The Light Fantastic

Richard Box came up with the idea after a conversation with a friend who was reminiscing about playing with fluorescent tubes under power lines. Box collected 1301 fluorescent tubes from hospitals and placed them in a local farmers field. "For me, it was just the amazement of taking something that’s invisible and making it visible, When it worked, I thought: ‘This is amazing.’" There is a impressive quictimeVR to view on his site.

A fluorescent tube glows when an electrical voltage is set up across it. The electric field set up inside the tube excites atoms of mercury gas, making them emit ultraviolet light. This invisible light strikes the phosphor coating on the glass tube, making it glow. Because powerlines are typically 400,000 volts, and Earth is at an electrical potential voltage of zero volts, pylons create electric fields between the cables they carry and the ground.

- Richard Box

[Via. Josh Spear]