These wonderful shapes are caused by hitting a nail against a piece of clear acrylic while being charged with electricity, the result is a charge being stuck inside of it for a goood amount of time. (video here).
- Place a sharp metal point so it touches the center of a sheet of insulating material. (Lichtenberg used resin made from tree sap; today, clear acrylic works well.)
- Use a Wimshurst machine [shown above], a Van de Graaff generator, or vigorous shuffling on shag carpeting to build up static electricity, and then touch the metal point with your finger or with the machine’s electrode to discharge it. This forms a pattern of stranded charge on the plastic. The Lichtenberg figure is there; you just can’t see it.
- Blow photocopier toner over the surface. It will stick to the static electricity, revealing a beautiful Lichtenberg figure. Lichtenberg’s discovery ultimately led to the invention of photocopiers and laser printers, where the charge is laid down in patterns of words and images.
[youtubehq 1UQZT4nZhZc Create Lightning in a Block]Tags: lichtenberg figure, lightning, Organic, science