Talk:St. Elmo's fire

message: The link to Helena leads to a disambiguation page where no option makes sense in this context.  I strongly suspect that this Helena is none other than Helen of Troy who, after all, was supposed to be sister to Castor and Pollux.  But I do not know it for sure (I would have fixed it otherwise myself). --eiaccb 10:10, 6 May 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Discussions

message: :"References to St. Elmo's Fire, often known as "corposants" or "corpusants" from the Spanish Cuerpos Santos (Holy Bodies), can be found in the works of Julius Caesar, Pliny the Elder, Herman Melville, and Antonio Pigafetta's journal of his voyage with Ferdinand Magellan."
I haven't checked the sources mentioned, but if the term "corpusants" appears in works of Julius Caesar and Pliny the Elder, the claim that the term comes from Spanish is a rather misleading half-truth. There was no such thing as Spanish back then. It doesn't seem impossible to me that the term dates back that early, but the origin would be Latin (corpus sanctus?) rather than Spanish. EldKatt 19:06, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi.  I wrote the Latin Wikipedia stub on St. Elmo's Fire.  (It's corpus sanctum btw; "corpus" is neuter.)  It seems that there is a confusion in the reading of the sentence you quoted.  There are certainly references to St. Elmo's Fire in Pliny, but not under the name "corpus sanctum" (nor "St. Elmo's fire", of course). He  describes them under the Greek names mentioned in the English article: Helena, and Castor and Pollux.  I'm not sure I remember if I read about it in Caesar.  The Romans don't seem to have had an overarching term for the phenomenon in general—at least, I wasn't able to find one.   —Muke Tever 04:40, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Corpusants? 

message: kalte fusion? wieso kann man das das dann 3dimensionlae ausdehnung vs flächenbildung  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:4DD4:FA6F:0:8D75:82C:4B9D:7714 (talk) 09:58, 9 June 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for the nice info. Anyhow, upon more careful reading, it's rather obvious that the passage does not at all state that the Latin sources used "corpusants". My comment thus falls flatly to the ground. Still, though, it got me fooled once... EldKatt 21:34, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  weill, du bescheuert bist 

message: My professor once saw it while he was in the cockpit of a FedEx plane.  He said it came up from the nose of the plane, over the windshield.  It should maybe be added to the list of possible places where it is seen in addition to cattle horns and ship masts.  Yoink23 01:01, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Where is St. Elmo's fire seen? 

message: "Everything was in flames, the sky with lightning, the water with luminous particles (bioluminescence), and even the very masts were pointed with a blue flame."
"Bioluminescence" is not - as it might occur to a common reader - part of the quotation but an addition. What's your opinion: 
a) Delete it 
or 
b) put it into a form with no room for misinterpretation?
Walter Schulz (unregistered) 13:07, 19 January 2006 (CET)
:I put it in square brackets, using the nowiki thingies.  There's got to be a more elegant way, but it works. --Allen 02:12, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I think that's a good way of doing that. Xhin Give Back Our Membership! 11:31, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Incorrect quotation method 

message: Any chance the picture could be replaced by a photo?
I agree.  Here are some results from Google:
http://inflightphotos.com/st-elmos-fire.html
http://www.jpgloverart.com/Pages/PhenomenPagesFolder/StElmoBlue.html
http://www.jpgloverart.com/Pages/PhenomenPagesFolder/StElmoI.html
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Unknown/Airbus-A340-642/1024173&photo_nr=2&prev_id=1055823&next_id=0858785&size=L  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.134.100.194 (talk) 23:09, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: The german wikipedia page has this picture: http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Elms_Feuer_aus_Cockpit.JPG it is an St. Elmo's fire on a cockpit's front window 192.35.17.25 (talk) 13:05, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
replies: text:  The photos look more like momentary static discharges rather than long standing relatively static St Elmos fire. Videos would be clearer. - Rod57 (talk) 22:39, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

text:  I concur. That photo from the plane's cockpit gives the wrong impression that the discharge is St Elmo's fire, it is the blue glow in the background. It's similar to cathode glow around an electrode before the discharge (sparks).  — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheCampaignForRealPhysics (talk • contribs) 12:09, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Picture 

message: Just to clarify, you can touch St. Elmo's Fire right?--68.88.232.113 01:46, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Contact 

message: And tried to make the first few sentences more readable by those who do not posess a PHD in both Physics and Meteorology. Just a heads up. Xhin Give Back Our Membership! 11:33, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  I made some organisational changes 

message: "In ancient Greece, the appearance of a single one was called Helena and two were called Castor and Pollux. Occasionally, it was associated with the Greek element of fire, as well as with one of Paracelsus's elementals, specifically the salamander, or, alternatively, with a similar creature referred to as an acthnici." This makes no sense to me, since the whole chapter seems to be talking about ancient Greece, save for the part about Paracelsus, who lived in the 16th century. Perhaps I just don't understand the reference? 80.221.7.99 (talk) 09:49, 26 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Paracelsus and ancient Greek? 

