Re: Parallel and Series LCR Circuit Qs

[Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

In a message dated 8/11/00 12:03:44 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:

<< Interestingly, nobody is quite sure why long sparks, lightning, etc. form
 forked and erratic channels, unless it is just a random thing and one
 direction is as good as the other at each step in the leader formation. >>


I hope this is not getting too much off the subject, but this has
got me to thinking if there could possibly be a way to contain
the plasma channel (possibly magnetically?) to force the arc
into a straight linear path instead of the familiar forked channel. 
I'm sure this would have significant weapons potential (no pun 
intended). I guess linear accelerators kind of do this on a limit-
ed basis as they have a strong magnetic field down the whole 
length of the accelerator tube to constantly keep the proton
particle on the same path till the target is struck. I was just
wondering if anyone had done any kind of experimentation along
these lines?

Later,
David R.