Abstract
THE suggestion contained in my recent letter1 that pinching out of the discharge may occur on a wide variety of scales from lightning to quasars led to a search of the literature to see if lightning current waves existed which supported the evidence of the one photograph available of a pinched lightning discharge2. The figure shows an oscillogram of the largest lightning current obtained by Berger and Vogelsanger3 in their investigation of lightning striking their masts on the top of Mount San Salvatore. The similarity to the light curve of Nova Herculis 1934 referred to in the earlier note1 is quite striking. After rising rapidly to a peak value of 180 kamp, the current fell still more rapidly to 10 k.amp, that is, the discharge was practically extinguished. It then rose again more slowly as the pressure generated by the sudden increase in temperature and by the magnetic pinch effect was released and reached a second peak of 50 k.amp.
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References
Bruce, C. E. R., Nature, 209, 798, (1966).
Matthias, B. T., and Bochsbaum, S. J., Nature, 194, 327, (1962).
Berger, K., and Vogelsanger, E., Bull. Schweiz. Elektr. Ver., 56, 2, (1965).
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BRUCE, C. Pinched Lightning Discharges. Nature 211, 62–63 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/211062b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/211062b0
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