Re: Robert Golka doing well and still doing science.

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

Original poster: Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-twfpowerelectronics-dot-com>

Hi Mike,

At 10:23 PM 9/25/2004, you wrote:
>Hello all,
>                 My name is Mike and I've been working with Bob Golka a 
> number of years now.
>I am in his lab as I write this, we had a high speed cable web connection 
>pulled in because, as you know, the web is a great research tool.

This is wonderful news that Bob Golka is still alive and well and 
working!!!  Most of us had not heard from him in such a very long 
time...  There are well over 1000 people on this list from new beginners to 
long time experts on coiling many of whom Bob would know.

>...
>Reading the messages, I came back here, got added to the list, read some 
>threads and saw some interesting work still goes on.

Much solid state, and theoretical work has been done recently.  Better 
materials and higher reliability...

>Still, he's put the time in, what, four decades and counting with a whole 
>lot of work. In the search for Ball Lightning, as many of you know, there 
>was a lot of coiling, high voltage and lower voltage high current work.
>....
>We are still working on the ball Lightning issue in various projects. Part 
>of the pictures I have to scan in are those from Bob's dual railroad 
>diesel locomotive one megawatt discharges and they are most interesting. 
>Once digitized from the originals, at some point he plans to have them up 
>on a web site or at least digitally saved.
>Also, in the discharge area, we have stills (screen shots) and digital 
>movies of 3 large roundish striations (basket ball sized) and of that or 
>greater spacing inside the discharge tube that maintain position for ~3 
>minutes and the frame by frame study of that formation. Not Ball 
>Lightning, they do show some very interesting plasma formations and were 
>mainly round. Those I could email, as the web site FTP upload area 
>reported being full on this site, because I tried to send a few.
...

Cool!!  Ball lightning seems to be once of the last frontiers where things 
are very unknown!!

We have pretty much unlimited free server space if you wish.  Contact:

terry-at-hot-streamer-dot-com

www.hot-streamer-dot-com

for FTP info.

>So, I thought I would report Bob is still hard at work, has expanded his 
>research area to match current technologies. Tesla coils not abandoned, he 
>has stored the largest gap chamber, one made for NASA, the chamber ends 
>are each 900 pounds of copper and water cooled, so are the inside gap 
>electrodes, rated at a constant several megawatts. They were used to make 
>a atmosphere plasma discharge with the power supply being hundreds of 
>submarine batteries (16,000 amps discharge each at 7000 amp hour rating). 
>That system used a high pressure blast of air across the gap to make a 
>high power plasma which tested various thermal tiles at really high 
>temperatures and air speeds.
>So, he has this huge gap, just in case he needs to use it. Thing weighs a 
>ton, really.
>Regards,
>                 Mike

Thanks for the update!!!

Cheers,

         Terry