Re: Ball lightning - Terry's thoughts....

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Chris Rutherford" <chris1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi All,

How well does Teslas fireball theory stand up?  i.e. A 
streamer-particle interaction creates a spherical discharge, this 
area of space would then have a lower density to the surrounding 
space, and therefore greater resistance so when the second..nth 
streamer passes through more energy is absorbed in to that spot due 
to I^2R.  This would then further rarefy/evacuate that space, until 
you have high energy fields and particles wrapped around a 
vacuum,  due to electrostatic repulsion the 'alike' charges don't 
want to let the vacuum collapse because they don't want to be near 
each other.  Hence BL energy is stored in a vacuum surrounded by 
repelling charged particles and fields.

Thanks

Chris R

----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2005 5:02 AM
Subject: Re: Ball lightning - Terry's thoughts....


> Original poster: Jim Lux <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> At 08:14 PM 8/6/2005, you wrote:
> > Original poster: Terry Fritz <vardin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > At 07:15 PM 8/6/2005, you wrote:
> > > .... Maybe we should plan
> > > > ahead for the next sighting.
> > >
> > > And hopefully such sightings will eventually lead us
> > > to the lab where it can be reliably reproduced.
> > >
> > > -Brett
> >
> >
> > That is indeed the "Holy Grail" of ball lightning...  To have a 
> > "machine" that can pump out ball lighting, just like Lawrence 
> > Welk's bubble machines...
> >
> >
> > I have been trying.  But my 3 year old project is 2.99 years behind now...
> >
> > So, I will "spill" my "secrets" incase anyone cares and it might 
> > help out to accomplish the task...
> >
> >
> > My idea was that ball lighting is "super heated" "stuff".  Wood, 
> > plastic, dirt,...  It does not matter much....
> >
> > "Suddenly "superheat" it" to say 20,000 degrees...  Lighting can do 
> > that!! ;-))
> >
> > Unlike say wood at only 400 degrees, a chunk of wood suddenly 
> > (microseconds) "promoted" to 20,000 degrees might turn into a 
> > flaming ball of stuff that might float around for a moment as all 
> > the materials decide what end combustion products and chemical 
> > states they are going to end up as...
> >
> > One would need a capacitor, of the can crusher variety, that could 
> > supply 500K amp currents and a Tesla coil to initiate the "arc 
> > over" (needs big voltage).
> >
> > So you put your organic material between the electrodes of the can 
> > crusher style super current capacitors and initiate the power arc 
> > to the material with the Tesla coil...
> >
> > Just that simple....
>
>
> And I have a storage unit full of 80kV, 1.5 uF capacitors just 
> waiting for a suitable place to try this scheme.
>
> Figure that lightning is around 100kJ/meter, and the part of the 
> lightning that ostensibly makes the BL is in the submeter range 
> (i.e. the part of the stroke interacting with the surface.)  BL 
> seems to be reported in connection with lightning interacting with a surface.
>
> SO, I have some 50kJ worth of capacitors, a charging source, etc. Some day...
>
> I was going to use a fine wire leader to initiate the discharge and 
> a mechanical gap. Set up the L and C so that the rise time of the 
> impulse was in the microsecond range characteristic of lightning. 
> Terminate the wire in some sort of suitable substrate (i.e. soil, 
> wood, etc.)  The wire length is chosen to produce the right energy/unit length.