Text by Sergei Borisov, magazine version
Lights With ninth Elma
Saint Elmo" s lights
Even the Roman philosopher Seneca said that sometimes "stars seem to descend from heaven and sit on the masts of ships."
The ancient Greeks called them the fires of the Dioscuri twin brothers - Castor and Polideucus, the patrons of sailors, and their sister, the beautiful Elena, lit the fires. Later, in the writings of Titus Livius, it was noted that when Lysander's fleet went to sea to fight the Athenians, lights flared up on the masts of the commander's galley, and all the soldiers took this as a good omen.
Much later, the fires of the Dioscuri were called the fires of St. Elmo, because they often appeared on the spiers of St. Elmo's Cathedral in Italy. But no matter what they were called, these lights were always a symbol of hope, their appearance meant that the worst was over.
During the voyage of Christopher Columbus to America, a storm broke out. What happened next, the legend says: “Exhausted by hard work, frightened by lightning and the ferocious ocean, the sailors began to grumble. For all their troubles, they blamed Columbus, who started this crazy voyage, which has no and will not end. Then Columbus ordered everyone to go up on deck and look at the masts. Lights shone at their ends. And the sailors rejoiced, for they realized that Saint Elm was merciful to them, and the voyage would end happily, and everyone would remain alive.
The fires of St. Elmo were also perceived by the companions of Magellan as a good sign. The chronicler of the first round-the-world voyage, the knight Pythagetta, left the following entry in his diary: “During bad weather, we often saw a glow that is called the fires of St. Elmo. One night it appeared to us as a kind of beacon. The lights remained at the top of the mainmast for two hours. In the midst of a fierce storm, this was a great comfort to us. Before disappearing, the glow flashed so brightly that we were delighted and stunned. Someone in his disbelief exclaimed that now we will perish, but at the same moment the wind died down.
In 1622, thousands of "holy fires" littered the Maltese galleys returning to their native island, and 64 years later, the "holy fire" literally captured a French ship heading for Madagascar. Abbé Chausi, who was on board, wrote: “A terrible wind blew, it rained, lightning flashed, all the waves of the sea were in flames. Suddenly I saw the fires of Saint Elmo on the masts of our ship. They were the size of a fist and jumped on the yards, and some went down to the deck. They sparkled and did not burn, because their holiness did not allow them to do evil. They behaved like at home on the ship. They had fun themselves and made us laugh. And this went on until dawn.
And another testimony - the captain of the steamer "Moravia" A. Simpson, relating to "the incident that took place near the Cape Verde Islands" on December 30, 1902: "For an hour, lightning flashed in the sky. The ropes, the mastheads and the yardarms all glowed. It seemed that lit lanterns were hung on all the stays four feet away.
As a rule, the fires of St. Elmo are luminous balls, less often they resemble bunches or tassels, and even more rarely torches. But whatever these lights may look like, they have nothing to do with... fire.
These are electrical discharges that occur when the electric field strength in the atmosphere is high, which most often happens during a thunderstorm. Ordinary lightning is accompanied by deafening thunder, because lightning is a strong and fast electrical discharge. However, under certain conditions, it is not a discharge that occurs, but an outflow of charges. This is the same discharge, but only “quiet”, it is also called a crown, that is, crowning an object like a crown. With such a discharge from various sharp protrusions - the same ship's masts - electric sparks begin to jump out one after another. If there are many sparks and the process lasts more or less long, a radiance arises.
In general, if your yacht suddenly shines like a Christmas tree, do not grab a fire extinguisher. You are lucky - these are the fires of St. Elmo, which always bring good luck to sailors. The only trouble that threatens you is radio interference. But it can be experienced, the spectacle is worth it!
