Saving GE's 3 Million Volt Lightning Laboratory

Hi! My name is Jeff Behary. I am raising money to rescue the last of General Electric's high voltage research laboratories (and library archives) that is about to be demolished to make a new housing development.

The research laboratory dates back to 1928 when GE was studying the effects of lightning on electrical systems.

Unlike many laboratories of the past century, this one was preserved up until now.

Unfortunately, the building and property where the lab is located currently have been undergoing demolition.

Most of the 500,000 sq. ft. facility has been destroyed, and the property will be completely leveled by March.

The owner of the property has offered to donate the items to a museum, but it is too short notice for all museums that have been contacted to arrange the logistics.

I hired an attorney to officially start my museum in a new location and file with the IRS for 501(c)3 status to make saving this equipment and growing my museum possible. So far it has involved a half dozen trips to Baltimore since December.

The size and scope of the rescue mission have been enormous. The 3 Million Volt Impulse Generator is over 32 feet tall and the 1 Million Volt High Voltage Transformers weigh over 100,000 pounds. There are also several other small testing labs within the facility and an entire mechanical engineering and chemistry lab.

The library and research papers were already in trash bags getting ready to be bulldozed...

But I managed to unpack and load them into crates with some help.

A 20-ton crane was hired to disassemble the equipment.

Some of the equipment in this lab dates back to the famous 1939 World's Fair where 7 million people came to witness raw electricity seen nowhere else in the world. Among those who experienced it was Helen Keller, who described the intense electrical vibrations of the air as the closest experience to hearing music.