Ball Lightning Experiment

 

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This account was sent to me by Tim Wolf in the USA. He believes he may be able to create Ball Lightening with a candle, a car battery and a coil & ignition module.

A note to all that will read my experimental notes:

The first intentions of my experiments were not in any way to try to create ball lightning. My intention was to make my high voltage device develop better, more regular sparks. My electrical device is capable (with a high performance automotive ignition coil) of delivering a spark of 21/2 - 3 inches long across an air gap. In my notes, I refer to the lower electrode of the air gap as a "spark plate", since it is a metal plate (see diagram 1). The candle, and later the match, were introduced in the hope that my electrical device would be able to create sparks that were not of the "hit and miss kind" as they went across the air gap. I figured that a heat source of some kind would cure the problem. In the experiment, I tried using an "unlit candle" (as a comparison) a lighted match, a lit candle made of paraffin wax and finally a lit tea candle. It is my hope that others will duplicate these experiments and come up with bigger and better "blue spheres" and perhaps obtain a better idea of what ball lightning is, if indeed I did truly created ball lightning.

Please note, however, I WILL NOT, NOR WILL THE OWNER/CREATOR OF THIS WEBSITE, BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURY, DEATH, OR DESTRUCTION THAT MAY OCCUR WHILE DUPLICATING THESE EXPERIMENTS! In other words you are on your own! Common sense must prevail when using electricity and fire. Be careful!

 

Diagram 1

(The wiring shown above has been slightly simplified)

 

The Experiment

With nothing on the spark plate, the arrangement produced irregular sparks - the device did not spark continuously "hit and miss".

With just a candle, not being lit, no change was observed.

A candle (made of paraffin wax), of small size with no metal retainer on the bottom, was placed on the spark plate and lit. With just a candle, being lit, produced sparks that were very continuous

Questions:

  1. Did the flame actually conduct the electricity?
  2. Was it the heat that made it a better conductor?
  3. Could the candle wax, while it was melting, become a better conductor making the sparks more regular?

A candle was lit and placed under the spark plate and allowed to warm the spark plate. On the first try the sparks were irregular. After allowing the spark plate to warm for some time the same test was given and the results were the same. The sparks again were irregular.

With nothing more than a single lit match, sitting upon the spark plate, the spark went directly to the flame. They (the sparks) were regular and very loud. Once, the match went out the sparks once again were irregular and danced about in all directions. Obviously a source of flame did wonders!

I tried a tea candle. It must be noted here that the candle's metal holder must be removed, otherwise the spark will go directly to it. I left the metal wick retainer on the bottom, lit the candle, and placed it on the spark plate. The spark went straight to the flame. The thing really caught my attention was that every now and then, small "blue spheres" would fly up and away from the flame (diagram 2). Another thing that caught my attention was the fact that the flame took a dip downward when the device sparked. What caused the blue spheres? If it was burning wax, perhaps I would have seen the wax land and possibly continue to burn. Burning of a gas perhaps? Could it have been the result of the heat from the candle following the upward "bolt" and then flying off in another direction? Could it be a form of ball lightning? From my understanding ball lightning is usually red, orange or blue in colour.

When the top electrode was moved far enough away from the spark plate, so no spark could be seen between the top electrode and the spark plate, it seem to result in more blue spheres. The flame still dipped down, but this time down and to the right. Also, it seemed every now and then, the flame would shoot upward as if following the unseen bolt and let off a few blue spheres.

I thought perhaps if I placed the tea candle in a small drinking glass and set in on the spark plate that this would concentrate the heat in a confined area and it would give off more blue spheres. This did not work. It must be pointed out here that the wick retainer cannot be insulated from the spark plate - if it is, the effect of the candle is removed. I placed the tip of a pencil across the flame of the tea candle. Nothing unusual happened for the exception that the spark across the air gap changed from blue to orange. No blue spheres were produced. I placed a clothes pin across the flame of the tea candle. Nothing unusual happened for the exception that a rise in flame took place. Again there were no blue spheres. Placing the tea candle on a piece of wood 1" by 2", raising the height of the tea candle, resulted in what can be termed as a shower or fountain of blue spheres one right after another.

I tried to make bigger blue spheres using various methods:

Some Notes/Thoughts by Andrew Johnson on this Experiment

  1. With the match burning, I am a little puzzled as to why the spark should be diverted by it. However, I have an explanation; when the match burns, it probably yields a small amount of moisture into the air, which increases the conductivity, hence the air breaks down more readily around the match. The change in conductivity may also be induced by small amounts of other gases released when the match burns. One thing that could be tried is with a small piece of cloth, pour some boiling water on it (but not too much). Lay it on the spark plate (while it is still steaming) underneath the electrode and see if the sparks have a preference for going through it.
  2. The ball lightning? When the tea candle is used, the wick retainer is in contact with the plate. I think, therefore that in this situation, the candle may be behaving like the dielectric in a capacitor. When the spark happens, it goes probably through the wick because, though it is made of some kind of string, it will probably, when burning, yield a small amount of moisture and again, the air around the candle will be more conductive, hence the spark will be drawn through it.

 

This next bit is more speculative, because I haven't seen Tim's experiment with my own eyes. When the spark hits, and travels through the wax/candle, I believe a very small amount of wax will be vaporised (but not immediately burnt). The vaporised droplets of Wax are ignited by the flame, as they and burn blue (like the hottest part of the candle flame). The 2nd diagram shows your blue balls travelling in a parabola. This could mean 1 of 2 things; either they are indeed tiny droplets of wax, falling under the influence of gravity, or they are bits of BL, which are being attracted to the spark plate (perhaps because they are electrically charged). One thing you could try is reversing the charge between the spark plate and the electrode. If the balls still travel in a parabola, it is likely (though not definite) that they are wax droplets. If they were BL, they would be plasma and hence not as influenced by gravity, so should maybe even curve upwards?!? Having said that, however, due to the mystifying nature of BL, it may not necessarily behave (electrically) the way I suggest.