Fireball
Ball- lightning
No one knows what it is - ball lightning. The greatest minds of mankind fought over the solution, trying to create a physical theory of the occurrence and course of this phenomenon, but they were forced to confine themselves to hypotheses that, in the mouth of a simple person, sound like this: “Perhaps ... cannot be ruled out ... if we assume ...” There are more than two hundred such hypotheses today, and there are quite exotic ones among them, such as: “messengers from a parallel world” and “sublimated unity of quasiparticles”. And this despite the fact that it has long been known what ball lightning consists of: nitrogen, oxygen, ozone, water vapor, etc. Perhaps ball lightning is a clot of supercaloric fuel with an energy of up to 1 million J and an explosion power equal to the explosion of several tens of kilograms of TNT. At the same time, the low density of ball lightning allows it to soar in the air, and its own energy source - to move at a very decent speed.
But these are all theories, but practice shows that ball lightning is dangerous for both people and ships, because they often occur above the water surface.
Here is what happened in 1726 to the sloop "Katherine and Mary", according to the report of her captain John Howell: "We were off the coast of Florida. Suddenly, a fireball appeared in the air, which hit our mast and blew it into 1000 pieces. Then he killed one person, wounded another and tried to burn our sails, but he was prevented by a downpour.
In 1749, ball lightning attacked the Montego, the ship of the English Admiral Chambers. Dr. Gregory, who was on the ship, testifies: “About noon, we noticed a large fireball about three miles from the ship. The admiral ordered to change course, but the balloon caught up with us. He was flying forty or fifty yards over the sea. Once above the ship, it exploded with a roar. The top of the mainmast was demolished. Five people on deck were knocked off their feet. The ball left behind a strong smell of sulfur. The Lord has saved us from the devil."
In 1809, the English warship Warren Hastings was attacked by three fireballs at once. Here are the lines from the account of what happened: “One of the balls dived and killed the sailor. His comrade, who rushed to his aid, knocked down the second ball, singing it with flames and leaving severe burns. The third ball killed another person."
Finally, a case from our time. In 1984, ball lightning almost sent the yacht of Wilfred Derry, a resident of Chicago, to the bottom of Lake Erie. She appeared after the rain, as if out of nowhere. They noticed her too late, and when Wilfred tried to start the engine, he could not do it, because the microwave radiation disrupted the electrical system. For a minute or two, the lightning hung over the ship, then dropped a little ... and exploded. A shell-shocked Derry fell to the deck. The explosion damaged his eardrums, and the flash "in a thousand suns" deprived him of his sight. Derry also received thermal burns. Fortunately, he was not alone on board; his wife was sleeping in the cabin. She brought the yacht, whose motor suddenly magically “came to life”, to the shore. Hearing and vision returned to the victim of ball lightning only a few weeks later.
It should be noted that Wilfred Derry was still lucky - both in terms of health and regarding his property. His ship could burst into flames like a candle! But the lightning exploded over the yacht, not on contact with it. The substance of ball lightning has the property, firstly, to crumble into thousands of small fireballs, and secondly, as if to stick to the surface. Then the tree lights up, because of the sharp temperature difference, the glass cracks and the plastic warps. Finally, lightning could burn through the side or glass of the porthole, and explode in the cabin. In short, it could be worse.
Observations show that ball lightning usually moves towards polluted air, such as smoke from a chimney or from a fire. Exhaust gases are also attracted to them, which explains why fireballs sometimes haunt ships.
However, sailing yachts cannot feel safe either, especially those sailing at a decent speed. Behind a fast moving ship, an area of low pressure is formed in warmer air, and this is like a “guiding thread” for ball lightning.
So what to do when meeting with ball lightning? First of all, you must try to avoid a head-on collision, and then you have a choice. Option number 1. You turn off the engine (if it was running), take cover in the cabin, closing the door and batten down the windows, and wait for the intruder to leave you behind, because her life is short. Option number 2. If you are confident in the speed capabilities of your boat, you take to your heels; ball lightning energy reserves are enough for two or three minutes of pursuit, after which it will either explode behind your stern, or, having used up its energy resources, it will rise up and ... disappear. Which is required...
St. Elmo's fires and ball lightning are phenomena with a "+" sign and a "-" sign. Don't be afraid of the first and beware of the second. We have warned you, and whoever is warned is protected.
In the very "temechko"
A lightning strike on a mast can disable a ship. Of particular danger in this case are ungrounded masts passing to the keel - a lightning discharge passes through the mast with almost no resistance and breaks through the keel and skin.
