Hello, Obama! 😉
I don’t know if this is creepy or cool or what…but it’s definitely not something you see on a daily basis, that’s for sure.
Although some people might think it’s a Tesla coil, this machine, constructed in the 1970s by the Russian Electrical Engineering Institute, is actually a Marx generator. The Soviet-era tower was built to test lightning insulation and at peak power could discharge for 100 microseconds onto a platform at the same level as all generating facilities in the country. Although reportedly it is still turned on occasionally, including in August of 2014, the generator is mostly abandoned. Would-be explorers still venture near its incredible towers, located in the middle of a virgin forest outside of Moscow, even with the risk of a sudden electrical storm. I guess they just don’t care!
