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LAN_403

Tesladownunder

Mon Jun 12 2006, 06:55PM

Registered Member #10 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424

Terry Fritz wrote ...

... I wonder if just "wood" would work fine too...

I too was wondering about wood and was going to drill several sized holes and some tiny adjacent holes then soak it in salt water. Much easier to 'machine' and cheap.

My HV switch has had many shots and has been flawless with acceptable wear. It has run comfortably up to 5kJ. I designed it with a lot of metal for the contacts powered by two trampoline springs which fire with some power when a plastic spacer is pulled out from a distance. The secret ingredient I think is that I have built in a neoprene damped backstop for the struck electrode to reduce/prevent switch bounce plus some slide to prevent welding which is not really a problem at higher powers anyway.

Peter

Coronafix

Fri Jun 16 2006, 03:19AM

Registered Member #160 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 02:07AM
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 938

The Corum brothers claim to have reproduced Tesla's ball lightning experiments, using a single primary and two secondaries of different sizes.

Although these are rather large coils they are working with, I wonder if it can be done with smaller coils, and also if the secondary sizes have a lot to do with the effect.

Terry Fritz

Fri Jun 16 2006, 12:33PM

Registered Member #393 Joined: Tue Apr 18 2006, 12:30AM
Location:
Posts: 297

The Corum brothers claim to have reproduced Tesla's ball lightning experiments

A number of people have tried to reproduce the Corum's ball lightning experiment. None have been successful. I would be highly sceptical of their claims.

Cheers,

Terry

Marko

Fri Jun 16 2006, 01:02PM

Registered Member #89 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145

I still don't see why should a ball of plasma occur under salt water, chalk may flash and crack and that's it.
Can anyone actually explain what's supposed to happen here and how do we get the plasmoid out of there?

I admit discharge in air would be very violent but that sounded more like a 'ball-lightning'..

Dr. Shark

Mon Jun 19 2006, 01:06PM

Registered Member #75 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 09:30AM
Location: Montana, USA
Posts: 711

I posted earlier that I got in touch with the reseach group and asked how the experiment was performed. Here is the reply (sorry, it's in german):

Sehr geehrter Herr KÃ¶ster,

Wir danken Ihnen fÃ¼r Ihr Interesse. Das Experiment ist einfach, wenn
man den Kondensator (O.5-1 mF, 5 kV) und einen entsprechenden Schalter
hat (wir benutzen mechanische und elektronische), aber, wie Ihnen
anscheinend klar ist, wegen der beteiligten Energie nicht
ungefÃ¤hrlich. Die Entladung selbst ist nicht so laut, wie ein
Hochspannungsfunken, da der Strom <100 A ist. Details (incl.
Schaltung) kÃ¶nnen Sie der angehÃ¤ngten Power-Point-PrÃ¤sentation
entnehmen, die ich fÃ¼r eine Berliner Veranstaltung zusammengestellt
hatte. Zwar ist kein Text dabei, aber die Bilder sind fast alle
self-explaining. Auf Nachfrage wÃ¼rde ich unklare Bilder noch
kommentieren.
HinzufÃ¼gen mÃ¶chte ich noch, das wir das PhÃ¤nomen nicht selbst gefunden
haben. Vielmehr habe ich das Experiment dem einer Gruppe in St.
Petersburg (Emelin, Pirozerski, Stepanov und andere) nachgebaut. Mehr
darÃ¼ber finden Sie unter

Mit freundlichen GrÃ¼ssen

He also send me a powerpoint with pictures, I am trying to attach it. It contains frame-grabs from a video and other images of their ball-lightning.

]1150722581_75_FT1630_kugelblitz3.ppt.gz[/file]

Note the link they give to a description in english:

It contains information from russians who originally came up with the experiment. Seems there is some interesting stuff, unfortunately I don't have time for it right now.
http://balllightning.narod.ru/WdSpb/ball/d4p2n19r.jpg

[Edit: Changed hotlink to link]

Cesiumsponge

Tue Jun 20 2006, 01:22AM

Registered Member #397 Joined: Wed Apr 19 2006, 12:56AM
Location: Western Washington
Posts: 125

Here is a Babelfish translation of the reply that you received.

Dear Mr. Koester,

We thank you for your interest. The experiment is simply, if one has the condenser (O.5-1 mF, 5 kV) and an appropriate switch (we to use mechanical and electronic), but, like you is apparent clear, because of the energy involved not harmless. Unloading is not as loud, as a high voltage spark, there the river <100 A is. Details (inclusive circuit) can take you from the attached power POINT presentation, which I had arranged for citizens of Berlin a meeting. Participates no text, but the pictures are nearly all self explaining. On demand I would still commentate unclear pictures.

To add I would like still, which we did not find the phenomenon. Rather I copied the experiment that a group in pc. Petersburg (Emelin, Pirozerski, Stepanov and other one). More over it you find under

Yours sincerely

Tesladownunder

Thu Jul 13 2006, 02:46AM

Registered Member #10 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424

I have not tried to replicate this experiment yet despite having the gear to do so although the tube is probably the sticking point. However...
Just occasionally I have "eureka" moments. Today I thought of a mechanism to explain the observed characteristics of ball lightning.
These are:
1 triggered by high voltage (manmade or lightning)
2 slow moving
3 persistent luminosity
4 occurring in many different environments

The solution that I propose would account for ALL of these and is not complicated. Optimising it for the observed effect may take a lot of experimentation however but understanding the basis of operation makes this a lot easier.
At present I wish to keep it "secret" until I can run some video testing in the right environment using my capacitor bank as the HV trigger. I would like to present a positive result on video if possible. A dramatically positive result would be worthy of formal publication.

Peter

...

Thu Jul 13 2006, 03:14AM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

The lightning vaporises some carbon (plants, hydrocarbons, whatever) and the resulting fireball is what we see

Don't want to get too nosy though...

Tesladownunder

Thu Jul 13 2006, 04:20AM

Registered Member #10 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424

Possible, but won't persist. Thought of a variety of things on that line but it's not what I am proposing.
Many people have failed at this endeavour so I probably will too, but my idea (in fact, two ideas) is (are) "new" as far as I know.

Cheers
Peter

Sulaiman

Thu Jul 13 2006, 10:40PM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140

A relative of mine had a close encounter with a fireball;
He was lying down on a couch in the living room
an extremely loud noise and flash from about 1 meter behind him
(he did not see the flash/bolt directly)
then a RED fireball about 100mm diameter shot past him out of the open dliding door
and 'vanished' into the ground.
I was there less than an hour later.
The lightning had hit the TV aerial on the roof
followed the cable into the roof space
jumped across to the house wiring
and blew up many electrical devices - literally
(TV, stereo etc. and an exploding fluorescent tube.)
There was a hole in the marble floor about 5mm wide and 5mm deep
(as if a small ball-bearing hit like a bullet)
the marble around the hole was white (chalk?)
a large (60mm dia) blackened area surrounded the hole
(as if a small ball-bearing hit like a bullet)
Everyone (4 people) was shaken/nervous
there was a hole about 300 mm dia in the roof and upstairs ceiling
Impressive damage.
No sign/evidence of the fireball.

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