Prometheus's Tools: Instruments and apparatus

used in atmospheric electricity research and experiments

By Paolo Brenni

Introduction

Lightning and thunderstorms, with their wonderful and terrifying display of energy, are certainly one of the
most impressive phenomena of nature. For centuries people associated them with the power and rage of
gods. Civilizations in the Mediterranean and northern Europe, in the Middle and Far East, and in America
had their own gods responsible for thunder and lightning. They often represented them surrounded by flames
or holding lightning. Philosophers speculated about their nature and tried to explain them in terms of conflict
between elements, air charged with fire, inflammable vapours and telluric fumes exploding in the
atmosphere. In the Middle Ages, several theologians claimed that sinners were particularly exposed to the
effects of lightning, which represented supreme and divine punishment. Several saints, such as Saint
Barbara, were invoked as protectors against thunderstorms and lightning strikes.

During the Scientific Revolution, authors such as Descartes tried to explain the mechanism of thunderstorms,
but their theories often revisited those of ancient philosophers. Only at the beginning of the eighteenth
century was lightning seen to be related to sparks from the first electrostatic machines1. With the invention of
Leyden jars and with the introduction of improved and larger friction machines, the idea that sparks and
lightning shared a common nature became more established. Benjamin Franklin s well-known theories and
experiments as well as Dalibard s experiments in France marked the birth of modern studies on atmospheric
electricity.

In my article I will retrace the history of the researches related to atmospheric electricity between the mid
eighteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. In the first part I will consider the apparatus
and techniques used for studying the fair weather electricity. In the second part I will describe the first
scientific observations on lightning and the early measurements of their physical parameters. Finally I will
illustrate some of the most important projects and experiments conceived in order to harness atmospheric
electricity. 2

1
John Heilbron, Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries A Study of Early Modern Physics, Dover Publication, Mineola, N.Y, 1979,
pp. 339-340 and Hans Prinz, Gewitterelektrizität, Deutsches Museum Adhandlung und Berichte, R.Oldenbourg Verlag, München,
1979, Heft 1, pp. 17-18
2
The primary literature related to these topics is enormous. Therefore in this article I will mention only some of the most important
secondary articles and texts in which it is possible to find a much more detailed bibliography.
 209

Measurement of fair weather electricity

The mechanisms underlying atmospheric electricity are extremely complex and even today only partially
understood. Atmospheric electricity is connected with charge separation involving thermodynamic
phenomena, radiation ionization and collision ionization effects. The ubiquitous electrification of the
atmosphere is known as fair weather electricity. The atmosphere normally has a positive charge, while the
earth is negative. In the simplest terms, we can say that thunderstorms act as batteries keeping the earth
negatively charged while the atmosphere is positively charged. During fair weather there is also a difference
of potential between the surface of the earth and the various layers of atmosphere, a fact that has been known
since the discovery of the electric nature of lightning. It is also known today that normally this electric field
is of the order of about 100 volt/meters; but this value varies enormously during thunderstorms, and can be
influenced by an incredible number of meteorological, physical, and geographical factors. The measurement
of this electric field and the determination of its temporal and spatial variations was, at least until the end of
the nineteenth century, the main concern of scientists interested in atmospheric electricity. In 1860 William
Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) described the basic task in terms of instruments:

Apparatus for the observation of atmospheric electricity has essentially two functions to perform; to electrify a
body with some of the natural electricity, or with electricity produced by its influence; and to measure the
3
electrification thus obtained.

A vertical conductor in the atmospheric field becomes electrified by influence: the negative charges migrate
to the upper part of it while the positive ones accumulate at the lower one. But, if the top of the conductor is
pointed, the negative electric charges disperse and the conductor becomes positive. In modern terms, the
points act as potential equalizers . These simple electrostatic phenomena formed the basis of most
nineteenth-century research in the field of atmospheric electricity. 4 After the pioneering experiences of
Dalibard in France and Franklin in British America, there was a series of interesting observations done
concerning the electricity of the air . The French naturalist Louis Guillaume Lemonnier noticed that even
during fair weather, a lightning rod showed signs of electricity. In fact, the bottom of the rod was able to
attract some light powder. He also noticed that the electrification ceased during the night. His experiments
were repeated and largely extended by the Italian natural philosopher Giovan Battista Beccaria, one of the
most important electricians of the eighteenth century.5 Beccaria, who devoted an important part of his work
to atmospheric electricity, collected a great number of observations using simple pith ball electrometers
connected to exploring iron wires, kites and even rockets. In the following years several natural

3
William Thomson, Reprint of Papers on Electrostatics and Magnetism, MacMillan, London, 1872, p. 209
4
For an introduction to the history of atmospheric electricity up to the 1910s, see : B. Chauveau, Electricité atmosphérique, Premier
Fascicule, Introduction historique, Librairie Octave Dion, Paris, 1922.
5
See the article of Paola Bertucci in the present volume
 210

philosophers and inventors proposed improved electroscopes. 6 Horace Bénédict de Saussure the famous
Geneva natural philosopher invented various types of instruments for exploring atmospheric electricity. First
he used one of his electroscopes (generally a double, silver-wire pendulum electroscope) with a fishing rod.
Then, for reaching a significant height, he connected the electrode of the electroscope to a small lead
attached to a thin metallic wire (Fig 1a). The lead was thrown vertically (about 15 meters) until the stretched
wire detached itself from the electrode, leaving the electroscope charged.7 A third electrometer had a vertical
rod of about 50 cm (Fig1b). When the instrument was suddenly elevated from the ground to an approximate
height of 1.5 meters, it immediately detected the presence of an electric charge. During this period, another
electrician, Tiberius Cavallo, made extensive observations with his apparatus and electrometers based on an
instrument developed by John Canton. All the above mentioned observations, as well as other measurements
made at this time, showed the diurnal as well as a yearly variation of atmospheric electricity, and a strong
influence of meteorological conditions.

