• Beautiful patterns created by electricity.
• Hold a “3D picture of Lightning” in your hand..

• Each of these beautiful delicate forms are guaranteed to be unique and will very in form slightly from the one pictured.

• Very special gift

• Dome shaped plastic 3 inches in diameter, 1.5 inches high.

• Complete information is included with each figure.

• Information and history about Lichtenberg Figures is shown below:

Lichtenberg Figures are branching, often tree or fern-like patterns that form as the result of a high voltage discharge. The first Lichtenberg Figures were actually 2-imensional patterns formed in dust on the surface of a charged plate in the laboratory of their discoverer, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799), a German physicist. He made this observation in the late 1700's, demonstrating the phenomenon to his physics students and peers. The basic principles involved in the formation of these electrostatic figures were later developed into modern xerography. Through the use of powerful electron beam accelerators, modern day Lichtenberg figures can now be created and preserved as permanent 3-dimensional figures inside clear plastic. The plastic chosen for most figures is polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), commonly known as acrylic, Plexiglas (Rohm & Haas) or Lucite (DuPont). Acrylic is selected because of its combination of superior optical, electrical insulating, and mechanical properties.

A Lichtenberg Figure (sometimes called a Lichtenberg Pattern, Lichtenberg Tree, or Electron Tree) is formed when an acrylic block is penetrated by a high-speed beam of electrons. Electrons are tiny, negatively charged particles that orbit the nucleus of all atoms. A special machine, called a linear accelerator, is used to produce, accelerate, and focus electrons into a tight, high-energy beam. The accelerator uses a high voltage field to boost electrons to relativistic velocities (nearly the speed of light), causing them to gain a huge amount of kinetic energy (measured in Millions of electron Volts or MeV).

The acrylic block is placed in the path of the electron beam in ordinary air. As the block is hit ("irradiated") by the electron beam, electrons are driven deep inside the acrylic. The depth of penetration is determined by the beam's energy and the dielectric properties of the acrylic. As large numbers of electrons accumulate in the acrylic, they create a cloud of excess negative electrical charge called a space charge. Under continued irradiation, an increasing space charge develops within the acrylic. Since acrylic is an excellent electrical insulator, these excess electrons can no longer move freely, so they become trapped and begin to accumulate.

As the space charge grows, the resulting electric field also increases. Eventually, a point is reached where the electric field exceeds the electrical breakdown strength of the acrylic, causing dielectric breakdown to occur. Under extreme electrical stress, bonds that hold acrylic's molecules together are ripped apart, and electrically conductive regions begin to form in a process called ionization. Once begun, this progresses very quickly, and the trapped space charge then violently rushes out of the acrylic, accompanied by a bright white flash and a loud bang. The breakdown process occurs within an incredibly short amount of time. The ionized path taken by the exiting electrons appears as a miniature "lightning bolt" inside the acrylic, lasting less than 20 billionths of a second (20 nanoseconds)!

The discharge paths leave a permanent record of their passing within the acrylic. The heavy electrical current that flows during the discharge causes the acrylic to fracture, and some paths may even char slightly. The exit point appears as a small pinhole on the surface of the acrylic. This point is usually in a location where a mechanical stress point has concentrated the electric field of the space charge. The rounded, crystalline flakes appearing in the figure are actually tiny concoidal fractures. These shell-shaped fractures are characteristic of the way in which a noncrystalline (amorphous) material fractures when stressed by the electrical discharge. These Lichtenberg Figures consist of chains of increasingly smaller concoidal fractures. These chains exhibit self-similar branching characteristics - the patterns tend to look similar at various scales of magnification. This property is one of the characteristics of a Fractal, and these figures can be modeled within a complex branch of mathematics called Fractal Geometry . Natural lightning also has fractal properties, accounting for the similar appearance between these figures and natural lightning discharges.