  The lensing properties of superconducting cosmic strings endowed with a time
dependent pulse of lightlike current are investigated. The metric outside the
core of the string belongs to the $pp$--wave class, with a deficit angle. We
study the field theoretic bosonic Witten model coupled to gravity, and we show
that the full metric (both outside and inside the core) is a Taub-Kerr-Shild
generalization of that for the static string with no current. It is shown that
the double image due to the deficit angle evolves in an unambiguous way as a
pulse of lightlike current passes between the source and the observer.
Observational consequences of this signature of the existence of cosmic strings
are briefly discussed.
