HOW TO CREATE BALL LIGHTNING

Summary

This document describes a method discovered by Robert K. Golka, Jr. to produce ball lightning in a controlled laboratory setting. By creating an electrical short between a heavy copper cable and an aluminum plate immersed in water using high amperage (approx. 10,000 amperes at 15 volts), small fireballs/lightning balls emerge and dance on the water’s surface. Accompanying photographs demonstrate large-scale electrical discharges using a magnifying transmitter setup.

Page 1 - How to Create Ball Lightning

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Robert K. Golka, Jr., Box 676, Brockton, MA 02403 U. S. Air Force, Flight Dynamics Laboratory

At last the discovery of how to produce ball lightning on a command and controlled basis has been discovered by Robert K. Golka, Jr. It took 23 years and thousands of failures to develop the techniques. Similar plasma balls have appeared in dwellings on rare occasions and on commercial and military aircraft during flight.

The type Golka has created are similar to what has come into airplanes during flight and that have appeared in WW-2 submarines during maneuvers. They consist of a liquid metal core or kernel surrounded by a metal vapor boundary layer. It has characteristics very much like a drop of water bouncing and dancing for a few seconds on a hot cast-iron stove. With higher power input to the fireball it can be made to flow and travel higher from a surface or ground area.

What does one need to make ball lightning?

A transformer of 150,000 watts capable of providing approximately 10,000 amperes at 15 volts 60 cycle.
Thick one inch cables of stranded wire leading into a 3 x 4 x 1 foot plastic tank.
Quarter inch thick 4” x 6” aluminum plate to be used as one of the discharge electrodes, the other electrode being the heavy (400 MCM) copper wire with the insulation stripped back 6 inches.

By shorting the cable against the aluminum plate under water, quarter inch fireballs or lightning balls will appear out of the water and dance around on its surface. Of course, protective clothing and goggles are necessary. These lightning balls sometimes dance right out of the tank onto the floor. They seem to be hot to the touch only if you squeeze them. They are a brilliant white color indicating a slow combustion of aluminum. If higher temperatures are reached and different metals are used, the color of the fireballs will be different. It appears that the ball is spinning or the inside kernel is spinning. With the stated ampere and voltage ratios, they have lasted for almost 2 seconds. More power in would increase their lifetimes. Other variations are currently under investigation. The high temperature limits of these fireballs is now being studied.

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Page 2 - Photographic Records

ORIGINAL PAGE BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH

[Inset Text: APRIL 20 1976 DESIGN NEWS] [Photograph of high-voltage electrical discharges produced by a magnifying transmitter]

[Caption below lower photograph]: Outer cage of the magnifying transmitter measures 51 ft. across and resonates at 50 kHz. The elevated extra coil (inner secondary) is 8 ft. 3 in. across and resonates at the first harmonic. The ring of purple corona atop the outer secondary is a one-turn reservoir. A two-turn primary is loosely coupled to the bottom turn.

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