Re: (Bill's experience) was Ball lightning - Terry's thoughts....

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: wysock@xxxxxxx 

Terry,

Thanks for asking the question.  7,500 j is what I had also posted on my
web site.  I don't have the capacitor here (at my Monrovia address), but
I recall that it is an Aerovox energy storage capacitor (weighs about 300+
pounds).  I had charged it up to 60 KV (although I remember the cap's
rating was 80 KVP) and I think it was something like 40 mfd, but I'm
not sure of that without being able to view the label.

That surge may have been a combination of both RF radiation and FB
into the power line.  I remember that it instantaneously tripped my
100 amp main power breaker.  However, the wireless PCM 9 VDC
security alarm transmitters (the farthest one away from "ground zero"
was over 150 feet), all fried their i.c.'s on their pcb's.  None of these
units were connected to anything and every one of them was isolated
from any external wiring or ground return paths.  So in my mind, that
part, at least, was due directly to EMP effects.  And yes, that was
also the occasion of blowing a light bulb (physically) right out of
its socket (I had forgotten about that).

Best regards,
Bill Wysock

Date sent:      	Tue, 09 Aug 2005 01:07:04 -0600
To:             	tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
From:           	"Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject:        	Re: (Bill's experience) was Ball lightning - Terry's
 	thoughts....
Forwarded by:   	tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
Date forwarded: 	Tue,  9 Aug 2005 01:09:10 -0600 (MDT)

> Original poster: Terry Fritz <vardin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi Bill,
>
> Was it 75 joules or 75,000 joules?  The capacitor and arc look bigger
> than 0.042uF for 75 joules at 60kV.  I am thinking you had a 43uF
> 60kV cap for 75,000 joules?  I always thought the arc got back into
> the AC line somehow and fried the neighborhood.  If it was "just
> radiated" power that did the damage, that is truly impressive!!!
> ;-))  It could have jumped up the local "ground potential" high
> too.  I think you once mentioned that it blew a neighbor's porch
> light bulb right out of the socket =:O
>
> It is interesting to consider the energy of a short section of a
> lightning channel.  Maybe 100,000 amps, 100,000 volts for 1/2
> second.  A staggering 5 BILLION joules!!!!!!  A 100kV cap at 1
> FARAD!!  With a 10kW charging system, it would take over two hours to
> charge!!!  65,000 times bigger than your arc in 1981!!  Assuming
> blast effects fall of as a cubic function, about 40X the
> explosion.  But my time frame is far far longer....
>
> "If 5,000,000,000 joules won't make ball lightning, nothing will"
> ;-))  The biggest "banger" I know of is the Z-machine at Sandia:
>
> http://www.sandia.gov/media/images/Z02.gif
>
> http://www.sandia.gov/media/images/jpg/Z02.jpg   (Big image)
>
> http://www.sandia.gov/media/z290.htm
>
> But it is very high speed at "some nanoseconds" and "only a
> measly"  2 million joules :-p  But the neutron radiation in the DI
> water pool is sure pretty!!  I see you have a swimming pool in many
> of your pictures, but I bet your neighbors would not like you to turn
> it into a neutron pulse reactor ;O)))
>
> So it would seem that the raw energy we need for our ball lightning
> maker is so enormous that the average person is just not going to get
> there...
>
> However,.... I was thinking we could just let "nature" power it:
>
> http://hot-streamer.com/temp/BL-Machine.gif
>
> The lightning rod would just direct the strike across a spark gap
> with some target material, like a charcoal bricket, in the gap.  One
> would have to trigger the cameras and such at nature's whim...  This
> would be within the abilities of a "slightly" less than sane amateur
> experimenter with a big back yard in a lighting prone area...  Sort
> of a ball lightning experimental station...  It would not be much
> worse that a HAM radio antenna in lightning territory and it should
> be fairly neighbor safe.  The key is that the "pulsewidth" is like
> 1/2 second so the giant peak powers are fairly low limiting local
> high-speed pulse damage.
>
> It is interesting to note that Tesla's lab in Colorado Springs
> basically had this situation.  A tall conductive pole that was
> insulated at the base by a large air gap.  If lightning struck that
> pole and the arc went across something "organic", maybe Tesla had an
> "epiphany" during a lightning hit about ball lighting...
>
> All this is wild conjecture of course....  It "should" be possible to
> make ball lightning with much more modest power levels...  But it
> think we need to learn to crawl before we can run....
>
> Cheers,
>
>          Terry


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