Large troop of warriors ancient rome was on a night hike. A storm was coming. And suddenly hundreds of bluish lights appeared above the detachment. It was the tips of the spears of the warriors that lit up. It seemed that the iron spears of the soldiers were burning without burning!

In those days, no one knew the nature of the amazing phenomenon, and the soldiers decided that such a radiance on the spears portends their victory. Then this phenomenon was called the fires of Castor and Pollux - after the mythological twin heroes. And later renamed the lights of Elmo - by the name of the church of St. Elmo in Italy, where they appeared.

Especially often such lights were observed on the masts of ships. The Roman philosopher and writer Lucius Seneca said that during a thunderstorm, "the stars seem to descend from the sky and sit on the masts of ships." Among the many stories about this, the testimony of the captain of an English sailing ship is interesting.

It happened in 1695, in the Mediterranean Sea, near the Balearic Islands, during a thunderstorm. Fearing a storm, the captain ordered the sails to be lowered. And then the sailors saw more than thirty Elm's lights in different places on the ship. On the weather vane of a large mast, the fire reached more than half a meter in height. The captain sent a sailor with orders to take him down. Rising upstairs, he shouted that the fire hissed like a rocket from wet powder. He was ordered to remove it along with the weather vane and bring it down. But as soon as the sailor removed the weather vane, the fire jumped to the end of the mast, from where it was impossible to remove it.

An even more impressive picture was seen in 1902 by the sailors of the Moravia steamer. While off the Cape Verde Islands, Captain Simpson wrote in the ship's log: “Lightning blazed in the sea for an hour. The steel ropes, the tops of the masts, the knuckles, the knuckles of the cargo booms - everything shone. It seemed that lighted lamps were hung on the quarter quarters every four feet, and bright lights shone at the ends of the masts and nocrays. The glow was accompanied by an unusual noise:

“It was as if myriads of cicadas settled in a rig, or deadwood and dry grass burned with a crackle ...”

The fires of St. Elmo are varied. They come in the form of a uniform glow, in the form of separate flickering lights, torches. Sometimes they are so similar to flames that they rush to extinguish them.

The American meteorologist Humphrey, who observed the Elmo fires on his ranch, testifies: this natural phenomenon, "turning every bull into a monster with fiery horns, gives the impression of something supernatural." This is said by a person who, by his very position, is not capable, it would seem, of being surprised at such things, but must accept them without unnecessary emotions, relying only on common sense.

It can be safely asserted that even today, despite the dominance - far, though not universal - of the natural-scientific worldview, there will be people who, if they were in the position of Humphrey, would see something beyond reason in the fiery bull horns. There is nothing to say about the Middle Ages: then, most likely, the machinations of Satan would be seen in the same horns.

Corona discharge, electric corona, a type of glow discharge that occurs with a pronounced inhomogeneity electric field near one or both electrodes. Similar fields are formed at electrodes with a very large curvature of the surface (points, thin wires). During a corona discharge, these electrodes are surrounded by a characteristic glow, also called a corona, or corona layer.

The non-luminous (“dark”) region of the interelectrode space adjacent to the corona is called the outer zone. Corona often appears on tall, pointed objects (St. Elmo's lights), around power lines, etc. Corona discharge can occur at various gas pressures in the discharge gap, but it manifests itself most clearly at pressures not lower than atmospheric.

The appearance of a corona discharge is explained by an ion avalanche. There are always a certain number of ions and electrons in a gas, arising from random causes. However, their number is so small that the gas practically does not conduct electricity.

At a sufficiently high field strength, the kinetic energy accumulated by the ion in the interval between two collisions can become sufficient to ionize a neutral molecule during the collision. As a result, a new negative electron and a positively charged residue, an ion, are formed.

When a free electron collides with a neutral molecule, it splits it into an electron and a free positive ion. Electrons, upon further collision with neutral molecules, again split them into electrons and free positive ions, and so on.

