Subject: Re: Ball Lightning -- w related Papers From: pmk@prometheus.UUCP (Paul M. Koloc) Date: 1995/04/25 Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology In article <3mv0kj$pog@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> gpetty@rain.atms.purdue.edu (Grant W . Petty) writes: >In article , >>Also, The Learning Channel had broadcast a show on lightning recently >>called TLC Presents: "Electric Skies"(1994). One of the awesome topics >>was ball lightning generation experimentation using Huge storage banks >>of 20 navy submarine batteries, 25,000 Amp Hour each equalling 18000 Amp >>at 42 Volts! The inspiring result is a _must_see_ for anyone >>contemplating ball lightning research as it clearly shows something >>unusual going on. >Coincidentally, I just saw a tape of this show a couple of days ago, .. . >produced by the submarine batteries. What the guy demonstrated looked >no different to my eye than the skittering, burning beads of metal >that one sees around arc welders. I agree, although they were set up to fall onto the surface of water where they appeared to be bouyed by water vaporization. They also appeared to shrink in size with time and most of them put off a rising smoke wisps, which could have been from the metal oxide dust after oxidation. > .. . Since that's essentially what the >setup with the batteries was imitating, albeit on a much larger scale >currentwise, the similarity is not surprising. In short, I believe >either the phenomenon depicted on the show was not remotely connected >with ball lightning, or else ball lightning is produced by ordinary >arc welders every day. Likely not connected, although Boris Smirnov believes some hyper heated core is the only thing that can maintain the plasma appearance over such extended periods. Originally with the fusion program, he is convinced there is no other way that energy can be conserved by a plasma system, especially one driven by decay of a mag field with thermal (resistive) currents >Also, if the balls were really made of something tenuous and >electrical in nature, as one would expect of true ball lightning, why >didn't they (in the film) float around in the air rather than falling >quickly to the ground more like (say) a particle of hot, rapidly >oxidizing metal? In any case, I think it should be possible to >analyze the spectrum of emitted light from the balls and quickly >determine whether it is more consistent with a plasma-like phenomenon >or with plain old incandescence. Absolutely, and the fellow who has been chasing this is Bob Golka. He himself is skeptical that his technique is correct. His problem may be that he has followed the work of Dijhuis of the Holland (Convectron) who tried to use Jim Tuck's approach in reproducing the event seen aboard electric subs. Jim finally got it right, and produced one, but had been ordered to turn over the shed at LANL he was using, to others; and so he had to shut down his work. Unfortunately, it was a month or so later when they developed the film and discovered the ball they had generated. It appeared to be about 4 or 5 inches dia., somewhat elliptical, it bounced off the floor following a straight line path, as opposed to other parabolically flying debris. It continued on a considerable distance and out of view of the camera maybe 15 -20 '??. So basically, both Golka and Dijkhuis haven't "got it right". James gave me a copy of his notes before his death and also a copy of his film, but both are in terrible shape (Had used blue pen and the film was probably nitrocellulose left over stuff at LANL -- Experiment circa 1969-1970. >Even the show's narrator conceded that "not all scientists believe the >phenomenon demonstrated is related to what happens in ball lightning" >(or words to that effect), which, IMHO, is Hollywood-speak for "most >scientists believe any comparison whatsoever is fallacious". Probably Earle R. Williams meteorology MIT? Silver hair and beard? >Just my 2 cents... Unajusted for inflation. :-) Ilana's FAQ has good references that go beyond Uman and Barry (tended to be bl skeptics). If you want two cents worth related to our work, then try the following: low density Color versions of the first bls we formed can be found at - WWW URL = http://www.skypoint.com/members/jlogajan - The paper discussing this work is listed first below: Koloc, P.M. "Fusion Implications of Free-Floating PLASMAK(tm) Magnetoplasmoids" Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Evaluation of Current Trends in Fusion Research, Nov 14-18 1994, Washington DC (in publication) Roth, J.R. "Ball Lightning as a Route to Fusion Energy" Proceedings of the IEEE, THE 13TH SYMPOSIUM ON FUSION ENGINEERING, Knoxville (Oct. 2-6, 1989), Cat. No. 89 CH 2820-9 Vol 2, pages 1407-1411 fusion directed Koloc, P.M. "PLASMAK(tm) Star Power for Energy Intensive Space Applications" FUSION TECHNOLOGY Vol. 15, Mar 89, pp 1136-1141 Bl directed Koloc, P.M. "The PLASMAK(tm) Configuration and Ball Lightning," presented at the First International Symposium on Ball Lightning, Tokyo, Japan, July 1988. see Y. H. Ohtsuki (ed.), (below) more general articles Others are in the more recent 6 symp. proceedings. Ohtsuki, Y. H. (ed.), Science of Ball Lightning (Fire Ball). Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co., 1989. (First International Symposium on Ball Lightning, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, 4-6 July 1988) L.C. QC966.7.B3157 1988 551.5'634 89-9004 Write to or telephone World Scientific Pub. Co. U.S.: 687 Hartwell Street, Teaneck, NJ 07666; 1-800-227-7562 If you can't find these papers (#1 will take a while to publish) then I can send copies to you with a your snail address and a couple of bucks OR equivalently: send an enclosed self addresed and envelope (biggish) with $2 bucks worth of stamps affixed. My postage costs have been eating into my allowance. Publisher has the copyrights, so copies are strictly for educational or research use only. (no joke) >Incidentally, the rest of the film is spectacular! Yes, although I didn't appreciate the fact they didn't include my cloud charging concepts. :-( and posted here on the net! :-) >-- >Grant W. Petty gpetty@rain.atms.purdue.edu >Asst. Prof. of Atmospheric Science >Dept. of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences (317) 494-2544 >Purdue University, West Lafayette IN 47907-1397 FAX:(317) 496-1210 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Paul M. Koloc, Bx 1037 Prometheus II Ltd, College Park MD 20741-1037 | | mimsy!promethe!pmk; pmk%prometheus@mimsy.umd.edu FAX (301) 434-6737 | | VOICE (301) 445-1075 ***** Commercial FUSION in the Nineties ***** | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+