Around 1787, the Italian scientist, Alessandro Volta, and the British scientist, Abraham Bennett (famous for
his gold-leaf electroscope), independently discovered a successful method for detecting and measuring
atmospheric electricity. They observed that the flame of a candle, connected with an electroscope, revealed
atmospheric charges much easier and faster. The flame was a good potential equalizer and worked much
better than the pointed conductors used in previous experiments. Volta placed the flame in a small lantern on
the top of a long insulating rod, making the apparatus much more efficient, and the electroscope rapidly
showed the presence of electricity in the air (Fig. 2a). Volta also experimented with burning sulphur wicks
and candles; Later in the nineteenth century, scientists used gas lamps and burning papers impregnated with
lead nitrate. In the late 1850s William Thomson introduced a different type of potential equalizer, the water
drop collector , replacing a flame or pointed conductor. He fixed a well-insulated water reservoir at the place
where the potential had to be measured and was connected with the usual electrometer. Droplets of water
that flowed from a thin pipe inserted into the base of the reservoir carried with them electric charges until the
potential of the reservoir was equal to the surrounding atmosphere. This system, which proved to be very
good, was useful in windy conditions when the flames did not work. These collectors were subsequently
improved and, together with the flame collectors, continued to be used well into the twentieth century. At the
beginning of the twentieth century the ionizing proprieties of radioactive substances were studied and
scientists started using metallic collectors covered with radium or polonium salts.

The changes in potential equalizers ran parallel with improvements in electrometric instruments. I shall only
mention the most significant ones. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century the most popular

6
For a detailed history of early electroscopes, see : Willem Hackmann, Eighteenth Century electrostatic measuring devices , Annali
dell Istituto e Museo di storia della Scienza, III, 1978, Fasc.2, pp. 3-58. Nineteenth-century electroscopes are described in detail in
Eléuthère Mascart, Traité d électricité statique, Masson, Paris, 1876, Vol.1, pp 344-436.
7
A similar system was used several years later by Antoine César Becquerel, who confirmed an increase of positive electricity with
height. With a bow he launched an arrow into the sky, which was connected to an electroscope with a very thin metallized silk wire.
 211

electrometers were double pendulum apparatus such as Saussure s or Volta s, or Bohnenberger s single leaf
instrument. The latter had a single gold leaf suspended between the poles of two Zamboni dry cells and could
indicate not only the presence but also the polarity of a charge. In the 1830s Jean Athanase Peltier introduced
a very sensitive apparatus which became popular in France (Fig. 1c). His electrometer had a light, movable
metallic needle with a small magnet, suspended to a frame connected to quite a large spherical electrode
fixed at the top of the instrument. A second insulated needle was fixed parallel to the first needle. The
instrument was oriented along the Earth s magnetic meridian so that the two needles were parallel. For
measuring, the electrometer was brought to different heights where the atmospheric field induced charges on
the sphere. The electrostatic repulsion acting against the magnetic restoring force deviated the movable
needle. The deviation was measured on a graduated scale. In 1846 the German scientist, Elard
Romershausen, proposed an improved apparatus with a multiple point collector and a measuring instrument
combining a kind of Bohnenberger electrometer and a torsion balance. In 1853 the German physicists,
Johann Friedrich Dellmann (Fig. 1e) and later Rudolph Kohlrausch, used improved and complicated versions
of Coulomb s torsion balance. In the late 1850s, the Italian Luigi Palmieri proposed another electrometer
having a needle similar to Peltier s one (Fig.1d). But in the former instrument the movable needle was not
pivoted like Peltier s electrometer. Instead it was attached to a bifilar, silk-thread suspension which indicated
the force that counterbalanced the electrostatic repulsion.

In the 1850s and 1860s William Thomson introduced several sophisticated electrostatic measuring
instruments. Among them the divided ring electrometer, the portable electrometer, and the quadrant
electrometer which were widely used for atmospheric electricity. The quadrant electrometer, which is an
improved form of the ring version, has a light figure-eight shaped needle suspended between four couples of
metallic plates (Fig.1f).8 The charged needle was under the influence of charged plates. A small mirror
attached to it allowed one to read the deflection using a reflected beam of light. This instrument was
subsequently modified by Eleuthère Mascart (Fig. 1g), Edouard Branly, and others. The portable
electrometer, on the other hand, exploited the electrostatic attraction of two charged plates in the same
manner as a condenser. Since 1861 an instrument of this latter kind, connected with a water dropper , was
used in the Kew Observatory for photographically recording the variation of atmospheric potential. In
France, Mascart was the first to introduce recording instruments, which could register the variation of
atmospheric electricity in a continuous fashion. In 1879 he used an apparatus composed of a quadrant
electrometer with a writing pen, while in 1881 he made photographic recording apparatus in which a
luminous beam was reflected by the mirror of the needle and fell on a moveable photographic plate (Fig. 2c).
In Germany the most common recording instrument was the electrometer described in 1908 by Hans
Benndorff. It was a modified quadrant electrometer with a long pointer attached to the needle (Fig. 1h).
Owing to a frame moved by an electromagnet driven by a clockwork switch, the needle touched the
recording paper periodically, leaving on it a dotted line.

