The formation dynamics is studied for a singular profile of a surface of an ideal conducting fluid in an electric field. Self-similar solutions of electrohydrodynamic equations describing the fundamental process of formation of surface conic cusps with angles close to the Taylor cone angle 98.6 • are obtained. The behavior of physical quantities (field strength, fluid velocity, surface curvature) near the singularity is established.It is known [1, 2] that a flat boundary of liquid metal becomes unstable in a strong electric field. The development of instability results in conic cusp singularities, from which the strengthened field initiates emission processes [3,4,5,6]. The description of these processes is a key problem of the electrohydrodynamics of conducting fluids with free surfaces; interest in this problem is largely caused by the practical use of liquid-metal sources of charged particles. The progress in this field is associated with Taylor's work [7], where it was demonstrated that the surface electrostatic pressure P E for a cone with angle 98.6• depends on the distance from its axis as r −1 and, hence, can be counterbalanced by the surface pressure P S ∼ r −1 . Since the force balance is violated at the cone apex, Taylor's solution cannot be treated as the exact solution of the problem of equilibrium configuration of a charged surface of conducting fluid and only represents the possible asymptotic form at r → ∞.At the same time, it turned out that Taylor's solution nicely describes the experimentally observed surface shape before the instant of singularity formation. It was pointed out in [3,4,5,6] that the angle of incipient conic formations is close to the Taylor cone angle.What is the reason for such a coincidence? One may assume that the mechanism for the formation of conic cusps with an angle of 98.6• during a finite time is not directly associated with the static Taylor model. A high reproducibility of experimental results and a weak * Electronic address: nick@ami.uran.ru