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Re: Tesla Coils & Ball Lightning



Original poster: "Chris Rutherford" <chris1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi,

If you look through Teslas work there are many references to 'balls of fire'. First hand evidence is p111 CSN p333 CSN and patent 1,119,732. Dec. 1, 1914. Why would a phenomenon be so frequently described if it did not exist?

In which he says his coil is designed to stop break out. "if the points of maximum pressure should be shifted below the terminal D, along coil B, a ball of fire might break out and destroy the support F or anything else in the way. For the better appreciation of the nature of this danger it should be stated, that the destructive action may take place with inconceivable violence. "

Do you think he really means a 'ball of fire' or is he talking about a more generic flash over resulting in a fireball type mess?

Thanks

Chris R

----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 11:56 AM
Subject: RE: Tesla Coils & Ball Lightning


Original poster: "Derek Woodroffe" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

"On of my friends, whose wife doesn't mind foul smells, used to produce
little fire balls from his TC by putting on his HV terminal a piece of
rubber insulation stripped off a wire, lighting it, and firing up. I have
some pictures somewhere.  Many others have used similar methods.  I can't
get away with that sort of thing around here, only dangerous experiments
which aren't so obvious!

Ed"

As has been mentioned there appears to be two (at least) types of ball
lightning. This sooty type appears to be the easiest to reproduce. I have
produced a small, intensely bright short lived sphere of plasma from a
lighted candle on top of a small tesla coil. This (I assume) has the same
starting ingredients as a lighted toothpick in a microwave, plasma, carbon
particles (soot or similar) and pumped with RF. Although mine didn't break
away from the breakout.

As the Ball requires a large constant RF source to keep the effect running,
I doubt that it is the same process that is going on with a natural
lightning created ball. This is assuming that in larger lightning balls
there isn't some internal mechanism to prolong the RF field. In all cases of
this type of "sooty" ball, removing the RF field caused the ball to collapse
instantly and soundlessly unlike many of the eyewitness accounts.

The balls created by shorting high currents e.g. welding also (again I
assume) contain a plasma, and would have been created in a high RF (magnetic
or electrical) field. What I can't see is the (carbon?) substrate required
in "sooty" ball lightning, unless the vapour of the ablated metal counts.

So this leaves the "real" ball lightning, I suppose you could argue that is
it the same "type" as the two above, but with much higher powers, but again
the observation of the ball passing through doors, if it is to be believed,
negates the possibility of there being a material core. Other that that most
of the stories have the same three ingredients, RF, flames (or highly
ionised air) and a (mostly) carbon substrate.

Maybe its time for the owners of bigger coils to start lighting their wood
and rubber breakouts to see what can be produced.

Derek