8
For a detailed description of Thomson s instruments, see : William Thomson, Reprint of Papers on Electrostatics and Magnetism,
MacMillan, London, 1872, pp.260-309, George Green, John T.Lloyd, Kelvin s Instruments and the Kelvin Museum, University of
Glasgow, Glasgow, 1970 and Mascart, op. cit. note 5.
 212

Fig. 1: Various types of electrometers used for measuring atmospheric electricity:

a) and b), Saussure, c) Peltier, d) Palmieri, e) Dellmann, f) Thomson, g) Mascart, h) Benndorff
 213

Fig.2
Detection and measurement of atmospheric electricity a) Volta s lantern atmospheric electrometer using a flame
collector, b) Palmieri s electric observatory, c) Mascart s apparatus with quadrant electrometer, water drop collector
and photographic recorder.
 214

During the nineteenth century, several meteorological stations and physical laboratories were equipped with
special electrical observatories . Palmieri s Mount Vesuvio observatory of the 1860s provides a good
example (Fig. 2b). Special cabins were equipped with an exploring mast surmounted with a pointed electrode
which could be elevated into the air using a system of ropes and pulleys. The top of the mast was connected
with a measuring instrument. This kind of equipment represented state of the art technology for studying
atmospheric electricity. But electrometry was also carried on systematically during scientific expeditions in
the most remote parts of the world and in the air. Measurements with collectors and electrometers were a
priority for courageous scientists and balloonists who explored the atmosphere in the nineteenth and early
twentieth century.

Around 1850 tens of thousands of observations were collected in several European and American
observatories. Nevertheless, in spite of the large number of observations, the data of various sources often
showed remarkable discrepancies. As far as the development of instrumentation for measuring fair weather
atmospheric electricity was concerned, one could argue that there was a continuous struggle for improving
apparatus and observational techniques up to the end of the nineteenth century. In fact, many of these devices
had originated in the mid-eighteenth century. It is true that one could also study diurnal and annual variation
of the electric state of the air using galvanometers whose terminals were connected with a vertical conductor
and the ground. But even the most sensitive galvanometers of the time could not clearly detect these
variations. Currents of varying intensity and direction were detected during rain, snow, fog, stormy weather
and lightning stokes. But in these cases the indications of galvanometers were so sudden and erratic that they
were not very useful. In 1858 when Auguste de la Rive surveyed a century of investigations related to
atmospheric electricity, in his famous Traité d électricité théorique et appliqué, he admitted that:

Quelle en soit la cause, une si grande divergence entre les résultants obtenus par des observateurs si distingués [ ]
nous montre combien il y a encore d incertitude dans la détermination bien précise de l électricité atmosphérique.
Cette incertitude ne tient pas seulement à l imperfection des instruments, mais bien aussi à la nature du phénomène
qui est éminemment complexe.9

Only in the last years of the nineteenth century did a series of discoveries (such as ionization) open new
perspectives in the study of atmospheric electricity. 10 The German school played a fundamental role in this
research, represented by physicists Julius Elster and Hans Geitel who were strongly influenced by the
research of Viennese scientist, Franz Exner. Exner and his followers tried to measure precisely the absolute
value of the potential fall of the atmospheric field between the ground and an elevated point. He pointed out
how many past measurements were often useless because they were obtained with instruments placed near

9
Auguste De la Rive, Traité d électricité théorique et appliqué, Cher J.B.Baillère et fils, Paris, 1858, Tome III. pp.89-
10
A detailed article about atmospheric electricity studies, theories and instruments at the beginning of the twentieth century is:
H.Gredien, « Die atmosphärische Elektrizität », in A.Winkelmann (editor), Handbuch der Physik, IV Band, Elektrizität und
Magnetismus, J.Ambrosius Barth, Leipzig, 1905, II edition, pp. 687-729. See also : O.D. Chwolson Traité de physique, Tome IV,
Premier fascicule, Champ électrique constant, Librairie A. Hermann et fils, Paris, 1910.
 215

buildings, walls, and terraces whose presence strongly modified the electric field. While classical
measurements continued to be refined, phenomena related to ionization and conductibility of the air, solar
radiation, electricity of precipitation (rain, snow, grail, etc.), and the radioactivity of air and ground, began to
be systematically investigated with a generation of new apparatus.11 The dispersion of electricity in the air,
first determined by Charles Augustin Coulomb in 1787, and in 1850 by the physicist Carlo Matteucci who
used an improved Coulomb s torsion balance, was extensively studied by Elster and Geitel who
demonstrated the presence of ions in the atmosphere (Fig. 3c). They invented a dispersion apparatus which
allowed one to measure the time necessary for unloading an insulated and charged conductor. In 1901 Arthur
Ebert described an ion counter (Fig. 3b), while in 1905 H. Gredien proposed a special condenser aspirator
for measuring the conductibility of the air (Fig. 3a) It was a cylindrical condenser (connected with an
electrometer) in which it was possible to produce a current of air. These instruments, and many others, were
connected with improved electrometers. In 1887 Exner invented a simple and compact aluminium-leaf
electrometer, which was later modified by Elster and Geitel. It was used well into the 20th century. But other
measuring instruments, such as Wulf s single or double-wire electrometer, Lindemann s electrometer (which
was a combination of a quadrant and a wire) and Perucca s electrometer were widely used as well.

In spite of improved instrumentation, the increasing number of observational data, and the discovery of new
phenomena which certainly played a fundamental role in the mechanisms of atmospheric electricity, the
situation was far from clear. At the end of the nineteenth century Chauveau counted more than thirty
different serious theories related to atmospheric electricity.12 In 1900, Exner presented a paper to the
congress of physics held during the Paris Exhibition, where he stated the following:

Il est impossible d exposer ici toutes les théories, souvent très problématiques, qui ont été propose sur l électricité
atmosphérique. [ ] Je tiens à dire tout de suite qu aucune des hypothèses actuelle ne rend compte de tous les
phénomènes de l électricité atmosphérique, de sorte qu il nous semble possible qu une série de causes différentes
intervienne dans leur production. 13

Exner s words echoed the statement made by De la Rive about half a century before.

