Re: Teslas Ball Lightning

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts" <m.j.watts@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Chris,

On 25 Jul 2005, at 12:26, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Chris Rutherford" <chris1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi All,
>
> Just a question about the  unpublished Chapter 34 of Prodigal
> Genius.   John J. O'Neill states that the main mast at Colerado was
> destroyed by a fireball, is there any evidence for this, or is it folk
> law, based on interviews with Tesla before he left us?  Was this main
> mast part of the extra coil?
>
> Tesla became familiar with the destructive characteristics of
> fireballs in his experiments at Colorado Springs in 1899.  He
> produced them quite by accident and saw them, more than once, explode
> and shatter his tall mast and also destroy apparatus within his
> laboratory.  The destructive action accompanying the disintegration of
> a fireball, he declared, takes place with inconceivable violence.

He produced no photographic evidence in the Notes of any such event.
My reading of what he said was that he was promoting an idea, not
reporting on an event.

> He studied the process by which they were produced, not because he
> wanted to produce them but in order to eliminate the conditions in
> which they were created.  It is not pleasant, he related, to have
> fireballs explode in your vicinity for they will destroy anything they
> come in contact with. "

Will they? Well he says so but again there is no evidence to support
his conclusions.

Malcolm

> <http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/prevent.htm>www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/prev
> ent.htm
>
> Thanks
>
> Chris R
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <mailto:chris1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>Chris Rutherford
> To: <mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>Tesla list
> Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 7:23 PM
> Subject: Teslas Ball Lightning
>
> Hi List,
>
> Tesla makes several references to 'ball lightning' throughout his
> works.
>
> It is possible that it does exist, but not in the spectacular form as
> described by many.  I have spoken to someone who claims to have seen a
> 10" ball hovering around some electricity pylons, but these don't
> match the type described in CSN.  The balls produced by a Tesla coil
> are small and only last a fraction of a second.  On p111 of the CSN
> small dots appeared in his streamers, but he dismissed this as a
> persistence of vision.  Yet on p333 he goes further. "The actual
> appearance of these luminous spots or points is unmistakable".  He
> later discusses the formation through the rapid heating of particles.
> "The fire ball may be connected with a process akin to explosion or
> sudden volatilisation."   The dictionary definition of volatilisation
> is "to make volatile", thus he might be describing a process that
> makes stable molecules become unstable, releasing light.
>
> Has anyone seen ball lightning described in this context, rather than
> the more spectacular sightings?
>
> What sort off power levels would he have been using at that time?
>
> <http://www.hackinghardware.com/tesla/mlbl.jpg>www.hackinghardware.com
> /tesla/mlbl.jpg
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>