A lightning rod on a mast, one end of which is in contact with water, can be considered reliable protection if there is a sufficiently large transitional area under water with a resistance in the range of 0.5 - 1 ohm. With a small transition area in the water, a “voltage funnel” is formed - a giant potential difference between the end of the wire and the water. This difference can cause the boat to be hit by a second blow that comes out of the water and is stronger than the first, due to the so-called "cascading" effect. Therefore, metal plates made of stainless steel, brass, bronze or copper must be attached to the keel. In general, the more metal parts on the ship that ensure the transfer of charge from the atmosphere to water, the better. True, the abundance of metal often adversely affects radio communications, provoking interference.
The lightning rod is mounted in such a way that it rises approximately 10 cm above the mast. As a lightning rod itself, an insulated copper cable with a cross section of 35 mm2 or an aluminum cable with a cross section of 50 mm2 is usually used. Inside the mast or fixed along it, the lightning rod descends to the deck, passes through it, goes under the floorboards and is fixed on the keel bolts. The negative pole of the battery and the antenna are grounded by the main wire; rudder stock, fuel tanks, engine - side outlets.
It should be borne in mind that even with good lightning protection, lightning can cause trouble. For example, a compass deviation table needs to be corrected after a lightning strike as the ship's magnetism changes.
Saint Elmo's fire - This is a beautiful glow caused by the accumulation of a large electrical discharge during thunderstorms. This phenomenon is mainly observed on ship masts, near aircraft flying through thunderclouds, and sometimes on mountain peaks.
According to the legends of those times, the fires of St. Elmo began to appear after the death of St. Elmo at a time when there was a very strong storm on the sea. Saint Elmo was the patron saint of sailors in the Mediterranean. Shortly before Elm lay down on his deathbed, he promised that he would notify all sailors, giving them signs about whether they would be saved or not. And soon the sailors, who were on the mast of the ship, saw a certain glow, which no one had ever seen, and which was taken as the promised sign.
Seneca said that during a thunderstorm, the stars begin to descend, as it were, from the sky and sit on the ship's masts. In ancient times, Greece and Rome associated this phenomenon with the condescension from heaven of two twins who bore the names Pollux and Castor. Since then, such bright mystical lights have been by no means an evil, but a good sign for every sailor, since it was interpreted that the patron Saint Elmo was nearby, which means that he would not allow trouble to appear. Otherwise, the appearance of a single fire was a bad omen, as strong and shipwreck followed.
It was a happy omen that the fires of St. Elmo could only be seen towards the end of the stormy weather. The lights, unfortunately, sometimes appeared and not with very good intentions. If they descended to the deck part of the ship, then it was believed that the spirit of the deceased was wandering around the ship and returned in order to warn the ship's staff of an imminent misfortune. It happened that such a glow turned out to be over a person, then this “luminous” one should die as soon as possible.
Saint Elmo's fires appear in different forms. They can be seen both as a uniform glow, and as separate flickering lights, and as torches. It happens that such lights can appear to people in the form of flames, so sometimes people run to put them out.
The phenomenon is quite beautiful, so it can fascinate every eyewitness. Some may be afraid of him. But there is nothing wrong with that. For the first time, such lights can really scare away. But if you see them often, you can get used to it. And to associate it with a bad omen is unlikely to succeed.
Such a phenomenon in 1957 was noticed by fishermen on Lake Pleshcheevsky near Pereslavl-Zalessky. 
Explanation of the phenomenon from the point of view of science
There are a huge number of mythological interpretations of this phenomenon. But it can also be explained in terms of scientific research. In 1749, Ben Franklin equated fire with electricity generated in the atmosphere.
According to scientific research, the fires of St. Elmo are a common point discharge, which occurs mainly on single objects. And it appears only when the value of the electric field becomes more than 1000 volts per 1 cm. That is why the lights of St. Elmo appear only in a thunderstorm. During strong thunderstorms, you can see how leaves, grass and animal horns glow. Very often, such a glow is observed near a tornado, during snow storms and squalls. It is at this time that a large amount of electrical discharge accumulates in the clouds and on the earth's surface.
The planet Earth is surrounded by an electric field. Most often, the air has a positive charge, and the earth is negative, which leads to ionization of the air. This creates an electric field. When a "silent" discharge occurs from any sharp protrusions (for example, spiers, towers, masts, trees, poles), from which small electrical sparks jump out, then it is called "corona". If there are a lot of sparks, and the process itself takes place over a longer time, then you can see a radiance of a pale bluish color, which looks like flames.
The ancient Roman philosopher Seneca, subdividing fire into two types - earthly and heavenly, argued that during a thunderstorm "the stars seem to descend from the sky and sit on the masts of ships." But the main difference between heavenly fire and earthly fire is that it does not burn, does not ignite objects and cannot be extinguished with water.
Cohorts of Roman legionnaires, arranging a night bivouac, stuck their spears into the ground, surrounding the camp with a kind of fence. When the weather foreshadowed a night thunderstorm, blue tassels of "heavenly fire" were often lit on the tips of the spears. It was a good sign from heaven: since ancient times, such a glow was called the fires of the Dioscuri, who were considered the heavenly patrons of warriors and sailors.
After 2000 years, in the more enlightened XVII-XVIII centuries, this phenomenon was adapted to warn of a thunderstorm. In many European castles, a spear was installed on a hill. Since the fire of the Dioscuri is not visible during the day, the guard regularly brought a halberd to the tip of the spear: if sparks jumped between them, one should immediately ring the bell, warning of an imminent thunderstorm. Naturally, at that time the phenomenon was no longer called by a pagan name, and since such a glow most often arose on the spiers and crosses of churches, many local names appeared: the fires of St. Nicholas, Claudius, Helena and, finally, St. Elmo.
Depending on what the "heavenly fire" arises on, it can take on different forms: a uniform glow, separate flickering lights, brushes or torches. Sometimes it is so reminiscent of an earthly flame that they tried to extinguish it. There were also other curiosities.
In 1695, a sailing ship was caught in a thunderstorm in the Mediterranean. Fearing a storm, the captain ordered the sails to be lowered. And then, on different parts of the spars of the ship, more than 30 fires of St. Elmo appeared. On the weather vane of the main mast, the fire reached half a meter in height. The captain, apparently having taken a pint of rum before, sent a sailor to the mast to take out the fire. Rising upstairs, he shouted that the fire hissed like an angry cat, and did not want to be filmed. Then the captain ordered to remove it along with the weather vane. But as soon as the sailor touched the weather vane, the fire jumped to the end of the mast, from where it was impossible to remove it.
A little earlier, on June 11, 1686, "Saint Elmo" descended on a French warship. Abbé Chausi, who was on board, left to posterity personal impressions of meeting him. “A terrible wind was blowing,” wrote the abbot, “it was raining, lightning flashed, the whole sea was on fire. Suddenly I saw on all our masts the fires of St. Elmo, which descended to the deck. They were the size of a fist, glowed brightly, jumped and did not burn at all. Everyone smelled sulfur. The wandering lights felt at home on the ship. This went on until dawn."
On December 30, 1902, the Moravia steamer was near the Cape Verde Islands. Captain Simpson, taking over the watch, made an entry in the ship's log with his own hand: “For a whole hour, lightning flashed in the sky. The steel ropes, the tops of the masts, the butts of the yardarms and cargo booms, all shone. There seemed to be lighted lanterns every four feet on every stay. The glow was accompanied by a strange noise: as if myriads of cicadas settled in a rig, or deadwood and dry grass burned with a crackle.
There are fires of St. Elmo and on aircraft. Navigator A. G. Zaitsev left the following entry about his observation: “It was in the summer of 1952 over Ukraine. We were descending through thunderous clouds. It grew dark outside, as if dusk had fallen. Suddenly we saw how light blue flames twenty centimeters high danced along the leading edge of the wing. There were so many of them that the wing seemed to be burning along the entire edge. Three minutes later, the lights disappeared as suddenly as they appeared.
The “heavenly fire” is also observed by specialists who are supposed to do this by the nature of their work. In June 1975, employees of the Astrakhan Hydrometeorological Observatory were returning from work in the north of the Caspian Sea. “In complete darkness, we got out of the reed beds and went through shallow water to a motor boat left two kilometers from the shore,” N. D. Gershtansky, candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences, wrote later. “Somewhere in the north lightning flashed. All of a sudden, our hair lit up with a phosphorescent light. Tongues of cold flame appeared near the fingers of raised hands. When we raised the measuring stick, its top lit up so brightly that you could read the manufacturer's tag. All this went on for ten minutes. Interestingly, below a meter above the surface of the water, the glow did not occur.
But the fires of St. Elmo appear not only before a thunderstorm. In the summer of 1958, employees of the Institute of Geography carried out meteorological measurements under the program of the International Geophysical Year on the glacier in the Zailiysky Alatau at an altitude of 4000 meters. On June 23, a snowstorm began, it got colder. On the night of June 26, meteorologists, leaving the house, saw an amazing picture: blue tongues of cold flame appeared on the weather instruments, antennas, icicles on the roof of the house. It also appeared on the fingers of raised hands. On the rain gauge, the height of the flame reached 10 centimeters. One of the employees decided to touch the flame on the hook of the gradient rod with a pencil. At the same moment, lightning struck the bar. People were blinded and knocked down. When they got up, the fire disappeared, but after a quarter of an hour it reappeared in its original places.
Rodnya mound is located in the south of the Tver region. Its top is overgrown with coniferous forest, and local residents try not to go there, because the mound is notorious. In the summer of 1991, a group of tourists who had camped nearby observed a strange phenomenon: in pre-stormy weather, blue lights began to light up one after another over the trees at the top of the mound. When the tourists climbed the hill the next day, they accidentally discovered that some trees were equipped with "lightning rods" in the form of copper wire wrapped around the trunks. Apparently, there were pranksters who wished to somehow use the notoriety of the hill.
The nature of the fires of St. Elmo is undoubtedly connected with electrical processes in the atmosphere. In good weather, the electric field strength near the ground is 100-120 V / m, that is, between the fingers of a raised hand and the ground, it will reach approximately 220 volts. Unfortunately, at a very meager current. Before a thunderstorm, this field strength increases to several thousand V/m, and this is already enough for a corona discharge to occur. The same effect can be observed in snow and sandstorms and volcanic clouds.
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 for 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 a scalar quantity that determines the ability of a body to be a source of electromagnetic fields and take part in electromagnetic interaction. The unit of charge in the SI system is the pendant (C). 1 pendant is an 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. The 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 ice floes are redistributed in the cloud: 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 a balloon due to the induction of an opposite charge on its side closest to the comb, a 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 (more precisely, it would be called 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. In the course of experiments in the middle of the last century, with the passage of electrical discharges through a mixture of gases, close in gas composition 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 an electron - an elementary particle that 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!
Since ancient times, the inhabitants of the coasts and sailors could observe the mysterious lights that appeared during bad weather. More often, such lights appeared at the end of a storm or storm and predicted the end of dangerous weather. These lights arose directly on the masts of the ships, which is why it was the sailors who saw them. They could also be seen on moored ships, as well as on the crosses of churches located near the coast. The sailors considered this phenomenon a saving sign and were always happy for him. Thus, thanks to the mysterious forces that protect sailors during a storm, a strong thunderstorm or a storm, this legend appeared.
The ship's mast resembles a cross in shape and, like the spire or cross of a church, rises above sea level. Therefore, the glow of the lights is clearly visible from afar, it was interpreted only as the location of the divine principle to the saint. In honor of this saint, a church or a ship was built. After all, in those days it was customary to call ships the names of certain saints.
The patron saint of sailors
In the Mediterranean, this phenomenon has acquired the name "Fires of St. Elmo". They are named so in honor of Elm (Erasmus), who was martyred during the persecution of Christians back in 303. Sailors considered him their patron.