11
The most important instruments used between the end of nineteenth century and about 1930 are described in the chapter dedicated
to atmospheric electricity in E.Kleinschmidt (ed.), Handbuch der meteorologischen Instrumente und ihrer Auswertung, Julius
Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1935. These volumes include a very extensive bibliography.
12
See note 4.
13
Franz Exner, « Sur les recherches récentes relatives à l électricité atmosphérique », in Rapports présentés au Congrès
international de physique réuni à Paris en 1900, Gauthier Villars, Paris, 1900, Tome III, pp. 415-437
 216

Fig. 3: Various apparatus used at the beginning of the twentieth century. a) Gredien s aspirator-condenser for
measuring the electrical conductibility of the air, b) Ebert s ion-counting apparatus, c) Elster and Geitel s apparatus
for measuring the dispersion of electricity
 217

Thunderstorm and lightning electricity14

Lightning phenomena are atmospheric, transient, high-current electric discharges, which during
thunderstorms (together with rain and corona discharges) tend to keep the earth charged negatively and the
atmosphere positively. Approximately 2000 thunderstorms are in progress at the world at any given
moment. A typical lightning strike, which can be several miles long, can have a voltage of about 108 volts
with a current of 104 amperes. The charge carried by it can be 20/30 Coulomb.

Certainly, these facts were not known by eighteenth-century natural philosophers and electricians who, after
the pioneering experiments of Franklin and Dalibard, were inspired to play with thunderstorm electricity in
their electrical cabinets . These experiments were made in small pavilions, into which the bottom end of a
lightning rod or a wire holding a kite penetrated (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4: Cuthbertson s electrical cabinet of 1786

The conductors were connected to spark gaps, electroscopes, electric chimes, and Leyden jars. When a
thunderstorm approached, the spark gaps arched, the chimes began to ring, and the electroscopes went crazy.
Certainly, eighteenth-century electricians did not have the slightest idea of the huge amount of electricity
developed by thunderstorms and they largely underestimated the danger involved in these kinds of
observations. In 1753 the Petersburg professor, Georg Wilhelm Richmann, who unfortunately became
popularly known as the first martyr of electricity , was fatally hit by a side discharge which had struck the
lightning rod of his cabinet. But these impressive and dangerous games did not greatly contribute to the
knowledge of atmospheric electricity; they merely confirmed that its effects were identical or at least very
similar to the electrostatic ones produced with friction machines. In fact, between the middle eighteenth

14
Some fundamental facts concerning lightning and thunderstorm can be found in Martin A.Uman, Lightning, Dover Publications,
New York, 1969, Martin A. Uman, All about Lightning, Dover Publications, New York, 1986, Claude Gary, La foudre des
mythologie antiques à la recherche moderne, Masson, Paris, 1995, Johannes Wiesinger, Blitzforschung und Blitzschutz, Deutsches
Museum Abhandlungen und Berichte, Heft 1-2, R.Oldenburg Verlag, München, 1972.
 218

century and the very end of the nineteenth century, measurements of thunderstorms and lightning did not
make substantial progress. However, for most of the nineteenth century, scientists observed and described
lightning, recorded damages due to lightning, and compiled statistics of death by lightning, but made no real
measurements. Academy reports, scientific journals and even newspapers regularly published observations
of violent lightning strikes, of extraordinary and mysterious ball lightning, and of Saint Elmo s fires. But
there was no real advance in the knowledge of these phenomena. The French physicist and astronomer
François Arago and others tried to classify lightning from its appearance, but the science of lightning
remained a purely descriptive and qualitative discipline. On the other hand, there were still heated arguments
about the best way to construct lightning rods. Since the fierce scientific (and political) controversies of
1770s, which were represented by opposing partisans of the pointed rod and spherical conductors15, scientists
had tried to increase the efficiency of lightning protectors. The following table provides an idea of the kinds
of papers concerning atmospheric electricity and lightning protection devices presented to the Parisian
Academy of Science from 1835 to 1895.

Years Description and Lightning protectors Measurement and Utilisation of

observations of telegraphic
atmospheric
Lightning protectors electricity

1835-1850 58 10 22

1851-1865 44 35 8

1866-1880 44 41 37 2

1881-1895 30 10 47 2

Most of these articles concerned lightning observations and lightning protectors (both for buildings, ships
and telegraphic equipment). During the nineteenth century, dozens of different types were proposed: long
single rods, multiples conductors, and points of different shapes and size. Several materials such as platinum,
gold, iron, carbon and even straw were tested for their points or for rods and wires. Different types of ground
dispersers were conceived, while various geometries were proposed for the conductor.16 Some
investigators tried to determine the volume and the surface protected by lightning rods. Was it a cone whose
height corresponded to the tip of the rod, with a base radius double its height? Or was it a cone with the
height of the rod and the radius equal to 7/4 of its height? In spite of the large number of proposed solutions,
lightning often missed the conductor, which was supposed to direct it to the ground. Instead it killed people

15
See the articles of Willem Hackmann and Roderick Home in this volume.
16
See for example: Instruction sur les paratonnerres adoptée par l Académie des Sciences Instructions ou Rapports de 1784, 1823,
1854, 1867 et 1903, Gauthier Villars, Paris, 1904
 219

and destroyed clock towers, houses, and ships. Many theories were advanced and generally the failures of
lightning conductors were attributed to poor ground connections. But experiments were hardly possible: at
the time no transformers or electrostatic machines could produce a discharge comparable to atmospheric
ones. At the same time, knowledge of the mechanisms and of the parameters of atmospheric discharges was
rather simple, and a mathematical model or theoretical prediction appeared to be impossible. Finally, the
events (e.g. lightning strikes on a precise conductor) were so rare that a systematic, statistical study of the
quality of lightning protectors was quite difficult. Consequently, the devices were built with the wrong
assumption that lightning currents behaved like normal direct current that obeyed Ohm s law. One could
argue, therefore, that many lightning rods installed in the nineteenth century, instead of being a protection,
represented an additional danger for the buildings they were supposed to preserve.

