BALL LIGHTNING

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22109, 3 June 1937, Page 3 (Supplement)

BALL LIGHTNING

Ball lightning is a simple example of a thing m science which has never been satisfactorily explained. It is “simple” because, like other forms of lightning, it is something we can see with our own eyes; we do not need microscopes, telescopes,' or other aids to faith. And the thing is never far away. It is not, as things in meteorology so often are, miles away m other lands or high up beyond the clouds. Ball lightning may occur within a few feet of where we are. Ball lightning is a real thing. It is a form of electrical discharge whose nature is completely or almost completely unknown. It generally occurs at the end of a bad thunderstorm and more often in winter than in summer. The floating ball is usually red and shuns coming in contact with metals. It seems to be attracted by enclosed spaces like the rooms of a house and enters them down the chimney or through an open door or window. For an intruder it is not badly behaved. It may circulate round the room with a speed of about six feet a second or so, doing figures of eight round the heads of anybody there but not touching them. • ... The other kind, the attached balls, are much more dangerous to life. They heat up the things to which they attach themselves. They can seriously burn people and may produce fatal effects. These balls are generally dazzlingly bright and either blue or white in colour. They prefer good to less good conductors and make for their highest points. They have been seen rolling along

a horizontal conductor like the rain-gutter on the roof of a house or telephone or high-power lines. They frequently do damage to the thing they have struck. A floating ball may suddenly make a line for a conductor, sit still upon it for a short time and then vanish quietly or with an explosion. When the reverse occurs the ball on becoming free often makes m the direction of a cloud and sometimes disappears before it gets there.