Re: TC & Lightning 2

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

Original poster: "Harold Weiss" <hweiss-at-new.rr-dot-com> 

Hi All,

I had considered having a burn pit of waste petroleum for studying ball
lightning.  It would be similar to shooting the rockets but have a lot more
carbon to let the balls form.  The EPA probably wouldn't like it though.

David E Weiss


 > Original poster: "Ed Phillips" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>
 >
 > "I have shot Estes stick rockets in the back yard to attract a lightning
 > strikes.  I have noticed each thunder storm has its own personality.
 > Some
 > thunder storms the lightning comes very regular.   You can sometimes
 > predict the time between lightning strikes and find that lightning
 > strikes
 > are comming every 20 seconds or maybe every 15 seconds it just depends
 > on
 > the storm.  The window of opportunity is very short maybe 3 to 5
 > mintues.
 > Fire the rocket about 3 seconds before the next predicted lightning
 > strike.
 > Rocket propellent smoke is full of carbon which is a good conduction for
 > high voltage.   I can get a lightning strike to my back yard about 1 out
 > of
 > 3 times in some storms and 1 out of 2 times in other storms.    A good
 > lightning bolt sounds like a stick of dynamite, "BOOM."    It shakes the
 > house.    I learned not to do this very close to the house because high
 > voltage does not always follow the smoke trail all the way to the
 > ground.
 > I had a lightning strike hit a tree and the amazing thing was the
 > electricity came down the tree, then followed the tree roots in the
 > ground
 > and about 50 large sparks jumped up out of the ground all around the
 > tree.
 > It was probably a 30 ft radius of 3 ft long lightning sparks shooting up
 > out of the ground.  It split the 50 ft tall tree down the middle.
 >
 > If I could get the rocket to pull up a wire without breaking it I might
 > be
 > able to get more lightning strikes.   I was considering using a fishing
 > real will copper wire but am not willing to melt down a good fishing
 > real
 > for this experement.
 >
 > Gary Weaver"
 >
 > This is sort of relevant to TC's and definitely to high voltage.  One
 > of my EE profs at Caltech (later head of the EE Department) worked at
 > Westinghouse in the early 1940's and got into lightning research.  They
 > tried to send up wires on balloons to "catch" lightning strikes so they
 > could record their characteristics (current vs time).  Worked a few
 > times then one of their balloons got loose and drifted around
 > Pennsylvania, shorting out HV power lines as it went and causing a lot
 > of trouble.  Fortunately their was no ID on the balloons and the
 > authorities never figured out who did it.  Later on they used some kind
 > of rockets to loft the wires and didn't have any further trouble except
 > on those occasions where the wire got caught and pulled the rocket back
 > to the ground while it was still burning.
 >
 > Ed
 >
 >
 >