Dr. Nikola Tesla, the master of ball lightning, is a hero of heros.

Watch the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7w9FUI9esU&feature=related

Read the following:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/forgottenfutures/tesla/tesla.htm

Tesla writes in his notes in January of 1900 at Colorado Springs his initial understanding of ball lightning.  Later in his career he develops ball lightning to the point where he can create such a phenomenon with the snap of his fingers and cause its demise just as quickly. 

The following passage is Tesla’s own words: 

      “When the action is very energetic, owing to the power of the streamer and other causes, the luminous portion of the same becomes a veritable “fireball.”  This observation which, to my greatest astonishment, I have frequently observed in experiments with this apparatus, shows now clearly how “fireballs” are produced in lightning discharges and their nature is quite plain.  I have heretofore always been inclined to believe this phenomenon to be merely a visual impression, similar to one which is experienced upon a violent blow to the eye, or some part of the head , or the spine, or which follows upon a sudden and very intense manifestation of light most generally.  Although the vision of a moving ball of great luminosity is experienced only in rarest instances, the person as a rule seeing luminous spots, “stars” or flaming tongues.

   "With the present experiences I am satisfied that the phenomenon of the “fireball” is produced by the sudden heating, to high incandescence, of a  mass of air or other gas as the case may be, by the passage of a powerful discharge.  There are many ways or less plausible in which a mass of air might be thus affected by the spark discharge, but I hold the following explanation of the mode of production of the “ball” as being , most likely of all others which I have considered, the true one.  When sudden very powerful discharges pass through the air, the tremendous expansion of some portions of the latter and subsequent rapid cooling and condensation gives rise to the creation of a partial vacua in the places of greatest development of heat.  These vacuous spaces owing to the properties of the gas, are most likely to assume the shape of hollow spheres when, upon cooling the air from all around rushes into fill the “cavity” created by the explosive dialation and subsequent contraction.   Suppose now that this result would have been produced by one spark or streamer discharge and that now a second discharge and possibly many more, follows in the path of the first.  What will happen?  Before answering the question we must remember that, contrary to existing  notions, the currents passing through the air have the strength of many hundreds and even thousands of amperes.

    "It was a revelation to myself to find that, even with the apparatus used in these experiments, as single powerful streamer, breaking out from a well insulated terminal may easily convey a current of several hundred amperes!  The general impression, if I am not mistaken, is that the current in such a streamer is small but this belief is due to the comparative unfamiliarity of the electrician with such apparatus as I am now using.  As a matter of fact it is quite easy to consume in such streamers as are illustrated in these photographs most of the energy developed by the apparatus and the current conveyed through the air may be, but suitable provisions, made as strong as those circulating in the wire or coil itself which produces them.  No wonder then that a small mass of air is “exploded” with an effect similar to that of a bombshell, as noted in many lightning discharges.  

      "But to return to the explanation of the “fireball,” let us now assume that such a powerful streamer or spark discharge, it its passage through the air, happens to come upon a vacuous sphere or space  formed in the manner described.  This space, containing gas highly rarefied, may be just in the act of contracting, at any rate the intense current, passing through the rarified gas suddenly raises the same to an extremely high temperature all the higher as the mass of the gas is very small.  But although the gas may have been brought to vivid incandescence, yet its pressure may not be very great.  If, upon the sudden passage of the discharge, the pressure of the heated air exceeds that of the air around, the luminous ball or space will expand, but most generally it may not do so.  For assume, for instance, that the air in the “vacuous” space was at one hundredth say, of its normal pressure, which might be the case, then, since the pressure in the space would be as the absolute temperature of the gas within, it would require a temperature which seems scarcely realizable, to raise the pressure of the rarified gas to the normal air pressure.  It is therefore reasonable to expect that despite the high incandescence of the rarified air, the space filled with the same will continue to contract, and here an important consideration presents itself.  When as before explained, the vacuous space was formed, the spark or streamer passed through the air, disruptively, therefore the path was necessarily very thin, threadlike and the minute quantity of air which served as the conductor for the current was expanded with explosive violence to many thousand times it original volume.  Owing to the fact, however, that the quantity of matter through which the current was conveyed was small, a great facility was offered for giving off the heat so that the highly expanded gas- owing to its expansion and to radiation and convection of heat – cooled instantly. 

       "But how is it when the second discharge and possibly many subsequent ones pass through the rarefied gas?   These discharges find the gas already expanded and in a condition to take up much more energy by reason of the properties it acquires through rarefaction.  Evidently, the energy consumption in any given part of the path of the streamer or spark discharge is, under otherwise the same conditions, proportionate to the resistance of the part of the path; and since, after the gas has once broken down the resistance of other parts of the path of the discharge is much smaller than that including the vacuous space, a comparatively very great energy consumption must necessarily take place in this portion of the current path.  Here then is a mass of gas heated to high incandescence suddenly but not, as before, in a condition to give up heat rapidly.  It cannot cool down rapidly by expansion as when the vacuous space was being formed, nor can it give off much heat by convection.  To some extent even radiation is diminished.  On the contrary, despite the high temperature, it is compelled to confinement in a limited space which is continuously shrinking instead of expanding.  All these cause cooperate in maintaining for a comparatively long period of time, the gas confined in this space at an elevated temperature in a state of high incandescence, in the case under consideration.  Thus it is that the phenomenon of the “ball” is produced and the same made to persist for a perceptible fraction or interval of time.  As might be expected, the incandescent mass of gas in a medium violently agitated, could not possibly remain in the same place but will be, as a rule, carried, in some direction or other, by the currents of the air.  Upon little reflection however, we are led to the conclusion that the ball or incandescent mass, of whatever shape it be, will always move from the place where an explosion occurred first, to some place where such an explosion occurred later.  This will be most generally in the path of the discharge from its origin to its end, but not necessarily always so.  For example, it may so happen that a spark produced in some place strikes an object of a material which is evaporated or volatilized with difficulty, and that later, in another place, this same or other spark hits an object of a material more volatile.  If so then the explosion on the later place will sooner occur, and the result will be that the current of air, when both the explosions have subsided, will move from the later to the former locality.  But I believe that, in most cases, the current of air will take the opposite course, as before stated.  In whatever direction the movement may occur, it is plain that the velocity can not be very great.  In fact, all observers concur in the opinion that such a “fireball” moves slowly.  If we interpret the nature of this wonderful phenomenon in this manner we shall find it quite natural that when such a ball encounters in its course an object, as a piece of organic matter for instance, it will raise the same to a high temperature, thus liberating suddenly a great quantity of gas by evaporating or volatilizing the substance with the result of being itself dissipated or “exploded.”  Obviously, also, it may be expected that the conducting mass of the “ball” originated as described, and moving through a highly insulating medium, will be likely to be highly electrified, which accords with many of the observations made. 

    "A better knowledge of this phenomenon will be obtained by following up experiments with still more powerful apparatus which is in a large measure already settled upon and will be constructed as soon as time and means will permit.  There may be a way, however, of intensifying in this respect, the action of the present machine.  A very important matter is to use better means of photographing the streamers exhibiting these phenomena.  Much more sensitive plates ought to be prepared and experimented with.  The coloring of the films before suggested might also be helpful in leading up to some valuable observation.  It being a fact that this phenomenon may now be artificially produced; it will not be difficult to learn more of its nature.  Photography will be, of course, the best means to investigate it and the first efforts ought to be in this direction.  With the present plates, although the “balls” produced with the apparatus experimented with are probably up to 1 ½ “ diameter and possibly more, they leave only a small dark spot on the plate, only the nucleus or central portion impressing itself.”