Experiments and instruments

In the second half of the century, lightning caused a lot of problems for a new and rapidly developing
technology: telegraphy. Static electricity and atmospheric discharges not only disturbed the telegraphic
transmissions but, if lightning struck a line, it could also badly damage or even destroy the transmitting
apparatus and the ancillary equipment in the telegraphic bureaus. Several telegraphic lightning protectors
existed but, due to the lack of knowledge about lightning, they were not efficient. Engineers generally
thought that the most important characteristic of a lightning protector should be a very low resistance and
they subsequently treated lightning discharges like a direct current.17

In 1888 the British physicist Oliver Lodge was asked to prepare a series of lectures concerning lightning
protectors for the Royal Society of Arts. The topic carried a practical concern: hundreds of thousands of
lighting protectors had been installed by the Post Office, yet their efficiency was far from proven. Lodge
became quite involved with the subject and, after becoming convinced that lightning was similar to the
discharge of a condenser, he began a series of experiments using an electrostatic machine, Leyden jars and
spark gaps connected in various ways (Fig. 5a). He observed that his jars did not necessarily discharge across
the gap connected to them with a circuit of lower ohmic resistance. Often sparks chose an alternative path .
Lodge, who was wrongly convinced that lightning resulted from oscillatory discharges, nevertheless
correctly understood that they generally follow the path with minimal impedance and not of minimal
resistance18. Lightning in fact is a series of very rapidly unidirectional discharges and the self- induction of

17
See the article of Elizabeth Cavicchi in the present volume.
18
When a changing current (alternating, pulsating etc.) passes through a conductor, it produces a changing magnetic flux, and this in
turn generates an electromotive force which is proportional to the self-inductance of the conductor itself. Because of the Lenz s law,
this induced emf acts against the primary current. Therefore, in this case we have not only a simple ohmic resistance but also an
opposition to the current caused by the self-inductance. The total resistance of a circuit (which can also include a capacity) to a
changing current is called impedance. Depending on the geometry of the circuit, the inductive (or capacitative) part of the impedance
can be much greater than the simple ohmic resistance.
 220

conductors greatly influenced the behaviour of such accelerating currents. Starting from these considerations,
Lodge suggested several improvements in the construction of lightning rods for the protection of buildings
and telegraphic lightning protectors. But in the era of the rapid evolution of electrical science, Lodge s
experiments and advanced theoretical analysis were strongly criticized and aroused violent debate between
physicists and engineers.19 Lodge continued his experiments, however, with oscillating circuits, which led to
the study electromagnetic waves. He would become one of the pioneers of wireless telegraphy.

In 1888, Hertz s experimental discovery of electromagnetic waves opened the way to the wireless
transmission of signals. The first electromagnetic wave detectors (the metallic powder of an imperfect
contact coherer developed by Calzecchi-Onesti, Edouard Branly, Lodge and others20) not only revealed the
presence of manmade electromagnetic waves, but reacted to the influence of electromagnetic disturbances
produced during a thunderstorm. In 1895 the Russian Engineer Alexander Stepanovic Popov demonstrated
his thunderstorm detecting and recording instrument to the members of the Russian Physical and Chemical
Society. 21 Popov first connected a coherer to an aerial, which, connected to the ground, was inserted to the
circuit of an electric bell (Fig. 5b). The train of electromagnetic waves produced by a lightning strike (several
miles away from the apparatus) was detected by the apparatus which rang an electric bell. More sophisticated
devices of this kind could record the number of strikes on a telegraphic receiver. Various types of lightning
and thunderstorm detectors were proposed by instrument makers at the beginning of the 20th century.

But in spite of this theoretical and instrumental progress, nothing was done concerning lightning current and
voltage measurements. Lightning energy and current could be estimated roughly from the damage caused by
them. For example, strength could be assessed by the length and thickness of metal wire melted by a strike.
But these estimations were far from accurate and in the nineteenth century the inertia of the available current
meters was far too big for measuring the short current pulses of strikes.

19
See: Ido Yavetz, Oliver Haviside and the Significance of the British Electrical Debate , Annals of Science, 50, 1993, pp. 135-173
and Ido Yavetz, Between High Science and Practical Engineering: Two Studies of Lightning by Simulation , Physis, Nuova Serie,
Vol. XXXIII, 1996, pp. 221-258. I would like to thank Anna Guagnini, who gave me these references.
20
This type of coherer is composed of a glass or ebonite tube containing some metallic filings (silver, nickel or other metals) between
two electrodes. Normally its electric resistance is of the order of the Megaohm, but a train of electric waves (e.g. produced with an
oscillating discharge of a Leyden jar) reduces the resistance to 101-102 ohms. In an electric circuit which includes a battery and an
electromagnetic bell, the coherer acts as on-off switch. A little mechanical shock on the tube (produced for example by the hammer
of the bell itself) re-establishes the high resistance condition of the device.
21
The Popov detector was at the centre of a well-known controversy concerning Marconi and the priority of the invention of
wireless.
 221

Fig. 5: Above: diagrams of some of Lodge s experiments. Below: Popov s thunderstorm recording instrument
 222

The first scientific determination of lightning currents was due to Friedrich Pockels in the final years of the
nineteenth century. Pockels discovered that the residual magnetism of pieces of basalt submitted to a
magnetic field was only dependent on the maximum value of the field, or of the maximum value of the
current generating this field. Starting from this consideration, Pockels analysed various pieces of basalt
found near trees hit by a lightning strike, or pieces placed near the lightning rod of an observing tower in the
Apennine mountains. He calculated current of order of 104 Amps. The practical value of Pockels s method
was beyond question and in the 1920s and 30s these measurements were refined and various types of test
probes made of steel bars or wires with high remanence were introduced for measuring peak currents of
lightning strikes. Widely used after World War II, a large number of them were installed near the protectors
of towers, chimney stacks and buildings.22 Another interesting current measuring device, using magnetizable
materials, was the fulchronograph, introduced by Wagner and McCann in 1940. The fulchronograph was a
recording apparatus consisting of a fast rotating aluminium wheel with magnetic links fixed along the
periphery. These links passed between coils through which current flows which is to be measured. The
principle of these instruments was identical to the magnetizable test probes, but they also recorded a series of
different measurements, whose maximum time resolution was on the order of 101 sec for a total duration of
a few msec. Other magnetic instruments invented at the time were the magnetic surge front recorder and the
magnetic surge integrator. The former allowed one to measure the rate of increase of lightning current, while
the latter made it possible to calculate the charge carried by the strikes.