Such an ionization process is called impact ionization, and the work that needs to be expended to produce an electron detachment from an atom is called ionization work. The work of ionization depends on the structure of the atom and is therefore different for different gases.

The electrons and ions formed under the influence of impact ionization increase the number of charges in the gas, and in turn they are set in motion under the action of an electric field and can produce impact ionization of new atoms. Thus, the process amplifies itself, and the ionization in the gas quickly reaches a very high value. The phenomenon is similar to an avalanche, so this process was called an ion avalanche.

Let us stretch a metal wire ab, having a diameter of a few tenths of a millimeter, on two high insulating supports, and connect it to the negative pole of a generator giving a voltage of several thousand volts. We will take the second pole of the generator to the Earth. You get a kind of capacitor, the plates of which are the wire and the walls of the room, which, of course, communicate with the Earth.

The field in this capacitor is very non-uniform, and its intensity near a thin wire is very high. By gradually increasing the voltage and observing the wire in the dark, one can notice that at a known voltage, a weak glow (crown) appears near the wire, covering the wire from all sides; it is accompanied by a hissing sound and a slight crackle.

If a sensitive galvanometer is connected between the wire and the source, then with the appearance of a glow, the galvanometer shows a noticeable current flowing from the generator along the wires to the wire and from it through the air of the room to the walls, between the wire and the walls is transferred by ions formed in the room due to impact ionization.

Thus, the glow of the air and the appearance of a current indicate a strong ionization of the air under the action of an electric field. Corona discharge can occur not only near the wire, but also near the tip and in general near any electrodes, near which a very strong inhomogeneous field is formed.

Application of corona discharge

Electric cleaning of gases (electrostatic precipitators). A vessel filled with smoke suddenly becomes completely transparent if sharp metal electrodes are introduced into it, connected to electrical machine, and all solid and liquid particles will be deposited on the electrodes. The explanation of the experience is as follows: as soon as the corona is ignited, the air inside the tube is strongly ionized. Gas ions stick to dust particles and charge them. Since a strong electric field acts inside the tube, the charged dust particles move under the action of the field to the electrodes, where they settle.

Elementary particle counters

The Geiger-Muller elementary particle counter consists of a small metal cylinder equipped with a window covered with foil and a thin metal wire stretched along the axis of the cylinder and insulated from it. The counter is connected to a circuit containing a current source, the voltage of which is equal to several thousand volts. The voltage is chosen necessary for the appearance of a corona discharge inside the counter.

When a fast moving electron enters the counter, the latter ionizes the gas molecules inside the counter, causing the voltage required to ignite the corona to decrease somewhat. A discharge occurs in the counter, and a weak short-term current appears in the circuit. To detect it, a very large resistance (several megaohms) is introduced into the circuit and a sensitive electrometer is connected in parallel with it. Each time a fast electron hits the inside of the counter, the sheets of the electrometer will bow.

Such counters make it possible to register not only fast electrons, but in general any charged, rapidly moving particles capable of producing ionization by means of collisions. Modern counters can easily detect even a single particle hitting them and therefore make it possible to verify with complete certainty and very great clarity that elementary charged particles really exist in nature.

lightning rod

It is estimated that in the atmosphere the globe about 1800 thunderstorms occur simultaneously, which give an average of about 100 lightning per second. And although the probability of being struck by lightning of any individual person is negligible, nevertheless, lightning causes a lot of harm. Suffice it to point out that at present about half of all accidents in large power lines are caused by lightning. Therefore, lightning protection is an important task.

Lomonosov and Franklin not only explained the electrical nature of lightning, but also pointed out how to build a lightning rod that protects against a lightning strike. A lightning rod is a long wire, the upper end of which is sharpened and strengthened above the high point protected building. The lower end of the wire is connected to a metal sheet, and the sheet is buried in the ground at the level of soil water.

