In the late 1880s, the French astronomer and artist Etienne Leopold Trouvelot created a series of photographs of electric sparks. He generated his images without a camera, directly exposing photosensitive plates to brief bursts of electrical energy. These patterns are pretty sick, huh? thanks to Emily Ann Pothast for the images
Beautiful! These fractal patterns of electrical discharge are called Lichtenberg figures, named for German physicist Gerog Christoph Lichtenberg. When massive voltages are released through insulating materials, the result is shockingly gorgeous:
The branching designs are seen in everything from aerial lightning…
