Re: Ball Lightning

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "davep by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <davep-at-quik-dot-com>

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Michael H Nolley by way of Terry Fritz
> <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <nolleym-at-willamette.edu>

> >         Yep.
> >         Corums cite Faradays Natural History of a Candle.
> >         They speculated that Tesla's use of rubber insulated wire
> >         led to 'seeding' effects, which helped towards Ball Lightning.
> >         The BL field is still pretty wide open...
 
>     There is quite a lot of interesting information on the web about
> ball-lightning theories and experiments.  It seems that genuine ball
> lightning isn't as much affected by carbon seeding as by very
> specific magnetic and current conditions.

	Perhaps.  I see way too many Ball Lightning LIKE phenomena
	offered up as Ball Lightning

> Paul Koloc has done some pretty amazing research on
> ball-lightning-like plasmoids, and he uses transmission line
> techniques and a very specific field shaping coil and
> electrode to produce egg-sized plasmoids.  His sites are at
> www.plasmak-dot-com and www.prometheus-dot-net.

	With all due respect, its never been clear to me how
	such 'focused energy/standing wave' effects could be
	used to account for BL 'in the wild'.  Observations
	of such at VHF & uWave go back to the 30's.

>     There was also some research done by Japanese scientists
> who connected microscopic ball lightning phenomena to

	I have my reservations about these, also.  Ball lighting
	LIKE.  I remain (as yet) unconvinced that these relate
	to 'natural' BL.

> electrolysis using platinides as electrodes (nickel, silver,
> platinum, palladium, etc.)  Platinum was once used in a chemical
> interrupter called the Wenhelt interrupter--the book I read
> never specified how it worked.

	Simple, roughly:
	(OK: I read a good description...8)>>  Antique Wireless
	Book.  (the BOOK was/is an antique...))

	Provide two platinum, for preference, electrodes.
	Place them in an acid solution.
	Run high currents thru them, thus, thru the acid.
	Between electrolysis & ohmic heating, gas bubbles
	will form.
	The bubbles will interrupt current flow, then collapse.
	The acid flows in, current flow resumes.
		(repeat until acid is gone.)

	By juggling with spacing, electrode size, acid
	confinement and depth the break rate can be adjusted.
	Usually LOTS (quarts) of acid present, so self cooling.

	Optimized for use on relatively LV (say 24vdc) rather than
	1000s of KV used in most spark drive Tesla coil work.	

> I speculate that in high current electrolysis the "Wenhelt" effect
> causes high rise-time current spikes which could be responsible for
> the ball-lightning effect observed.

	Possible.  My 'concern' is that 'many' things produce BL LIKE
	effects.

> Sorry for the long off-topic post.  Anyone who is interested in this
> subject can e-mail me with questions or comments.

	best
	dwp

	(Who will now try and find the Wehnelt reference... 8)>>)