During a thunderstorm, large induced charges appear on the Earth and a large electric field appears near the Earth's surface. Its intensity is very high near sharp conductors, and therefore a corona discharge is ignited at the end of the lightning rod. As a result, induced charges cannot accumulate on the building and lightning does not occur. In those cases when lightning still occurs (and such cases are very rare), it strikes the lightning rod and the charges go to the Earth without harming the building.

In some cases, the corona discharge from the lightning rod is so strong that a clearly visible glow appears at the tip. Such a glow sometimes appears near other pointed objects, for example, at the ends of ship masts, sharp treetops, etc. This phenomenon was noticed several centuries ago and caused the superstitious horror of navigators who did not understand its true essence.

Hello. In this episode of TranslatorsCafe.com, we're going to talk about electric charge. We will look at examples of static electricity and the history of its study. We will talk about how lightning is formed. We will also discuss the use of static electricity in engineering and medicine and conclude our story with a description of the principles of measuring electric charge and voltage and the instruments that are used for this. Surprisingly, we are exposed to static electricity on a daily basis - when petting our beloved cat, combing our hair or pulling on a synthetic sweater. So we unwittingly become generators of static electricity. We literally bathe in it, because we live in a strong electrostatic field of the Earth. This field arises due to the fact that it is surrounded by the ionosphere, the upper layer of the atmosphere, the layer that is conductive. The ionosphere was formed under the influence of cosmic radiation, mainly from the Sun, and has its own charge. While doing everyday things like heating food, we don’t think at all that we are using static electricity by turning the gas supply valve on an auto-ignition burner or bringing an electric lighter to it. Electric charge is scalar, which determines the ability of the body to be a source of electromagnetic fields and to take part in electromagnetic interaction. The unit of charge in the SI system is the pendant (C). 1 pendant represents electric charge passing through the cross section of the conductor at a current strength of 1 A in a time of 1 s. 1 pendant is equivalent to approximately 6.242×10^18 e (e is the proton charge). The electron charge is 1.6021892(46) 10^–19 C. Such a charge is called an elementary electric charge, that is, the minimum charge possessed by charged elementary particles. From childhood, we are instinctively afraid of thunder, although it is absolutely safe in itself - it is simply an acoustic consequence of a formidable lightning strike, which is caused by atmospheric static electricity. Sailors of the times of the sailing fleet fell into awe, watching the lights of St. Elmo on their masts, which are also a manifestation of atmospheric static electricity. People endowed the supreme gods of ancient religions with an inalienable attribute in the form of lightning, whether it be the Greek Zeus, the Roman Jupiter, the Scandinavian Thor or the Russian Perun. Centuries have passed since people first began to be interested in electricity, and sometimes we don’t even suspect that scientists, having drawn profound conclusions from the study of static electricity, are saving us from the horrors of fires and explosions. We tamed electrostatics by aiming lightning rods into the sky and equipping fuel trucks with grounding devices that allow electrostatic charges to safely escape into the ground. And, nevertheless, static electricity continues to misbehave, interfering with the reception of radio signals - after all, up to 2000 thunderstorms are raging on Earth at the same time, which generate up to 50 lightning discharges every second. People have been studying static electricity since time immemorial. We owe even the term "electron" to the ancient Greeks, although they meant something different by this - that's what they called amber, which was perfectly electrified by friction. Unfortunately, the science of static electricity has not been without casualties - a Russian scientist of German origin, Georg Wilhelm Richman, was killed during an experiment by a lightning discharge, which is the most formidable manifestation of atmospheric static electricity. In the first approximation, the mechanism of formation of charges of a thundercloud is in many respects similar to the mechanism of electrification of a comb - in it, electrification by friction occurs in exactly the same way. Ice particles, formed from small droplets of water, cooled due to the transfer of ascending air currents to the upper, colder part of the cloud, collide with each other. Larger pieces of ice are charged negatively, while smaller ones are positively charged. Due to the difference in weight, the redistribution of ice floes in the cloud occurs: large, heavier ones sink to the bottom of the cloud, and lighter, smaller ice floes gather in the upper part of the thundercloud. Although the entire cloud as a whole remains neutral, the lower part of the cloud receives a negative charge, while the upper part receives a positive charge. Like an electrified comb that attracts balloon due to the induction on its side closest to the comb of the opposite charge, the thundercloud induces a positive charge on the surface of the Earth. As the thundercloud develops, the charges increase, while the field strength between them increases, and when the field strength exceeds the critical value for these weather conditions, an electrical breakdown of the air occurs - a lightning discharge. Mankind is indebted to Benjamin Franklin for the invention of a lightning rod (it would be more accurate to call it a lightning rod), which forever saved the population of the Earth from fires caused by lightning entering buildings. By the way, Franklin did not patent his invention, making it available to all mankind. Lightning did not always bring only