Fergie's Tech Blog

5 March 1904: Nikola Tesla Describes the Process of Ball Lightning Formation

Via Wikipedia.

Ball lightning is a natural phenomenon, or debatably, a pseudoscientific theory. It is sometimes associated with thunderstorms. It takes the form of a long-lived, glowing, floating object, as opposed to the short-lived arcing between two points commonly associated with lightning. An early attempt to explain ball lightning was recorded by Nikola Tesla on March 5, 1904 (Electrical World and Engineer).

Some laboratory experiments claim to produce ball lightning, but there is no consensus that the phenomenon reproduced is related to the natural one. The natural occurrences are, by their nature, difficult to document accurately. Consequently, many scientists continue to dispute the existence of ball lightning as a distinct physical phenomenon (see, for example, the review by Singer (2002)). In one such occurrence, Singer reports that staff at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge apparently saw ball lightning, although Brian Pippard, the Head of Department, was skeptical on its reality (A. B. Pippard, (1982), Ball of Fire?, Nature v298, p702).

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My recurring "00:01" series is a pursuit to provide a memory of important things we should not forget in technology.

posted by Fergie @ 3/04/2006 10:01:00 PM