple language.
WHAT 1T COULD DO.
If we accept this potential energy Of a
flash of lightning, constituted as it is of
a series of almost simultaneous discharges,
we might translate it into even planer
IL