destruction - the Ural miners determined the location of iron and copper ores precisely by the frequency of lightning strikes at certain points in the area. Among the scientists who devoted their time to studying the phenomena of electrostatics, it is necessary to mention the Englishman Michael Faraday, later one of the founders of electrodynamics, and the Dutchman Peter van Muschenbroek, the inventor of the prototype of the electric capacitor - the famous Leyden jar. Watching DTM, IndyCar or Formula 1 races, we do not even suspect that mechanics are calling pilots to change tires to rain, based on weather radar data. And these data, in turn, are based precisely on the electrical characteristics of the approaching thunderclouds. Electrostatic electricity is our friend and enemy at the same time: radio engineers dislike it, pulling on grounding bracelets when repairing burnt circuit boards as a result of a nearby lightning strike. In this case, as a rule, the input stages of the equipment fail. With faulty grounding equipment, it can cause severe man-made disasters with tragic consequences - fires and explosions of entire factories. However, static electricity comes to the rescue of people with acute heart failure caused by chaotic convulsive contractions of the patient's heart. Its normal operation is restored by passing a small electrostatic discharge using a device called a defibrillator. Such devices can be seen in places where there are a lot of people. The scene of the return of the patient from the other world with the help of a defibrillator is a kind of classic for a movie of a certain genre. It should be noted, however, that movies traditionally show a monitor with no heartbeat signal and an ominous straight line, although in fact, the use of a defibrillator, as a rule, does not help if the patient's heart has completely stopped. It would be useful to recall the need for metallization of aircraft to protect against static electricity, that is, the connection of all metal parts of the aircraft, including the engine, into one electrically integral structure. At the tips of the entire tail of the aircraft, static dischargers are installed to drain static electricity that accumulates during flight due to air friction against the aircraft body. These measures are necessary to protect against interference caused by the discharge of static electricity and to ensure the reliable operation of on-board electronic equipment. And most importantly, scientists have come to the conclusion that we probably owe the appearance of life on Earth to static electricity, or rather its discharges in the form of lightning. During experiments in the middle of the last century, with the passage of electrical discharges through mixture of gases, close in composition of gases to the primary composition of the Earth's atmosphere, one of the amino acids was obtained, which is the "brick" of our life. To tame electrostatics, it is very important to know the potential difference or electrical voltage, for the measurement of which instruments called voltmeters were invented. The 19th-century Italian scientist Alessandro Volta introduced the concept of electrical voltage, after whom this unit is named. At one time, galvanometers were used to measure electrostatic voltage, named after Volta's compatriot Luigi Galvani. Unfortunately, these devices were of the electrodynamic type and introduced distortions into the measurements. Scientists began to systematically study the nature of electrostatics from the time of the work of the 18th century French scientist Charles Augustin de Coulomb. In particular, he introduced the concept of electric charge and discovered the law of interaction of charges. The unit for measuring the amount of electricity, the coulomb, is named after him. True, for the sake of historical justice, it should be noted that years earlier the English scientist Lord Henry Cavendish was engaged in this; unfortunately, he wrote to the table and his works were published by the heirs only 100 years later. The work of predecessors devoted to the laws of electrical interactions enabled the physicists George Green, Carl Friedrich Gauss and Simeon Denis Poisson to create a mathematically elegant theory that we still use today. The main principle in electrostatics is the postulate of the electron - elementary particle, which is part of any atom and is easily separated from it under the influence of external forces. In addition, there are postulates about the repulsion of like charges and the attraction of unlike charges. The first measuring device was the simplest electroscope invented by Coulomb - two sheets of electrically conductive foil placed in a glass container. Since then, measuring instruments have evolved significantly - and now they can measure the difference in units of nanocoulombs. With the help of extremely precise physical instruments, the Russian scientist Abram Ioffe and the American physicist Robert Andrews Milliken, independently of each other and almost at the same time, managed to measure the electric charge of the electron. Nowadays, with the development of digital technologies, ultra-sensitive and high-precision devices with unique characteristics have appeared, which, due to the high input resistance, almost do not introduce distortions into measurements. In addition to measuring voltage, such devices allow you to measure other important characteristics of electrical circuits, such as ohmic resistance and flowing current in a wide measurement range. The most advanced instruments, called multimeters or, in professional jargon, testers, because of their versatility, can also measure AC frequency, capacitor capacitance and test transistors and even measure temperature. As a rule, modern devices have built-in protection that does not allow the device to be damaged if used incorrectly. They are compact, easy to handle and safe to operate - each one goes through a series of precision tests, heavy duty tests and deserves a safety certification. Thank you for your attention! If you liked this video, please don't forget to subscribe to our channel!

