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To the Editor:
Who needs oil? I propose to offer $10 million of taxpayer dollars incentive prize money to put the finishing touches on the system of providing all the electricity our nation could possibly use, including electric-powered rubber tired street cars. This system is simple and direct. It utilizes the virtually free tens of millions of volts of electricity in every bolt of lightning that strikes the Earth.
A few words are in order. In 1752, Benjamin Franklin discovered and demonstrated three things. First, that lightning was electricity, and that it was a lot of electricity. Second, that he could stand on the ground and grab hold of a bolt of lightning and divert a small amount of electricity from it and transfer it to a metal key. And, third, though it had preceded his experiment with the kite and key in a thunderstorm, Benjamin Franklin is credited with inventing the lightning rod, which attracts, captures and conducts electricity harmlessly into the ground, thus avoiding expensive damage or destruction to buildings and structures.
In 1752, our country did not need electricity to power electric lights because Thomas Alva Edison had not yet invented the electric light. That came in 1880, after Franklin’s death. When Edison invented the electric light, it was powered by direct current, and the now historical direct current generating plant in New York could only send electricity a distance of one mile into the offices and homes of Lower Manhattan.
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But along came George Westinghouse in 1886 and invented a method of changing direct current into alternating current, which, to this day, can be transmitted millions of miles, through wire grids all over the world. Thus, partly because of timing, ease and expediency, we bypassed readily-available and perpetual lightning as the source of electrical energy; and opted, instead, to drill expensive holes deep into the Earth to get oil to burn to make electricity and simultaneously poison our planet.
Photographic exposures record the fact of lightning in a thunderstorm, with the tens of million of volts channeled uselessly into the ground. Many areas of the USA, for instance, Florida, receive millions of lightning strikes yearly. Many mountainous areas are also the target of frequent strikes. The components of the lightning electricity capture and use system already exist. They merely need to be connected to our electric grids and keep Franklin’s lightning rod to channel away harmlessly the electricity excess to our needs.
Kenneth L. Hayden
Sierra Vista
DB wrote on Aug 5, 2008 8:58 AM: