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From: gwyn@brl-tgr.UUCP (gwyn)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Ball lightening
Message-ID: <9585@brl-tgr.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 29-Mar-85 14:07:00 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.9585
Posted: Fri Mar 29 14:07:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 14-Apr-85 02:48:06 EST
References: <56@tekig5.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard
Lines: 20

> ...  Somebody recently claimed that Maxwell's equations
> won't allow for a spherical electromagnetic field ...

This doesn't appear to have anything to do with ball lightning, though.
One does not see the field, but rather ionization paths of the air.

> ... a possible containment mechanism for
> nuclear fusion ...

The problem really is that plasma is inherently unstable;
its natural tendency is to undergo oscillations.  Trying
to contain plasma for very long seems to be fighting Mother
Nature.  How about working on a continuous-flow process?
Get some top-notch chemical engineers in on the system design.

This reminds me of Robert Goddard's WWI rockets, which injected
a sequence of solid-fuel pellets into the combustion chamber.
He later caught onto the idea of liquid propellant and radically
altered the nature of rocketry thereby.  Perhaps the fusion-via-
pellet-implosion people should think about this..