Sometimes in thundery weather one can observe an interesting natural phenomenon: a bright glow appears on the tops of spiers, towers and even trunks of individual trees. This interesting phenomenon has long been known to sailors. The ancient Romans called it the fires of Pollux and Castor (mythological twins). When there is a thunderstorm on the sea, such lights usually appear not at the top of the masts. The Roman historian Lucius Seneca wrote in this occasion: "It seems that the stars descend from the sky and sit on the masts of ships."

In medieval Europe, the lights on the masts began to be associated with the name of St. Elmo. In Christian tradition, he was considered the patron saint of sailors. Here is what sailors wrote about mysterious fires in the 17th century: “A thunderstorm began and a fire appeared on the weather vane of a large mast, reaching a height of 1.5 meters. The captain ordered the sailor to put it out. He climbed up and shouted that the fire was hissing like raw gunpowder. They shouted to the sailor to take it down along with the weather vane and bring it down. But the fire jumped to the end of the mast, and it became impossible to get to it.

The fires of St. Elmo can be seen not only in the sea. American farmers have repeatedly told how, during a thunderstorm, the horns of cows on the ranch glowed. An unprepared person may associate such a phenomenon with something supernatural.

How are the fires of St. Elmo created?

Modern physics knows almost everything about the fires of St. Elmo. These are electric corona discharges, and the essence of this phenomenon is explained quite simply: any gas has a certain amount of charged particles or ions. They arise due to the detachment of electrons from atoms. The number of such ions under normal conditions is negligible, so the gas does not conduct electricity. But during a thunderstorm, tension electromagnetic field increases sharply.

As a result, gas ions begin to move more intensively, as they receive additional energy. They begin to bombard neutral gas molecules, and they break up into positively and negatively charged particles. This process is called impact ionization. It goes like an avalanche, and as a result of this, the gas has the ability to conduct electricity.

This phenomenon was first studied by the Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla. He proved that in an alternating electromagnetic field, the intensity is more intense around sharp protrusions of buildings and objects. It is in such places that regions of ionized gas arise. Outwardly, they look like crowns. Hence the name - corona discharge.

The effect of impact ionization is used in Geiger counters, that is, it measures the level of radiation with its help. And corona discharges obediently serve people in laser printers and copiers.

The fires of St. Elmo are directly related to the attempt to photograph the human aura. What is an aura? These are the seven energy layers surrounding the human body. The first is associated with pleasure and pain, the second with emotions, the third with thinking. The fourth is associated with the energy of love, the fifth with the human will, the sixth with the manifestation of divine love, and the seventh with the higher mind.

Official science denies the aura. However, there are people who offer to photograph the aura and determine possible health problems from the picture. The possibility of photographing the aura was discussed as a result of the research of the Kirlian spouses. They created a kind of laboratory at home, where they used a resonant transformer as a source of high-voltage voltage.

Initially, it was only about the photographic fixation of corona discharges. However, soon everyone was talking about Kirlian effect. It was said that the luminosity of the tips of human fingers noticeably increases after reading the prayer. They also wrote that if the tip is cut off from a sheet of paper and the cut sheet is photographed using the Kirlian method, then a luminous intact sheet will be reflected in the photograph.

As for science, it was indifferent to this effect. Physicists have stated that such an effect does not exist in nature. They motivated this by the fact that when a high-frequency field is repeatedly exposed to, say, human skin, its electrical conductivity increases. This happens due to the release of sweat, which contains the ions necessary for electrical conductivity. That's the whole effect.

Kirlian effect, photo #1 (left) and photo #2

From this it is clear why the second shot of the glow is brighter. After the first photographing, we tried not to read prayers, but to utter abusive expressions. The second photo still turned out brighter, as if good words were spoken.

If we talk about the glow of the entire sheet after cutting off part of it, then the experts figured it out very quickly. It turned out that the sheet was placed on the same substrate that was before. And it contained those substances that the leaf managed to isolate during the first study. It was enough to wipe the substrate with alcohol or put a clean sheet of paper on it, as the effect disappeared.

But what about the human aura? Does she exist or not? It depends on what is meant by this term. Human skin releases a wide variety of substances. The electrical conductivity of the skin of a healthy and sick person differs markedly. Almost every protein molecule that is part of the cells of living organisms carries positive and negative charges on its surface. Therefore, any organism creates a weak electric field. This aura is very real.

Ancient artists decorated the heads of saints on icons with halos. They were considered a symbolic image of holiness. It is difficult to argue anything here, since a person who has devoted himself to charitable deeds really, as it were, glows from within.

On the other hand, everyone can see a halo around their head. For this you need early morning stand on the dewy grass with your back to the sun and look at the shadow from your head. There will be a slight glow around it. This is not a sign of holiness at all, but only the optical effect of the reflection of sunlight from dew drops..

Traditionally, on Saturdays, we publish answers to the quiz for you in the Q&A format. Our questions range from simple to complex. The quiz is very interesting and quite popular, but we just help you test your knowledge and make sure that you have chosen the correct answer out of the four proposed. And we have another question in the quiz - Where do St. Elmo's fires often appear?

• A. on cave stalactites
• B. on ship masts
• C. at the bottom of the Mariana Trench
• D. on the surface of the moon

The correct answer is B. On the masts of ships

The fires of St. Elmo are a natural phenomenon that can be observed during a thunderstorm. When negatively or positively charged particles accumulate at the base of a cloud, they contribute to the creation of an opposite charge on the surface of the earth. Streams of charged particles form between the earth and clouds, and when they begin to move at high speed, bright flashes of lightning appear in the sky.

The object of worship for all sailors was the lights, named after the Catholic Saint Elmo, the patron saint of sailors. The thing is that it was the sailors who first drew attention to the special glow of the sharp masts and other parts of their ship, which occurred before or during a thunderstorm. In this case, it was believed that Saint Elmo descended to protect the ship from adversity and trouble at sea.

Legend connects the apparition with Saint Elmo (or Erasmus), the patron saint of sailors in the Mediterranean, who is said to have died at sea during a violent storm. Before his death, he promised the sailors that he would certainly appear to them in one form or another to tell them whether they were destined to be saved. Soon after this, a strange glow appeared on the mast, which they perceived as the appearance of either the saint himself or a sign sent by him in fulfillment of his promise.

The ancient pagans - Greeks and Romans - believed that these were the appearances of the divine twins Castor and Pollux and called them Helen in honor of their sister.

Tongues of blue flame, fireworks with a bouquet of sparks, arising without man-made action of a person, fascinated the eye. He frightened with his inexplicable mysticism, excited the imagination. The beauty of a natural phenomenon called St. Elmo's Fire has long been found scientific explanation, but still interested, intriguing humanity.

What are Saint Elmo's fires

A rare natural phenomenon observed at specific natural conditions near the tops of sharp objects. They are born under the influence of the forces of natural electricity, when the electric field strength increases in places with sharp objects.

This happens during a thunderstorm, and in winter among large snowstorms. The glow that appears next to the tip is called Elmo's fire. For the first time, versions of their connection with atmospheric electricity appeared in the 18th century based on the results of the experiments of Benjamin Franklin.

Historical information

The fires of St. Elmo, a natural phenomenon with a mystical flame that did not cause burns, were known in antiquity. They were called the lights of "Castor and Pollux" (the name of the mythological twins) in antiquity. The ancient written sources about the journey of Columbus, Magellan, Darwin tell about the appearance of mysterious glows. The information of the Middle Ages confirms their appearance on the spire of St. Elmo in Germany, which became one of the versions of the appearance of the name. Lights were seen high in the mountains, on the tops of trees, in deserts among sandstorms, during volcanic eruptions, in the open sea.

Lots of things are glowing.

• rocks;
• mast;
• tree tops;
• animal horns, ordinary hair;
• flying planes;
• ordinary rods.

It is assumed that the non-burning biblical bush on Mount Sinai is the same Elmo fires.

origin of name

The main legend explaining the name of the lights is that Saint Elma was the Catholic patron of sailors. Dying during a thunderstorm on the deck of the ship, he promised the sailors that he would pray for their fate in the next world and warn of any danger at sea. As a warning, he will send dancing lights. Since then, they have become a good sign for sailors. Their appearance spoke of the imminent end of the storm. The fires could not be extinguished, they did not descend to the deck, rising from any fragment of the mast. In the case when fires appeared on the deck or on the body of a person, troubles were to be expected.

Appearance

The fires of St. Elmo have different shapes and shades of glow. Scientifically, they are called corona discharge. The name comes from the type of glow on electrodes of complex shape. It resembles a crown. If a lot of sparks fly out of the tip of the electrode, then the impression of dancing tongues of light is created. Elmo lights can be in the form of a uniform glow, small lights and torches that look like a fire. Their color is determined by the composition of the ionized gas. Oxygen and nitrogen are the substances most contained in the atmosphere. They create a glow of a light, blue hue.

Who is Saint Elm

The Catholic martyr is known under the names of Erasmus, Ermo, Elma of Antioch or Formia. Since ancient times, he was considered the patron saint of sailors in the Mediterranean. The saint's day is celebrated on June 2. His relics are in the temple of Italy.

According to legend, the martyrdom of a Catholic occurred during cruel torture. The killers wound the insides of the deceased on a winch. Until now, it is considered an attribute with which the saint comes to the aid of sailors in trouble. Dancing lights confirm his presence.

Where and to whom the phenomenon occurs

A rare natural phenomenon occurs at the sharp ends of objects at high altitude. This occurs at the moment of formation of an electric field of about 500 V/m. Often this situation happens during thunderstorms, winter snowstorms, sandstorms, volcanic eruptions.

For sailors

Many ships have descriptions of the lights in the ship's logs. famous travelers Magellan, Columbus, Charles Darwin, who served on the ship "Beagle", describe the dance of the "dancing flame".

It is impossible to put out the fire because of the fear of a fire.

During a short dance, a hissing or whistling sound is heard. For the sailors of Columbus, the sight of the lights caused an improvement in mood, hope for a happy outcome of the journey.

Pilots

Most often, Elmo lights are observed by people flying in airplanes. They can appear on the wings, propeller, windshield during the flight through thunderclouds. This is not only a beautiful sight, but also very dangerous phenomenon. The resulting discharges can be very strong and interfere with the equipment being used.

