[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

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

Original poster: Scott Stephens <scottxs@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Tesla list wrote:

But remember: theory must be tested against nature, or in other words,
experiment trumps theory.


Indeed!

Since 900 watt microwave ovens DO easily create corona, 

...

It might be interesting to place an adjustable sphere-gap in the oven and
see how far a spark would jump. Without having tried this, I'd give a
seat-of-pants guess of 1mm or so.

I just tried it, forming a 2 1/2 loop of around 24 guage copper wire with around a 1 mm gap. I supported it 2" off the bottom of the oven, through a piece of soldering sponge, resting on the knob that rotates the glass tray. I removed the glass tray. The loop was oriented horizontally. I expect, being 1/2 wave diameter, it would make a good antenna.

Sure enough, a spark occurred, then ignition! White flames then plasmoids ignited and floated up to the top of the oven. The 1 mm gap opened to 3 cm, with the copper wire points melted into little balls.

A magnetron plasma source would be a great thing for a copper vapor laser. I must contrive some means to use microwaves to burn and ignite a copper plasma, which then shorts 120 V or 1KV (from the MO transformer) in an optical cavity to lase. That would be a quite simple, high power (~100W) green laser.

Then again, perhaps its air and not a copper plasma, because it wasn't green but white?

But if you intentionally create sharp edges and points, the corona always appears.

I didn't think the voltage would get high enough. I know its the field involved, but under a few hundred volts however sharp you get your needle point, you're still not going to get corona, from what I've heard.

Scott