Re: BL saga

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: BL saga
From: "Malcolm Watts" <MALCOLM-at-directorate.wnp.ac.nz> (by way of Terry Fritz <terryf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 18:52:06 -0600
Approved: terryf-at-verinet-dot-com

Hi Greg,

> Original Poster: Greg Leyh <lod-at-pacbell-dot-net> 
> 
> > Original Poster: "Malcolm Watts" <MALCOLM-at-directorate.wnp.ac.nz>
> > 
> > Hi all,
> >           I stuck some charred wood on top of my work coil last
> > evening and fired her up. Some bright spots did appear in the
> > streamers but you really had to look for them. It would be a bold
> > soul that could claim this was ball lightning. They appeared to be
> > burining particles of carbon ejected from the charcoal, probably by
> > the electric fields. The spots were formed in air streamers and I
> > suspect that the considerably brighter attached discharges would all
> > but mask the effect. They were not at all long lived and appeared
> > only in the streamers.
> 
> Did the bright spots seem electrical or incendiary in appearance?

It was rather difficult to tell with the normal streamer light. At 
times, the odd yellow spark fell out of the mix which was clearly 
burning charcoal. A lot of the spots seemed to approach streamer 
colour which was fairly purple-white sort of.
 
> One fun thing to do is to place a large pyrotechnic charge on the
> toroid, such as a fountain with copper salts in it. It is usually
> unnecessary to light the fuse.

:) :)
Malcolm