In the 1920 s J.F.Peters proposed the klydonograph, an instrument for measuring lightning voltage on
electric transmission lines, which exploited the well-known phenomenon of Lichtenberg figures (Fig. 6).23 In
the late 1770s, the German natural philosopher, Georg Christopher Lichtenberg, studied the arborescent
figures generated by a high tension pointed electrode (e.g. connected to the conductor of an electrostatic
machine) set vertically near an insulating surface covered by an electroscopic powder (generally sulphur and
red lead oxide). The ions generated by the corona effect of the electrode produced circular and branched
figures whose diameter depended on the potential, and the structure on the polarity of the discharge. In the
nineteenth century Lichtenberg s figures were obtained on a photographic plate. In Peters klydonograph, the
electrode was connected to an electric line through a shunt24 and properly calibrated. It then rested on a slow
revolving photographic plate moved by a clockwork mechanism. When lightning struck, the line generated a
figure on the plate. The analysis of the figures allowed one to measure voltages in the order of several
million volts. These values were given with an approximation of about 20%-30%.

22
Normally minium (lead oxide) and sulphur were used.
23
See for example: R.Villiers, « La foudre et les figures de Lichtenberg Le klydonographe» in La Nature, August 1927, pp. 97-100.
24
The shunt, generally formed by a series of insulators that worked as resistances, was necessary for reducing by a known fraction
the surge tension created by lightning.
 223

Fig. 6: Above: The klydonograph. Below: some recordings showing the traces left by voltage surges.

Finally, in the 1910s and 1920s, Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, well known for the invention of the cloud
chamber, performed pioneering work to measure the electric field and its variations due to lightning. Wilson
carried out his measurements with an antenna that was alternatively shielded and unshielded by a grounded,
metallic, moveable plate. The latter was connected with a gold leaf or with the capillary electrometer.

In the first decades of the twentieth century research on atmospheric electricity acquired increased urgency
with the extension of the electric network, whose protection against lightning was of paramount importance.
 224

Thus, several new instruments and techniques were developed, but certainly the most revolutionary was the
oscillograph derived from Braun s tube. In the late 1920s, with these early electronic apparatus (connected
with an antenna) it was possible to trace on a fluorescent screen the rapidly varying currents and voltages of
lightening strikes.

At the same time lightning photography and spectroscopy became standard practice. Already in the 1830s
the British physicist Charles Wheatstone, during experiments to measure the speed of electricity, also tried to
determine the duration of strikes with a simple stroboscopic wheel. In the late 1880 s the first photographs
appeared which showed multiple-strike flashes. Some of these pictures were obtained by rapidly moving a
normal camera in the horizontal plane. A few years later in Germany flash-resolved pictures were made with
a clockwork driven camera. However, the breakthrough came with the introduction of the cameras invented
by Charles Vernon Boys in the 1920 s. The first of these had a fast revolving lens camera, while an improved
version had a stationary optics and moving film. These apparatus, and their subsequent improvements,
allowed one to record clear images of strikes and contributed to the determination of their structure.
Furthermore, in the first half of the twentieth century, it was possible to build transformers and high voltage
generators capable of producing discharges of several million volts. These apparatus were used for testing
the strength of insulators as well as for reproducing (even if on a reduced scale) lightning strikes in order to
better understand their behaviour and effects.

In the last 50 years, researches concerning lightning and thunderstorms have made enormous progress.
Knowing the mechanisms underlying lightning is essential for developing better protection systems in a
world filled with delicate electronic computer networks and electric grids, where thousands of vulnerable
airplanes are in the air at the same time, and where a blackout in a big area can be disastrous.25

Utilization of atmospheric electricity

Lightning has always been seen as a symbol of power.26 Scientists, engineers, inventors and dreamers have
always seen the tremendous amount of energy in lightning as a promising and endless source of cheap
energy. Who could watch a lightning show on a stormy night and not ask Could we use this electricity for
our industry and our homes? Martin Uman, a world-known renowned expert of lightning, once estimated
this energy.27 If we consider that a typical cloud-to-ground lightning (108-109 volts, and a charge of tens of
coulombs) has energy of about 1 to 10 billion watt-seconds; and if we assume that there are about 100
lightning flashes a second over the whole earth, we have a maximum value for the total electrical power
input to worldwide cloud-to-ground lighting of about 1000 billion watts. That is quite a lot. But
unfortunately there is now no practical method of harnessing it. Not only is a large part of this energy

25
See the article of Moore and Aulich in this volume
26
See the article of Fuhrmeister in this volume
27
See Uman, op.cit note 14.
 225

dispersed in electromagnetic radiation, heat and acoustic energy, but it would be necessary to build hundreds
of thousands 1000ft tall towers for a few strikes a year. Even neglecting the technical problems of such a
project, these structures would represent a prohibitive investment and would have a disastrous ecologic
impact. On the other hand, Uman pointed out that If its total energy were available, a single light flash
would run an ordinary household light bulb for only a few months. So, as far as we know today using the
electrical energy of the atmosphere is absolutely unrealistic. Nevertheless, it is interesting to mention some
of the more significant projects which have been realized, or at least proposed, with the hope of practically
exploiting atmospheric electricity.

