Re: Ball Lightning

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "D.C. Cox by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <resonance-at-jvlnet-dot-com>


Strong electrostatic charge but not always lightning.  Lightning and rain
soon followed.

It can be reproduced on demand but that's a bit off the Tesla topic.  And,
still classified by the govt.

Dr. Resonance



----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 9:25 PM
Subject: Ball Lightning


> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Zimtesla-at-aol-dot-com>
>
> DC Cox wrote:
> >As kids, we used to watch ball lightning form on a regular basis as a
> > thunderstorm approached under the "V" of a ground wire on a 600 ft. tall
FM
> > transmitting tower in the Baraboo Bluffs.  It would grow in size and
finally
> > break off and float around for 20-30 sec.  Some lasted as long as a
minute.
> > Some would break off and actually come at us.  We ducked behind
something
> > but as kids we thought it was great fun.  No one ever got burned or
> > anything.
> >
> > There was always a huge pile of dry leaves sucked up near the base of
the
> > tower after the ball lightning formed which leads me to believe it is a
DC
> > or electrostatic effect.  The FM power was only 10 kw so that isn't very
> > much.
> >
> > The grounding was changed after one ball came through a wall and nearly
> > almost hit the radio station's engineer.  They got sick of it
terrorizing
> > their children as they lived in a small home in the transmitter shack
under
> > the tower.  Rebonding the grounds changed something and no one has seen
it
> > since.
> >
> > Dr. Resonance
>
> Question - was there always lightning when the ball formed? A recent
article in
> Science News by some professor from New Zealand claims it requires a
lightneing
> stirke to form and is the result of silicon vapors. Your observation seem
to
> refute this theory.
>
> I have a copy of a magazine article written in the 1920's by a person who
was
> running an Ouden coil that produced ball lightning on two occasions. Both
times
> the pea sized ball floated about and then hit the fellow's brother with
some
> significant results. This was published in the TCBA newsletter.
>
> In  one of the report tapes by Richard Hull, some fellows in California
> reported about a ball lightning that formed in a rotory spark gap which
was
> made from a metal fan blade. While the actual event was not on the tape
the
> fellows stated that the ball floated around for a few seconds then hit the
> power outlet and shorted it.
>
> It would be nice to be able to study this stuff if it could be reproduced
on
> demand.
> Jim
>
>