Reply-To: USA-TESLA@list.usa.net Sender: USA Tesla List From: James P Moore To: Multiple recipients of list USA-TESLA Subject: Kitchen Cooked Ball Lightning X-To: USA-TESLA@list.usa.net Date: Thu, 12 Jun 97 17:33:17 +0000 At 03:59 AM 6/12/97 GMT, you wrote: >On Wed, 11 Jun 1997 10:09:42 -0500, James P Moore >, you wrote: > >[snip] > >>Very interesting.... i wonder if Ralph was pullin our legs? > >Don't know just, I couldn't recreate his experiment. > >>If not, then >>we need more info on the type of his microwave, power rating, and if it >>had a rotating platform. Did your oven rotate? >NO, my oven is quit stationary on the kitchen counter as it ran;) >Yes, mine has a rotating platter in it. I however, placed the candle >and match very near the center of the platter. > > > jim >>I havn't tried it yet, but >>after your report is in stark conflict with Ralphs.... tonight is the night, >>for my trial run. My oven rotates, if this makes any difference. We'll see >>what mine does. later........... Well Jim I produced some amazing Simulated Ball Lightning last night! The Ralph protocol WORKS, well! I tried a small one inch tall candle, after removing the metal wick retainer at the bottom, and placed it in a small ceramic bowl, light it and place the MW on high. Watched for almost a minute, and nothing happens, as you reported. I was discouraged! My MW also has a rotating carousel, and so I removed that and tried again, and nothing! So... I placed a round wooden toothpick in a makeshift plastic holder, light it and cranked the MW on high, after watching for 10-15 seconds, things began to happen! First a little sputtering from the previously burn wood charcoal-flame interface zone.... then some brilliant white flashes from the charcoal, then ERUPTION..... BBBOOOOZZZUUUMMMM.... a purple sphere popped out of the white flash, and rose to the roof, and rolled around briefly, before being sucked toward the intake for the ventilation fan! This was stationary with no rotation, then the purple buzzzzing spheres began to erupt with more intensity and frequency, as the toothpick burned down. I was too involved in watching these plasmoid fire balls roll around the oven, to notice that the small wooden stick had burned into the plastic holder, and when that happened WOW, talk about plasma balls........... I thought that the oven might not withstand such a quantity of frolicking ionized plasma, pervading the domain, so I shut it off, and extinguished the weakly burning plastic. This was so exciting that I had to try variations in an attempt to understand what was happening, and why the candle did not work, but the wood did. Also the buzzzzing noise seemed to be coming from the Ionized Plasmoids, and not the transformer, but I could be wrong. After thinking a bit and deciding that carbon must have a key role to play in this phenomenon, I decided to take the small candle and poke a toothpick into the wax so that the wick and the wooden pick, were making contact. When I tried this, on a rotated plate, I got nicely space and somewhat smaller Plasmoids, and since the wax kept the wood going longer, I watched these things crawl all over the inside of the oven, and some even went across the ceiling and down the wall, before puffing out! This was great fun, but my mind was still cooking, so......... I kept thinking sooty smoke from the plastic was a good source but too toxic, wood which left a good matrix of carbon, was also a good fuel for the plasmoids, now what else could be used......? I set down for a while popped a top, and let the MW, cool down a bit, because when I felt the walls inside, they were very warm. After downing half my brew... I went for the old empty bag of charcoal briquettes that I had not thrown away after last weekends barbecued chicken. After shaking it a bit I inverted it over a large plate and obtained a nice quantity of simi- powdered carbon to play with, working on the hypothesis that vaporized carbon, was an underlying factor in obtaining good ionized Plasmoids. Tried placing the powdered carbon an a rotated and non-rotated plate, and nothing. Then I remembered what Ed had said about steel wool doing something in the MW. So I place a small dab of SW on the rotating plate fired up the HF-RF and the SW, began to sparkle a bit as it slowly burned, but no Synthetic Ball Lightning. You can guess what the next logical thing to do was............ FINISH THE BEER, right? NO..... I sprinkles the charcoal powder sparsely about on another dab of steel wool, with a small pile in the center, and fired up the MW on high again, in rotating mode. Well..... the wool began to burn, then I saw little white sparks popping out from various regions of the wool, and I assumed that these were specks of carbon that were ignited, by the combusting steel wool. Soon.... some Plasmoids began to materialize and buzz about the oven, as with the wood, but they became more vigorous and persisted longer before fading from existence, after the carbonized steel had burned for a while, the reaction continued to intensify, one of the Plasmoids must have lasted for 4-5sec, and was the size of not a golf ball... but an orange, and was very beautiful. This particular Plasmoid went to the top of the oven as usual after erupting, then crawled down the wall, and went back to the top and found a place near the front of the oven, by the door about 4 inches from my dumb-founded wide open eyes, then proceeded to remain stationary, and was quite spherical! It persisted for so long, that I was afraid that since it was remaining in one spot, that it would damage the MW, so I shut the experiment down! WOWWWW, what a site that one was!!! After examining the inside of the oven for damage from this most beautiful Ball Of Plasma, I did find a tiny spot that corresponded to it's favorite spot, and although most of the spot wiped off, there did appear to be the beginning of an electrically etched surface erosion in the porcelain coating or what ever it is on the inside of the oven. It looked almost like a tiny arc welded spot. Well after last night fun, I BELIEVE EVERY WORD THAT RALPH RELATED to the list!!! I do believe that vaporized or ionized carbon is a key factor in successfully creating these interesting Plasmoids, that may have a LOT in common with natural Ball Lightning? Tesla was rumored to use powder carbon, in his creation of Laboratory Ball Lightning. However, to my knowledge, nobody has ever reproduced his technique, in doing this. Now thanks to modern MW oven technology, maybe scientists can easily create and study these interesting Plasma phenomena, under controlled conditions, to find out more about the mystery of Ball Lightning, and other related plasma phenomena? This rarely observed phenomenon, is poorly documented, and even more poorly understood! Based on what little that I have observed last night.... I would bet that if a person could find a way to place a High Voltage carbon arc, inside a microwave chamber that some really awesome Laboratory Ball Lightning could be produced! By vaporization of carbon, by the HV arc, while in the electric field of a MW cavity! There also may be different MW frequencies that alter or enhance the properties of these interesting Plasmoid Phenomena? I hope that someone will want to study this in a truly scientific way, if it hasn't been done previously, and to my knowledge, it hasn't. IMO, there might be some useful information that might be obtained by a detailed scientific study of this interesting phenomenon! Ralph... you speak the TRUTH!!! ;) JPM