One of the first attempts to practically use it was in the field of wireless telegraphy. Perhaps the most
intriguing series of experiments in this direction were made by the American dentist and inventor Mahlon
Loomis.28 Loomis, who dreamed of seeing atmospheric electricity in the service of mankind, and who
proposed various devices for collecting it, was able to successfully realize a primitive form of wireless
transmission as early as 1864. The basic principle of his system was simple. On two mountain peaks in
Virginia, he launched two kites covered with copper gauze, held with 600 feet of thin copper wire, 14 miles
apart. Each wire ran through a galvanometer to the kite. When one of the wires was grounded or removed
from the ground, there was a disturbance of the atmospheric electric field, which was detected by the
galvanometer of the other kite. 29 Every time the action was repeated, the needle of the galvanometer
deflected. Loomis tried for several years to improve this system and struggled to find support but
unfortunately his aerial telegraph died with him.

Patents, proposals and inventions for using the energy accumulated in the sky flourished especially between
the years 1890-1930. In this period the electrical industry boomed, large power plants were installed in
Europe and in the USA, and electrical machinery and transmission lines became emblems of modernity.
Thus it is not surprising that in this era of electrical euphoria and engineering optimism even the most far-
fetched technological dreams seemed to be possible. Most of these projects involved the use of kites and
balloons for collecting static electricity, which had to be converted into a more useable form of energy. Just a
few examples will give an idea of the equipment proposed by some of these dreamers.

In 1897 Heinrich Rudolph of Germany proposed to install a 300 meter long metallic net with about 3,6
million (!) collecting needles. It was elevated by kites. Owing to a special commutator, the static electricity
was supposed to charge a battery of 20000 accumulators. In 1900 Andrea Palencsar of Budapest patented a
complicated system consisting of a double walled, heated (!) balloon covered by a movable net with pointed

28
Several web sites are dedicated to Loomis. See for example: http://www.smecc.org/mhlon_loomis.htm,
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr083.html, http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/LOOMIS_BIO.html
29
It has to be pointed out that, as far as I could see, Loomis s system did not have anything to do with the early classical wireless
activities of Lodge, Marconi, Branly and others. Unlike the latter group, Loomis did not transmit electromagnetic waves, in spite of
the fact that in his articles he mentioned waves and vibrations. He simply was able to provoke and to detect perturbations of the
atmospheric electric field.
 226

collectors. In this project the electricity had to feed a rheostatic machine30 which charged a battery. Similar
technological monstrosities were conceived in 1912 by Heinrich Johannsen of Lübeck and by Walter J.
Pennock of Philadelphia.

There is no doubt that the most sophisticated and elaborate projects came from the Estonian, Hermann
Plauson. 31 In the late 1910s and early 20s Plauson lived in Germany and in Switzerland and was the director
of the Otto Traun schen Forschungslaboratorium in Hamburg.32 He received several patents and wrote the
book Gewinnung und Verwertung der atmosphärischen Elektrizität in which, after a short historical
introduction illustrating and critically analyzing the machinery of the above mentioned inventors, presented
his own apparatus and experiments. Plauson performed a great deal of research and spent several years in
improving his system. Compared to his predecessors, Plauson had an ingenious and original idea: to convert
static electricity in high-frequency oscillating currents. It is impossible to give here a detailed description of
all of Plauson s devices but his basic system was supposed to work in the following way: atmospheric
electricity was collected by metallized balloons covered with collectors and was used to charge a bench on a
condenser. These were periodically discharged with a spark gap connected to a Tesla transformer. 33 The
rapid oscillatory sparks generated a high-voltage and high-frequency current in the secondary of the
transformer. With this current it was possible to activate a special type of high-frequency motor or
condenser motor . Plauson proposed several types of balloons, collectors, circuits, transformers, spark
gaps, and motors (Fig.7). He made some small-scale tests in Finland, where with two collector balloons and
a large condenser, he was able to obtain about 82 Kilowatts of energy in 24 hours. But in spite of several
experiments, attractive economic estimations and optimistic claims, his system failed.

30
In the nineteenth century the French physicist Gaton Planté invented the rheostatic machine. It was composed of a series
condensers which, owing to a rotating switcher, could be charged in series and discharged in parallel. Planté used his machine for his
high voltage experiments.
31
Plauson, Hermann, Gewinnung und Verwertung der atmosphärischen Elektrizität. Beitrag zur Kenntnis ihrer Sammlung,
Umwandlung und Verwendung. Hamburg, Boysen & Maasch, 1920. 2nd edition. See also
http://www.nuenergy.org/alt/PlausonMarch1922.htm
32
As far as we know, Otto Traun was the owner of the first German company (the Harburger Gummi-Kamm Co., founded in 1856
by Christian Justus Traun) producing rubber, ebonite and gutta-percha. Traun probably sponsored the researches of Plauson.
33
The Serbian born scientist and inventor, Nikola Tesla, was one of the pioneers of the polyphase alternating current system. At the
end of nineteenth century he conceived of a special coreless high frequency transformer (Tesla coil) which could produce voltages of
several million volts. In 1899-1900 in his laboratory in Colorado Springs, Tesla was able to generate huge artificial sparks. For these
spectacular experiments and for his visionary (and often excessive) claims, Tesla is today a mythical figure for many alternative
science enthusiasts .
 227

Fig. 7: Above: Schemes of some of the Plauson s apparatus. Below: An idealised popular version of Plauson s
system.
 228