Lights named after St. Elmo are easily confused with fireballs. Perhaps this is due to the fact that they also have an electrical origin. At least, so it was considered by scientists in the XVIII century. Later in the 19th century, a hypothesis appeared that this was nothing more than “settled viscous evaporation of the sea.” Of course, both of these versions have the right to exist, but neither of them has yet been proven. In the 20th century, a new hypothesis appeared, accompanying the theory of glow, corona and arc discharges. Not so long ago, the version that these same lights are the visible part of such discharges ended its existence.
Much later, scientists experimentally found that any object placed in a cloud of drops is capable of glowing. But the whole catch is that the fires of St. Elmo also appeared in Central Asia, where there was not a single drop. How could this be? It turns out that the scientists were wrong again and these lights have remained a mystery to mankind.
Those who have seen these mysterious lights say that they are not moving in the wind, unlike the flame of a candle or a fire. In addition, they cannot be burned or ignited. And they don't go out of the water either. But at the same time, they cannot be seen separately from any object, they are painted blue and white and there is no sound or smell from them. But at the same time, the size of the flame of such lights is clearly visible and is approximately ten to fifteen centimeters.
The mysterious lights burning on the masts of the ships, according to those who saw them, are the messengers of the other world, they are also incomprehensible and mysterious. Therefore, they are ranked among the names that are mentioned in legends, or which are overgrown with legends and stories not only of mythological origin.
Such phenomena are often given the names of martyrs, and this is an extensive topic for research. It is worth mentioning that most of them died from unusual executions, the meaning of which lies very deep. So, for example, it is still not known why they killed with a bull bone, when it was possible to resort to a simpler method. Or such a method of execution - a crucifix on the gate upside down. It was said that this was a voluntary type of execution, that is, the person sentenced to death himself chose this method. Of course, here you can find many subtexts and explanations, but it is not known whether they are true or whether these are just people's speculations. Little is known about Saint Elmo himself, and according to one version, he was killed by brutal torture. This version says that with the help of a winch, all the insides were pulled out to him until he died of torment and suffering. Esotericists can see here their connection with the inner and outer world, but it is not known how right they are in their statements.
One of the ancient Roman philosophers known to the world, Seneca, divided fires into two types - earthly and heavenly. According to him, the mysterious lights on the masts of ships are nothing but stars that descend during a thunderstorm or storm. Earlier, even before the advent of Christianity, these lights were associated with the name of Tyndareus, whose family left an indelible imprint on the history of the whole world.
Ancient Greek fires of the Dioscuri
If in the Mediterranean the patron saint of sailors was Saint Elmo, then in ancient Greece they were the Dioscuri twins. According to ancient Greek mythology, Zeus gave immortality to these twin brothers, but turned them into two of the brightest stars in the sky and placed them in the constellation of the twins. And according to legend, the appearance of the "Stars of the Dioscuri" on the masts of ships indicates that the brothers met with their sister Elena. Legend says that these lights are arranged by Elena herself in honor of this meeting. Ancient mythology says that only one brother was immortal, and the other received part of his immortality by dying in battle, but in return for the continuation of life, they must now alternately live either in heaven or in Hades (the underworld of the dead).
Lightning sometimes struck the place where the "Stars of the Dioscuri" glowed, hence the legend about the meeting of Elena with her brothers. People have made their own conclusions, which speak of the meeting of the past with the future, which is shown by such a natural phenomenon and energy exchange. Moreover, the past is shown here as a cold glow on the mast, and the future as ball lightning, respectively.
If we turn to physics, we can find out that the lights of the Dioscuri are a completely understandable phenomenon, because light matter has its own properties, which can be similar to the properties of particles and waves that appear when energy is transferred at a distance. The light and sound stream is gradually changing, and with it the structure of the field, which is why radio transmitters cannot work during this period. All this also explains why these lights make a quiet crackling sound more like a hiss.
Thus, according to legends and myths, the mysterious lights of the Dioscuri are beacons not only for those living on earth (predicting the imminent end of a storm or storm), but also for the dead, who at that moment can leave the world of the dead and move into the world of the living. But these are most likely mystical assumptions, which in fact are nothing more than a myth.
