Evening star., 1937-11-26
j. OF VA. EXPERTS
TUBE LIGHTNING.
Idea Works Along Line of
Neon Lights, but Other
Gases Are Used.
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE,
Associated Press Science Editor.

=
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. GA new
type Of laboratory-m lightning,
trapped inside q gas-filled glass tube,
where 1t can be harnessed for useful
work. was announced here today.
The tube lightning was described to
the fall meeting of the American
Philosophical Society by j. w. Beams,
professor of physics, and L. B. Snoddy
OF the University of Virginia. 1t is
made in long glass tubes. working on
the principle Of neon lights.
These lights are due to discharge
Of a high-voltage electric current
through neon gas. Instead of neon,
the Virginia scientists fill their tubes
with other gases, usually dry air,
sometimes carbon dioxide or hydrogen.
The gases are at low pressures, form
ing a partial vacuum.
Causes Them to Flash.
The glass tubes are longer than the
kind used in street signs. The longest
tried Is AZ feet. with 6-inch diam
eter. Electricity discharged into these
tubes causes them to flash. What
happens to initiate the flashes has
been one Of the largely unexplored
1elds OF the vacuum tube
The Virginians found the answer
by using rapidly revolving mirror to
photograph the flashes and an oscil-
1ograph to measure the electrical
changes. They discovered they were
dealing with lightning on a small
scale. They found in the tubes the
same leader" flash which has recentlv
been discovered in all of natures light
ming strokes
In the tubes, as out in the open
atmosphere, this pilot flash made a
path over which flowed tremendous
currents of electricity. In the tubes
the pilot flashes travelled at speeds
ranging from about 600 miles a second
to $4,000 miles.
Flow Under Control.
1t was discovered that in the fragile
tubes tremendous currents of elec.
tr1clty would flow with safety and
under control. Five thousand amperes
now In a square centimeter cross
section OF tube, which means in a
space about the diameter of a large
fountain pen.
moreover, said DR.. Beams, verv
large cross-sections can be used in
tubes and the voltages can 70 as hieh
as desired. In the laboratory expert
ments 100000 volts have been used.
The tubes are new kind of gas
transmission line for electricity.
Ihe experiments show" said DR..
Beams, that the long DISCHARGE tubes
can be used as transmission line for
electrical impulses In many types of
experiments. The tube is ideally suit
ca 1or regulating time separation be-
tween appearance of high potential
at different points in a system"
Big Bertha Atom Gun.
The first practical use is under way
At the University Of Virginia to build
q Big Bertha atom gun of a different
Kind than any now used by science.
Atom guns have converted table salt
Into artificial radium, done hundred,
OF transmutations and produced neil.
iron rays for cancer experiments. The
guns already In use include the Law
renee cyclotron invented at the Uni
versity OF California, the Van de
Graaf generator of the Massa achu-
setts Institute of Technology and the
tube generator of the Carnegie In
stitution of Washington.
Their object is to produce enormous
electrical energy and their usefulness
Is limited according to the energy
they develop. The harnessed light
ming promises still more OF, this en-
ergy.