In the late 1920s there was another series of promethean experiments that tried to make practical use of
atmospheric electricity. Arno Brasch, Friedrich Lange, and Kurt Urban of the Friedrich Wilhelm University
of Berlin decided to exploit the high voltage (and not the power!) of the atmospheric field for their
pioneering research in nuclear physics. 34 Before the advent of accelerators, for splitting the atoms and for
generating penetrating high-energy rays, it was necessary to have a very high tension capable of accelerating
the particles as projectiles . The three researchers tried to develop a vacuum tube capable of withstanding
very high voltages. After having considered various locations, where the atmospheric electrical activity was
particularly strong, they chose a small valley near the top of the Monte Generoso, a mountain overlooking
the Lugano Lake in Ticino, the southern part of Switzerland. A railroad easily transported the equipment to
the top of the mountain (circa 1700 m). In 1927 they installed the first electricity collector composed of a
metallic net of 400 sqm suspended by a 800 meter insulated cable at 80 meters from the bottom of the valley
(Fig.8). A spark gap was supposed to measure the high voltages which fed the vacuum tubes, and the
instrument located in a small metallic cabin acted as a protecting Faraday cage. But many problems
appeared. The insulators of the conductor were not good enough, the spark gap was too small, and the cable
risked potential breakage. Nevertheless, the system was tested in August. The following summer the three
researchers returned to Switzerland. They installed a better aerial and a larger spark gap. More tests were
made and during thunderstorms it was possible to produce sparks of 18 meters arcing the gap! (A theodolite
was used for measuring the length of the gap). But the working conditions were extremely difficult, the
cables broke a few times and there was no vacuum tube ready to be tested. Furthermore, in a tragic accident,
Kurt Urban fell to his death during exploration of the difficult terrain. Finally, after all that, Brasch and
Lange abandoned Mount Generoso and went back to Berlin, where they continued their research in the high
voltage laboratory of the AEG.

In the first decades of the twentieth century the visionary projects of Plauson, as well as the experiments of
Brasch, Urban, and Lange and other scientists and inventors were largely reported, often with some
exaggeration, in the contemporary newspapers and in the popular science reviews. Readers often could not
distinguish between the realistic descriptions of a high tension industrial laboratory used for testing the
dielectric strength of insulators, and the sometimes overly optimistic articles illustrating futuristic projects.
Lightning was depicted in films and books as the ultimate source of energy. This excited the public
imagination as well as authors of science fiction. In 1939, the successful German writer and engineer Hans
Dominik (1872-1945) wrote a book entitled Himmelskraft (The force of the sky). In it, a powerful German
electrical company (AEG?), fought against an American one (GE?) for supremacy in harnessing the
atmospheric electrical energy. The key patents used by both companies concerned some flame collectors
fixed on a huge metallic net supported in the air by helium balloons. The contraptions were supposed to

34
This story was reconstructed in detail by Burghard Weiss, in Blitze für Kernphysik und Strahlentherapie. Die
Stossspannungsexperimente von Brasch und Lange am Monte Generoso und bei der AEG in Berlin 1925-1935 , Technikgeschichte,
vol. 66, n. 2, 1999, pp. 173-203.
 229

transmit atmospheric electrostatic charges to a gigantic power plant. These apparatus sounded very similar to
the ones described in Plausons s patents.

Fig. 8: The experiment of Monte Generoso (Switzerland) in 1927-1928. From the top to the bottom: the installation
of isolators, the antenna across the valley, the spark gap before and during a thunderstorm (the length of the spark in
this photograph is about 4 meters)
 230

Conclusion
After more than 250 years of studies, measurements and research of atmospheric electricity, an impressive
amount of data has been collected and sophisticated models and theories have been developed. Nevertheless
if we read some contemporary works related to this topic, we can easily see how our knowledge of
phenomena related to the electricity of the sky is still incomplete. A short survey of this history shows us
how research into fair weather atmospheric electricity developed at a constant pace since the second half
of the eighteenth century. For most of the nineteenth century, measurements continued to follow the
direction inaugurated around 1750. Certainly, instrumentation became more and more sophisticated: better
electrometers and collectors allowed one to refine the measurements, and recording apparatus were
introduced to continuously register the variation of atmospheric fields. But the words written in 1860 by
William Thomson remain true. Only near the end of the nineteenth century, with the discovery of new
phenomena (such as the ionization, radioactivity, cosmic rays, photoelectric effects), did the study of fair
weather atmospheric electricity enter into a new and fruitful era. It should also be pointed out that most of
the research in this field was carried on by physicists, meteorologists and scientists from the academic world.
The study of lightning also interested the community of engineers and technicians, who were mostly
concerned with protection devices for buildings, telegraphic equipment and later for electric transmission
lines and machines. However, up to the turn of the nineteenth century, lightning research was essentially
limited to observations and descriptions. Large-scale experiments and systematic measurements started only
with the introduction of technical instruments developed by electric companies and industrial laboratories.
Following these developments and due to the spectacular success of the electrical industry, the dream of
harnessing electricity from the sky seemed realizable. Today, even if balloons carrying flame and radioactive
collectors and condenser motors are buried in the cemetery of unsuccessful inventions, and the field is not
seen as profitable, scientists and inventors have not abandoned this fascinating field of research. Military
researchers, for example, are still hoping to use artificial or natural lightning as weapons, while projects such
as the Franco-German Teramobile study the possibility of triggering and guiding lightning to the ground
with a very powerful laser beam.35. Even if atmospheric electricity can only run small electrostatic toy
motors connected to balloons36 but not vacuum cleaners, light bulbs and refrigerators, there are still websites
dedicated to this so called free energy and alternative energy .37 The projects of Plauson and other
visionaries of the first half of the twentieth century are still quoted and are a matter of speculation and
discussion. The spectacular effects of atmospheric electricity will never cease to fascinate us and excite our
curiosity. And fascination and curiosity certainly are the very powerful driving forces which push men and
women to investigate nature and its phenomena.

35
See for example: http://pclasim47.univ-lyon1.fr/
36
See: http://www.nuenergy.org/
37
In these often nebulous writings, free energy can refer to many things - atmospheric electricity, vibrational electricity of ions in the
atmosphere, or even an omnipervasive radiation. In short, free energy is there and available in unlimited quantities to be captured.