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Atmospheric Electrodynamics by Hans Volland
This is the best thing I've read on the subject. It goes way over my head in many areas but there is still good info to be gained about lightning and how it works. I found it and downloaded it without paying for it from somewhere on the web a couple of years ago. You can probably find it if you search enough.
https://books.google.com/books?id=aP...namics&f=false
Tesla patented a lightning protector. The Franklin style lightning rod ionizes the air around the elevated point of rod. That ionized air provides a better conduction path than the non-ionized air so it provides a better path to ground to prevent the lightning from striking the building it is protecting. Tesla's patent is a different design that continually drains the charge from the air to balance the airborne charges so the potential doesn't rise as high and never reaches the point of breakdown.
Nikola Tesla U.S. Patent 1,266,175 - Lightning-Protector | Tesla Universe
Tesla's initial patent for transmitting electricity through natural mediums stated that it would be accomplished between balloons at 30,000 feet. He originally considered 15 miles (79,200 feet) optimal but recognized that wasn't feasible. 30,000 feet altitude has a couple of properties beneficial to transmission - it's cold up there (-30F) and the air density is much lower. I don't think he never attempted that because there were no photographs of such an effort. That's probably a good thing because the jet stream that has +250MPH winds was unknown at the time. But the jet stream is something to keep in mind when thinking about those high altitudes. Tesla has some interesting notes in his Colorado Springs Notes on July 4, 1899 about lightning. They are well worth a read. At that time he was still considering transmitting between balloons maintained at altitude. There are entries in the notes about electrically extracting hydrogen for the balloons. In fact there is a note on July 5, 1899 about the balloons. I think some time later he realized he could transmit the energy through the ground like lightning striking the ground and that's the principle Wardenclyffe used - lightning striking the same place repeatedly at controllable intervals.
Tesla's radiant energy collector worked with cosmic rays and the byproducts of their collisions with atmospheric gasses (called muons today), not the so-called static electricity in the atmosphere that Plauson was using in his designs.
This is the best thing I've read on the subject. It goes way over my head in many areas but there is still good info to be gained about lightning and how it works. I found it and downloaded it without paying for it from somewhere on the web a couple of years ago. You can probably find it if you search enough.
https://books.google.com/books?id=aP...namics&f=false
Tesla patented a lightning protector. The Franklin style lightning rod ionizes the air around the elevated point of rod. That ionized air provides a better conduction path than the non-ionized air so it provides a better path to ground to prevent the lightning from striking the building it is protecting. Tesla's patent is a different design that continually drains the charge from the air to balance the airborne charges so the potential doesn't rise as high and never reaches the point of breakdown.
Nikola Tesla U.S. Patent 1,266,175 - Lightning-Protector | Tesla Universe
Tesla's initial patent for transmitting electricity through natural mediums stated that it would be accomplished between balloons at 30,000 feet. He originally considered 15 miles (79,200 feet) optimal but recognized that wasn't feasible. 30,000 feet altitude has a couple of properties beneficial to transmission - it's cold up there (-30F) and the air density is much lower. I don't think he never attempted that because there were no photographs of such an effort. That's probably a good thing because the jet stream that has +250MPH winds was unknown at the time. But the jet stream is something to keep in mind when thinking about those high altitudes. Tesla has some interesting notes in his Colorado Springs Notes on July 4, 1899 about lightning. They are well worth a read. At that time he was still considering transmitting between balloons maintained at altitude. There are entries in the notes about electrically extracting hydrogen for the balloons. In fact there is a note on July 5, 1899 about the balloons. I think some time later he realized he could transmit the energy through the ground like lightning striking the ground and that's the principle Wardenclyffe used - lightning striking the same place repeatedly at controllable intervals.
Tesla's radiant energy collector worked with cosmic rays and the byproducts of their collisions with atmospheric gasses (called muons today), not the so-called static electricity in the atmosphere that Plauson was using in his designs.
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