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

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Jim Lux <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

At 08:14 PM 8/6/2005, you wrote:
> Original poster: Terry Fritz <vardin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi,
>
> At 07:15 PM 8/6/2005, you wrote:
> > .... Maybe we should plan
> > > ahead for the next sighting.
> >
> > And hopefully such sightings will eventually lead us
> > to the lab where it can be reliably reproduced.
> >
> > -Brett
>
>
> That is indeed the "Holy Grail" of ball lightning...  To have a 
> "machine" that can pump out ball lighting, just like Lawrence Welk's 
> bubble machines...
>
>
> I have been trying.  But my 3 year old project is 2.99 years behind now...
>
> So, I will "spill" my "secrets" incase anyone cares and it might 
> help out to accomplish the task...
>
>
> My idea was that ball lighting is "super heated" "stuff".  Wood, 
> plastic, dirt,...  It does not matter much....
>
> "Suddenly "superheat" it" to say 20,000 degrees...  Lighting can do 
> that!! ;-))
>
> Unlike say wood at only 400 degrees, a chunk of wood suddenly 
> (microseconds) "promoted" to 20,000 degrees might turn into a 
> flaming ball of stuff that might float around for a moment as all 
> the materials decide what end combustion products and chemical 
> states they are going to end up as...
>
> One would need a capacitor, of the can crusher variety, that could 
> supply 500K amp currents and a Tesla coil to initiate the "arc over" 
> (needs big voltage).
>
> So you put your organic material between the electrodes of the can 
> crusher style super current capacitors and initiate the power arc to 
> the material with the Tesla coil...
>
> Just that simple....


And I have a storage unit full of 80kV, 1.5 uF capacitors just 
waiting for a suitable place to try this scheme.

Figure that lightning is around 100kJ/meter, and the part of the 
lightning that ostensibly makes the BL is in the submeter range (i.e. 
the part of the stroke interacting with the surface.)  BL seems to be 
reported in connection with lightning interacting with a surface.

SO, I have some 50kJ worth of capacitors, a charging source, etc.  Some day...

I was going to use a fine wire leader to initiate the discharge and a 
mechanical gap. Set up the L and C so that the rise time of the 
impulse was in the microsecond range characteristic of lightning. 
Terminate the wire in some sort of suitable substrate (i.e. soil, 
wood, etc.)  The wire length is chosen to produce the right energy/unit length.