ST. ELMO LIGHTS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21989, 13 January 1937, Page 7

ST. ELMO LIGHTS

tO THE EDITOB OB 1 THE PBESS. Sir,—l notice in the issue of your „ taper this morning a description of a ■Phenomenon which was alluded to as St Elmo Fires. Now, I have seen this , •May. on several occasion at sea, wile I was serving my apprenticeship ia sailing ships, and I have never ifeard it called St. Elmo's Fires, but ? ft Brno's Lights. The display usually occurs during f ae height of an electric storm. A M\ electric storm at sea at night is a "krjrying experience, when viewed .; w the first time, and is always an sight even to the most seaman. t .«e lightning takes the form of t Mat sky rockets, and half a dozen to I aflozen of these leap up from one hori- > «»i flash overhead, and disappear ™» the opposite horizon. These r*f niay be accompanied by thun*jj but more often there is no thunrjl wey are, however, nearly always by heavy and torrential ffi During the flash the ship is ilSated so brightly that the smallest rPajJ of the rigging can be seen as | 2™y«s in broad daylight. After a J*" l ' the observer is struck with /•l£™J. Wa «* blindness, which is so J?» that nothing can be seen at all, : tort?*!? how near the eye - Kis ■ S Mindn'ess that the St. Elmo i af? H B PPear; they are about the size orange and glow with a ;■ phosphorescent light. They I mM? settle °° the tip of each mast : *s, TV ? xtrem e ends of each yard. if'fcanl™ 111 "* eflec t which is most f'vSslv. remain there till the *ltasr ¥*s"** them JThis api 4eS£. , l he u & hts may ocTcur in I , between the flashes dur--1 tfcee «« ole storm or onl y two or , ' l| *rtoiS eS T? t i longer P e «ods during i %*si nfl " te one of the strangest ? d toK a ' t when .\ shi P is Pitching 1 VeZf' to wat( * these peculiar "» theiT^ g an , d S° in g and hanging i **t (tew, p i eca rious perches. When [' atterT f ght wiu never °e forI no explanation of this de!*leo"sJ*ve I ever heard a feac yet.—Yours, etc., f. ftnnn, 12> m^ 0M DE PLUME.