LEMSTROM

A strange and forgotten series of experiments were conducted in Lapland by Professor Selim Lemstrom as early as 1882. Professor Lemstrom arranged an insulated array of pointed aerials atop a mountain ridge. These were connected with a mile of cable along the mountain ridge. Surging auroral streamers above succeeded in producing corresponding low level auroras, which visibly rose as a white streamer of light As these covered both the mountain ridge and the geophysically coupled apparatus, the sizzling of millions of electrical watts could be both seen and heard. On December 22,1882, Dr. Lemstrom succeeded in attracting an auroral streamer, one whose visible corona extended for some 400 feet This pivotal experiment in deriving vast quantities of electrical energy fi-om the auroral process was the probable inspiration for much of what Nikola Tesla sought in his large scale tests with space energies. Such experiments having been the subject of intense mystery for Tesla, it was his greatest pleasure to write an occasional column for The Electrician Magazine on these wonderful subjects. Tesla consistendy shared his fascinations concerning those artificial laboratory simulations of auroral streamers and other such phosphorescent displays, experiments performed in Northern Europe by Bjerknes, Birkeland, Stormer, and others. The Experimental Station of Nikola Tesla in Colorado (1899), is the probable result of apphcations learned through these exposures.

The vast and critical difference between what Tesla did with the Lemstrom experiment require only appreciation for the fact that Tesla was stimulating a very special light-like non-electric current. The essential difference in approach however was that Tesla applied an active agency in his large elevated capacity terminals. All the pervious experiments were passive systems, limited to a passive process of absorption. Tesla was the very first to stimulate the aerial capacity with an active signal. Despite the fact that his energies were nonelectric, he was the originator of all systems termed “active”. Tesla viewed the terrestrial atmosphere as one under continual bombardment by a dense pressure of rarefied aetheric gas, an incoming flood which bombarded the air and rock, manufacturing electrons in the process. As we have seen, his aims were not to generate electricity, but to secure a usable stream of the otherwise elusive aether flow. The aurora was a polair manifestation of the incoming aether, an interaction between aether, manufactured electrons, and the geomagnetic field. In this view, the polar Auroras were special cases of a general principle; by which Tesla believed he could draw in an equivalent streamer anywhere beyond the pole.

Tesla successfully arranged the very same conditions through the use of his high voltage electrostatic impulse system. The active capacity terminal drew in a prolific enough stream of aether to sustain the continuous white fluidic discharges seen in his numerous photographs for long time periods after the initiating power has been withdrawn. These experiments proved the ability of his system to stimulate aurora-like streamers at very much greater distances fi'om the Arctic Circle than normally thought possible. With this apparatus he was incidentally able to produce the flaime-like discharges and variable colorful flashes which characterize the auroral streams; a phenomenon successfully reproduced by no experimenters beside Eric Dollard. Although requiring far more activating equipment than that of Dr. Lemstrom, the geophysically coupled demonstration in Colorado Springs made it possible for Tesla to derive continuously powerful aurora-hke energies fi'om outer space at any location below the pole. Tesla later reconfigured his apparatus for operational effectiveness in Wardenclyffe, Long Island.

During solar peak emissions, this pole-concentrated circulating ring, the auroral electrojet, represents a current of well over 300,000 Amperes at a charging potential of 200,000 Volts. The potential power of the auroral ring current is thus some 60 Gigawatts! Awe inspiring accounts may be found throughout the literature; those instances when the aurora “descended” and wandered freely just above or even along the ground. The events where such streamers make their way to ground have always evoked the greatest sense of awe and mystery. Eskimaux legends tell that when the auroral streamers walk along the ground, people are taken from the earth. In one such case, a geophysicist saw the aurora playing among poplar tress and flimmering along the ground. He ran out into the display in order to experience the power. He felt nothing, remarking that the whole area around him was sparkhng. In this fortunate case, the plasma was neutral. But this is not the only condition in which the aurora can present itself. Auroral surges have historically resulted in groundward lightning strokes, incidents which defy reason and yet persist in the accounts of highly credible witnesses throughout the literature. Reports of “ sheet lightning and luminous auroral masses” (1821), “horizontal flash of lightning followed by an aurora” (1888), “spectacular aurora followed by a violent thunderstorm” (1915), “aurora followed by intense lightning...flashes arcing through the zenith...more auroral activity after thunderstorm” (1952).

Indeed, auroral-like discharges are constantly occurring everywhere on earth, but are most prevalent from elevated peaks in the northlands. It has long been known that the ground is a prolific source of electrons, a process which Nikola Tesla studied with greatest interest. In this respect, ground charge reserves vary in time. High ground electron concentrations precede lightning strokes. When ground electron concentrations meet auroral columns, dangerous conditions are produced. The strongly biased ground proliferates a state not unlike lightning, though obviously in a more vast extent. Negative charges flow furtively up the auroral colunm, eventually reaching the lowest strata of the auroral body. This effectively gives the upward charges a huge capacity into which they may powerfully surge. In such cases auroral lightning has been observed, the activity of which is horrifying and awesome. But these instances are, very fortunately, rare occurrences.

Auroras do touch ground on their own with greater regularity than most imagine. Although this condition is not rare in the natural process, it is rare for human observers of its mystifying dynamics. A great many professional persons of gifted observational skills chanced to experience the rare effects of terrestrial electricity and “close auroral encounters”. Mountain climbers in all parts of the world began reporting instances of “mountain bourdonnement”, the vibration and ringing resonance of mountain rock bursting vrith glowing electrical currents (H. de Saussure, 1865). Others observed the explosive emergence of fireballs between mountain peaks, tall spark-like columns projecting out from mineral rich lands, ball lightning of various volumes and colors, and a veritable host of auroral displays which yet defy ordinary explanation (Corliss). A balloonist descended on a European mountain peak, some 1300 meters in height, and saw auroral rays through a thin mist, and heard a “muttering” sound (1870). Several observers told of the electrical sensation produced by a low level flickering aurora (1883). Observers in the polar areas observed arrays of “dancing streamers having prismatic colors...a swishing sound as they moved” (1901).

In New York State an aurora touched down “not thirty rods from us...a curtain of auroral light passing through the valley”, the stated height from the ground was some 30 feet (1852). In Northern freland, a chemist examined several solutions which had become fluorescent in a darkened laboratory, the auroral storm playing all around the building (1858). On the Yukon River, an astounded witness saw an auroral arch come “right over the water’s edge” (1906). A radio engineer in the Northwest Territory told that he, along with several others, saw an auroral curtain come down to within 4 feet of the ground, a pale green curtain through which he actually walked (1925). In Abisco Sweden, an observer reported an auroral streamer which came “below a completely cloudy sky” (1929).

There are so many of these accounts that one is literally forced into realizing that auroral process engages in a consistent ground-touching flow of its fluidic streams. Neither Reichenbach nor Tesla never equated the Aurora Borealis with electricity per se. Each recognized that the Aurora itself was a neutral asther flow, whose interactions with the terrestrial atmosphere produced electrons and positive ions, the result of successive and resistive bombardments. This is why the beautiful colorations could flow and change with every second, impossible to explain in quantitative terms. Varying electrical voltages and currents alone do not explain the sudden color changes supposedly the result of gas activations. Atmospheric gases are in an absolute state of admixture, and cannot so easily be isolated and activated by such influences to produce the magnificent and multicolored displays, that which the ancients perceived to be the beautiful responses of a quasi-living entity.