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Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Creepy High Voltage Installations


"QUANTUM SHOT" #220


Close Encounters of the "Tesla" Kind

Russian countryside yields sometimes most improbable sights - abandoned artifacts and installations from bizarre military/scientific research, strangely futuristic forms left to rust and decay - to be found by a curious photographer. "Master" stumbled upon this installation close to Russian city of Istra (50 km from Moscow) quite by chance, and these mysterious shots were percolating for a while around the web, until the answer was found. According to this little, cryptic, and quite secretive website, the weird alien-like towers are the Experimental Grounds for High-Voltage Generation, the only open-air kind in the world. Amazingly, it's still in use... as the powerful lightnings rip through the night and the darkened forest - much like in "The Prestige" movie.

High Voltage Cascade Transformers (for alternating current):






Towering High Voltage Pulse Generator:














This is it! Aliens' landing pad! (just joking) -


I wonder if people in these apartment buildings can see mysterious "flashes in the night"...





(Images published by permission of Master-z-great)

Generator tower height: 43 meters
Maximum output voltage: 9 Megavolt
Record length of lightning discharge attained - 150 meters

Yes, be careful going around in that forest: 150 meters-long lightnings are no joke:


The structures were erected in the late 70s, and certainly are not in the best condition today. However, they are still in active use, according to official research papers:



The Institute has open-air, as well as indoor testing grounds:



The experiments are based on work of Nikola Tesla, who was considered to be something of a "mad scientist" in his later years (according to Wiki), but continued research with generators and multi-million volts transmitters until his death in 1943.



His tower generators, akin to one found in the Russian forest:


------------------------------------------

Similarly fantastic experiments are going on in the US

Consider High frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP. Their official site is full of helpful scientific info, but fails to mention the possible adverse effects that such high-powered installations can have on weather and atmospheric patterns.

HAARP Ionospheric Research Observatory in Gakona, Alaska - aiming to simulate and control ionospheric processes that might alter the performance of global communication systems.


(image credit: HAARP)




(image credit: ru_abandoned)

This ionospheric research project is a ready target for various conspiracy theories, discussing its possible use as a nefarious weapon, affecting the very Earth climate and causing earthquakes. You are welcome to form your own opinion on this, but I might say that Nikola Tesla would be quite at home there, happily uncovering new ways to energize the world.

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COMMENTS:

13 Comments:

Blogger Sigivald said...

...fails to mention the possible adverse effects that such high-powered installations can have on weather and atmospheric patterns.

Perhaps because there really aren't any: "The intensity of the HF signal in the ionosphere is less than 3 microwatts per cm2, tens of thousands of times less than the Sun's natural electromagnetic radiation reaching the earth and hundreds of times less than even the normal random variations in intensity of the Sun's natural ultraviolet (UV) energy which creates the ionosphere."

And the total power is 3.6MW; at least two radio transmitters have been 2.5MW, and commercial radio in the US, on the high end, can exceed 100KW.

Given the aggregate of the radio output worldwide, I wouldn't worry about one 3.6MW array hurting the environment - they don't mention it on the website because there's no reason to believe it does so in any way.

___  
Blogger Avi Abrams said...

Great info, Sigivald...
Thank you.

___  
Anonymous Jim said...

That first picture looks like it comes straight out of a Myst game.p

___  
Anonymous Jim said...

The Goofy sticking-out-tongue emoticon above was completely unintentional ;-0

___  
Anonymous mrkris said...

It's the damn C&C Tesla Coils all over again! Yargh!

___  
Blogger AyeRoxor said...

"discussing it's possible use as a nefarious weapon"

its.

___  
Blogger Homage said...

These are amazing! The only gripe I have is that you appear to have caught the disease that makes people, when they're sharing superb photos, feel that viewers will click out if there aren't some "funny" captions.

Trust me, you don't need "funny" captions!

___  
Anonymous Jim said...

See the Russian site in Google Earth. Use this co-ordinate:
55°55'25.66"N
36°49'8.99"E

___  
Blogger Avi Abrams said...

Wow Jim

this is impressive. Nothing escapes all-seeing eye.

___  
Anonymous Travis said...

You know, that picture of Tesla sitting in the middle of the room with all the electricity surrounding him is a double exposure. Nobody would survive something like that.

And that giant Tesla Coil near the bottom was going to power the entire world, until Tesla ran out of funds for complicated reasons. (Partly due to the fact that they thought he was mad.) He swore to his dying day that it would've worked. He turned it on just before it was destroyed despite the fact that it was incomplete and it created an aurora in the sky. Makes you wonder...

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Actually theres nothing particularly dangerous about high voltages - the spark that happens occasionally when you touch a car or doorhandle an be in excess of 30,000 volts. As my electronics teacher used to say, "Its the Volts that make your hair stand on end, but its the Amps that kill you" Mr. Tesla would have been quite save so long as the amperage was low enough. The sparks are spectacular but mostly harmless. Better to worry about the carcinogenic ozone given off.

___  
Anonymous Toby said...

Found it on Google maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?om=1&ll=55.924195,36.819756&spn=0.008704,0.007575&t=k&z=18

___  
Blogger Elisaisabel said...

I always thought electronic plants where creepy .... but nw i know i'm not the only one

XD

___  

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  • It sounds like you are probably using the Google custom domains feature. I had a lot of problems with this trying to move my site about six months ago, but I did it again recently and it was a piece of cake. I'll adjust my link to your site with the new URL. Thanks again for all of the great posts!
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    I didn't know that exploding stuff looks so cool!

    Have you seen exploding balloon in slow motion on You Tube? Take a look at it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjcrSGzQgpw

    Pretty impressive.
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    BioShock HD in game video
    http://www.gametrailers.com/player/18132.html

    Also check out
    Alan Wake
    http://www.alanwake.com/

    mass effect http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/m/masseffect/

    Too Human http://www.siliconknights.com/main.html

    Assassins Creed http://assassinscreed.uk.ubi.com/index.php
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    certainly cool games, will look at them closer.

    Alan Wake graphics rock!
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