FIRE BALL APPEARS

Evening Star, Issue 22272, 25 February 1936, Page 8

FIRE BALL APPEARS

PHENOMENON DURING THUNDER STORM DAMAGE TO ELECTRICAL APPARATUS Electrical apparatus in a number of bouses in College street, Caversham, was ■ slightly damaged as the result of a peculiar phenomenon which appeared during the course of the week-end thunder storm, a fireball, or ball of lightning, suddenly appearing and exploding outside a house. “ It appeared all of a sudden,” said a resident this morning, “as I was looking through my kitchen window. It was a great, luminous ball of fire, with flames all around it. Its size was about that of three cricket balls. It was coming towards my house when it suddenly exploded with a loud crash, between a concrete wall and a hedge.” Ball lightning is an electrical phenomenon which occurs during thunder storms, and, according to authorities, is as yet unexplained. Forked and sheet lightning are the gigantic analogues of the spark and glow from an electric machine, but nothing resembling the slow-moving, luminous globe described by those who have seen ball lightning has ever been produced artificially.

Ball fire, as it is sometimes called, has been estimated at from a few inches to over a yard in diameter ; and, while not affecting anything that it does not directly touch, it acts like an explosive shell on any solid body in its track, throwing down walls, making Holes several feet deep in the ground, or ploughing long trenches; sometimes disappearing with a loud report, at others gradually getting smaller till it vanishes.

This destructive and dangerous form of lightning is fortunately very rare. It is said to be more frequent in parts of Australia during thunder storms in summer time.

Electricians were called into College street to repair the damage, which, fortunately, was not serious. In one case lightning struck a wireless aerial and damaged the > radio gear inside the house. Several fuses were also blown at the power sub-station.