Re: fire conducts electricity?

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

Fire really does conduct....

hot gases get ionized thermally, so they can be conductors.  At up around
6000K air is a pretty good conductor, but even at lower temperatures, a
signficant amount of the gas is thermally ionized. 

Also bear in mind that a flame is a chemical reaction, and in that process,
bonds get broken, individual atoms sit around for some finite time not yet
attached in their new configuration, and during that time, can serve as a
conduction mechanism.

Also, if the flame is visible, this means that there are small particles of
incandescent carbon, which are also conductors.

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Beans45601-at-aol-dot-com>
> 
> Okay, I was trying to light my blow torch (not like the blow torch that
had the
> tank of oxygen and take of fuel, just a little handheld one. Not sure if
those
> are called blow torches also...) a couple of days ago. Well, I didn't want to
> use a match, they smell, and I didn't have a lighter. So, I decided to use my
> tesla coil (I am sure it was not the smartest thing to do). Anyway, I
stood on
> a big plastic bucket to get my self off the ground, then turned on the
gas and
> held it up to the tesla coil. Well, it light (big suprise) and I noticed
> something weird, the sparks from my tesla coil were jumping to the fire,
not to
> the tip of the blow torch, but the fire. And I was thoroughly amazed! Okay,
> what is happening here? does fire really conduct electricity, or is it
> something else I didn't think about?
> 
> Thanks
> Adam