Can Magnetic Fields Create a Lightning Gun by Steering Electric Currents in Air?

[Luminaether]

Is the following possible?

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/7648/unlednjc.png

The thick black lines represent an electric current that crosses a gap of air. A magnetic field is directed and intensified from 0T in such a way that the Lorentz force alters the direction of the current through the air without interrupting the circuit. Maybe by using an electrically superconductive gas? I appreciate I've probably got the field lines the wrong way round for the electrons to move in the direction they are depicted.

 

[berkeman]

Is the following possible?

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/7648/unlednjc.png

The thick black lines represent an electric current that crosses a gap of air. A magnetic field is directed and intensified from 0T in such a way that the Lorentz force alters the direction of the current through the air without interrupting the circuit. Maybe by using an electrically superconductive gas? I appreciate I've probably got the field lines the wrong way round for the electrons to move in the direcion they are depicted.

Electrons don't travel so well in air, but in a vacuum, what you have drawn is similar to how the electron beam is deflected in your CRT-based TVs and computer displays.

 

[Luminaether]

Electrons don't travel so well in air, but in a vacuum, what you have drawn is similar to how the electron beam is deflected in your CRT-based TVs and computer displays.

Interesting. So if there were a way for the electrons to travel easily through space without it being a vacuum (plasma?) and enough electrical/magnetic energy was applied of the right magnitude and direction could you use this concept to make a lightning gun of sorts or is that completely out of the question?