6/20/2002: Electrum: lightning sculpture
 

http://cellar.org/2002/electrum.jpg

Lightning as a component of sculpture? That's the approach here. It's a 38-foot high tower containing a Tesla coil capable of spitting out 130,000 watts.

And in this picture, there's a guy in there too! Can you imagine being inside the sphere?

It was developed in New Zealand by a California-based guy and his group called "lightning on demand". Here are more images and a description of the group and the project.

sound?
 

Just curious, I wonder how loud it is inside the cage when the sparks fly. Also, what's the duration of the sparks? Just a moment, or could it be on-going? I'd love to kick back in there with a sketchpad and design stuff with all the lightning around me as inspiraiton. Not that I'm wierd enough already, but that would help add to the effect...

Re: sound?
 

Just keep repeating to yourself "There's no field inside a conductor; there's no field inside a conductor".

Science museum
 

the science museum in boston has one of these... i visited it many tmie when i was young - there 2 of these big huge towers on either side of a metal cage, and they would continuously zap it (among other things). the guy inside, of course, was fine. yeah, it can hold a bolt indefinitely. oh, and it's very loud :)