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Re: Fw: Ball lightning....a confession

Hello Rob and All,
I'll hop in on this one for a minute.  I'm packing for a 5-7 day trip to
Gold Basin with the regular guys so I'll be brief.

About 12 years ago, I had a neighbor friend who was talking on the
telephone during a very intense thunder and lightning storm.  She was in
the kitchen and using a desk type phone that plugged into the wall about
six feet from where the base of the phone sat on the metallic rangetop.
She heard a loud humming noise coming from the wall and as she looked in
that direction, a large blue ball of electricity popped out of the wall.
She told me it was about the size of a basketball with a very definite
shape and appeared to be "churning" internally. It followed the phone cord
as it rolled back and forth across her countertop for 30 seconds or so.  It
stayed atop the phone cord the entire time until suddenly, it rolled onto
the metallic rangetop(grounded) and exploded.  The base of the phone was
melted to the rangetop and bit of molten plastic we thrown about the entire
room.  I saw the results the next day and noticed there were no scorch
marks on the formica countertop, but even the metal components of the phone
had been melted or burned.  Now, I don't know if this qualifies as "ball
lightning" but it had to be something similar.  There we several reports of
lightning hits in the same area that same evening.
I'm sure there are many natural phenomenon that we haven't witnessed on a
regular enough basis to be able to make a scientific judgement that we will
all accept.  Ball lightning?  Hell, I believe the Arizona Diamondbacks are
going to win the World Series!

Goodbye for a Week,

John



At 08:52 PM 10/7/99 EDT, FERNLEA4@aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 08/10/99 00:42:46 GMT, you write:
>
><< Thank you, Rob...... and, wake up Ryan!  This is soooo typical!  "I have
> never seen it, so logically therefore,...it doesn't exist."  Right?  Well, I
> have never seen Cleopatra....and I cannot reproduce her in a lab!  She too,
> I'm told was quite rare!  Can you prove her? >>
>
>Thanks for the kind words Bruce, but I think you've mixed me up with Ryan. 
>I'm being the sceptic in this one.....too many years studying electronics 
>professionally and the effects of lightning as a pastime has turned me
into a 
>"doubter". I'm not saying that it doesn't exist, just that there is no basis 
>for it to exist :-)
>
>Cheers,
>Rob.
>
>http://hometown.aol.com/fernlea4/forsale.html
>Fernlea Meteorites,
>Milton of Balgonie, Fife. KY7 6PY
>Scotland. UK.
>Tel: +44-(0)1592-751563
>Fax: +44-(0)1592-751060
>Email: FERNLEA4@aol.com
>
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