An interesting example is the case of a British liner that fell into a cloud of volcanic ash over the island of Java. The fires surrounded all of the plane's engines and disabled them.

The instruments did not show the approach of a thunderstorm, did not record any violations in the operation of the aircraft's systems.

The experience and efforts of the pilots helped to avoid an accident and land the liner at the Jakarta airport.

Climbers

Conquering mountain peaks, climbers meet with many difficulties and mysteries of nature. It often happens that ice axes, fingers, animal horns, trees begin to ignite with unusual torches of flame. This is not a rainbow, a halo or aurora borealis, but Elmo's lights. There are many rumors and legends about them.

And the inhabitants of the settlements in the Swiss Alps used the lights to determine the weather for the near future. To do this, they fastened a spear with a wooden handle on the wall of the house. The guard of ancient castles periodically brought a halberd to him. If there were sparks, he would ring a bell to warn of an approaching thunderstorm.

Scientific explanation of lights

Physicists have long proven that the creator of Elmo's lights is atmospheric electricity. This assumption was first made by Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century when conducting experiments with electric discharges. Before a thunderstorm, many ionized elements appear in the atmosphere, creating an electromagnetic field. Its voltage grows rapidly and creates conditions for the emergence of an energy flow of particles in the form of an avalanche. Their maximum concentration appears next to sharp objects in the form of luminous ionized plasma. It does not move like lightning, but ignites in a specific place.

Causes

During a thunderstorm, charged particles (positive or negative) accumulate at the bases of clouds. The earth has elements of opposite charge. The resulting flows create conditions for the birth of lightning. The lightning rod creates a channel for the passage of excess charge from the atmosphere. The same function is performed by sharp objects for "draining" of atmospheric electricity, forming flashes.

corona discharge

A glow, or corona, discharge in the atmosphere occurs in the presence of an electric field with a large inhomogeneous potential. The highest value of inhomogeneity is located near sharp objects located at a certain height. During a thunderstorm (tornado movement), conditions are formed for the formation of an ion avalanche that gives rise to a blue glow. The reason for the formation of a stream of ions is sand dust, volcanic ash, any phenomena that ionize the air.

The main condition for the initiation of a discharge near the sharp end of the electrode is the presence of an electric field with a higher intensity than on the path between the electrodes, which forms the potential difference.

How to see the glow at home

A similar discharge is easy to obtain at home. To do this, remove synthetic clothing and touch it with the tip of a needle. At its end, blue lights will be visible and a characteristic crackle will be heard. The same effect is formed when the needle approaches the kinescope of the TV.

Lights in popular culture

Gone are the inexplicable myths, legends associated with an unusual natural phenomenon. Man has learned to use and manage them for his own purposes. Artificially created corona discharge is used in neon, halogen, fluorescent lamps. It is used to destroy harmful dust particles as an electrostatic filter on copiers, laser printers. According to the intensity of the corona discharge, the pressure in the incandescent lamp and the efficiency of its glow are determined.

Experts have found ways to combat the harmful effects of corona discharge on power line wires. For this, the wires are split into several separate lines. Depending on the climatic parameters (temperature, humidity), the voltage on the line decreases by a specific value, allowing the formation of a glow corona with minimal dimensions.

Several interesting facts about an amazing natural phenomenon:

1. You should not regret the absence of the beautiful fires of St. Elmo. They damage household appliances, mobile phones, computers. Repairs will cost a lot.
2. The physical nature of cold fire was revealed in the last century.
3. The appearance of a glow around a person's head was associated with his imminent death.
4. The reason for the rare appearance of lights over the flat territory of Russia is associated with the minimum height of a thundercloud above the earth's surface. In our case, it is about 500 m, which is not enough for the formation of an ionized beam flux. In the mountains, the distance is much lower.

Video

The proposed video tells about the amazing glow.