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Re: FW: Hi All (ball lightning)
X-Envelope-From: James.P.Lux-at-jpl.nasa.gov Wed Aug 26 19:06:05 1998
Tesla List wrote:
>
> Tesla List wrote:
> >
> > ----------
> > From: Gregory R. Hunter [SMTP:ghunter-at-enterprise-dot-net]
> > Sent: Monday, August 24, 1998 12:34 PM
> > To: 'Tesla List'
> > Subject: RE: Hi All
> >
> > I saw an old gent on the "Discover" channel who was doing it by shorting
> out a bank of submarine batteries. >Not too much voltage, but unspeakable
> current. It made coin-size glowing orbs that the old timer claimed was
> >ball lightning. Not nearly as interesting as the dual Tesla coil idea
> though.
> HI,
>
> I saw the same program and I think it was Robert Golka who was making
> the tiny ball lighting, he shorted the
> batteries with 2 thick pieces of steel over water, and the tiny balls
> would float untill they burned out.
>
> Jorge
and.. I think what whoever it was was making is little balls of copper
particles that are burning, which would account for the long lifetime.
Nobody has shown any convincing math that would account for long
(seconds) lifetimes for a small ball of plasma. It just cools too fast,
and there isn't enough mass there. However, if there was some solid
there, either to burn or to provide a "hot mass" reservoir of energy.
Pulling arcs off a copper or steel bar seems a good way to get little
globs of molten metal which would skitter over water just like water on
a hot griddle.
The Corums seem to have had good luck making ball lightning by combining
a carbon rich source of gas (e.g. a flame) and a discharge (either TC or
open unterminated 1/4 wave transmission line).