message: I'm new here but ref 9 on this page makes no mention of the text referenced.  serious credibility problem."  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 160.39.213.9 (talk) 01:41, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Refs 

message: In an episode of When Weather Changed History, it attributed the Hindenburg disaster to St. Elmo's fire, because of the electrically charged atmosphere due to the presence of thunderstorms in the area. That, coupled with the Hindenburg releasing its Hydrogen, probably resulted in the explosion. You'll have to watch the episode, 'cause its too hard for me to explain ;). The show is usually on The Weather Channel. --Anonymous07921 (talk) 15:15, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: UK Channel 4 just did "What destroyed the Hindenberg" where they support the St Elmos fire theory. - Rod57 (talk) 22:20, 7 March 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hindenburg Disaster 

message: The TV show "Rawhide" also had an episode where they tried to show it on cattle. Clint Eastwood "Rowdy Gates" mentioned it by, St. Elmos Fire and also as a Fire Fox... 75.248.14.198 (talk) 22:31, 10 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rawhide 

message: Removed from the article. Moved here in case it is of interest. 98.85.35.128 (talk) 05:11, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  First hand observation 

message: Intro says " glowing ball of light" implying it is always ball shaped.  But most pictures show 'jets'. Could we change ball to jet ? (or does the source really support ball ?) - Rod57 (talk) 22:24, 7 March 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ever a ball 

message: I watched in person a phenomenon analog to the Bible episode when Moshes watched a bush on fire that wasn't consumed, and attracted by this, when he approached the place, began hearing: 'The Voice of God'. I was invited more than 20 years ago by an school mate to his home in Las Rozas, Madrid, Spain. From a window, the mast of a: 'Radio Nacional de España' broadcasting antenna could be watched. During a summer storm day, in the steel cords that held antenna in place, more often in the intermediate links in the cables, saint Elmo's fire plumes, partly bluish in color, appeared intermittently, specially around the moments when thunders were heard. When the saint Elmo's fires were 'on', it was perfectly audible, from the several tenths of meters between the house and the radio broadcasting antenna, sounds, music and voices that seemed correspond to what the radio station was broadcasting then. Loudspeakers existed using plasma to transform electrical signals into sounds, so the possibility is known. Thanks, + Salut--Caula (talk) 10:38, 14 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  The bush that burns but was not consumed 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: *A. So I took this text out of the main article because it's ridiculous:
"
(Added by K.G.H. Nicholes: My father is History Professor Mark M. Heald's son, physicist Mark A. Heald. They did indeed witness the Hindenburg tragedy, but my grandfather had no prior experience of St. Elmo's Fire, and no background to support his identification of what he saw as such. My father has protested people's uncritical passing along of his father's assumption on many occasions.)
"
I dunno if it invalidates what's before it or not but despite the references, it seems like this section mightn't be relevant.
--Strobelit (talk) 11:04, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  /* Mark Heald */ An weird admission of personal investment. 

message: While flying over the mountains in Papua Niugini late at night, the pilot called some of us up to the cockpit to see St Elmo's fire glowing around the metal window frames and along the trailing edges of the wings. It strikes me that many pilots must have seen this phenomenon but, surprisingly, there are no examples in this article. I will try to find some to document this common occurrence. Hedley 12:13, 15 February 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Aircraft examples 

message: Around a sharp point or even a fairly blunt one, this field strength should occur at the tips of everyday objects and even indoors. Consider a millimeter thick wire 2 meters in length with 100V/m field strength?
So does anyone know if the 100 kV/m field strength requirement is the actual local field strength needed to sustain the discharge or whether that's the field strength estimated to be needed in free air for the field to occur at a sharp point on the end of a wire (at the usual 3 megavolt per meter sort of range).
I know I've seen what looks an awful lot like this around everyday, indoor objects but it's extremely low intensity and might be some kind of optical illusion so if anyone can help clarify the physics that would be very useful.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.237.249.230 (talk) 08:32, 2 September 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Air's dielectric strength is 3 MV/m. 100 kV/m seems small by comparison, but I don't know much more. If this isn't sourced, consider tagging or removing it.--Jasper Deng (talk) 09:35, 2 September 2020 (UTC)

text: Seems in the same ballpark to me, especially when humidity is taken into account. I'd suggest removing the inappropriate tag. As an aside, perfectly sharp tips don't exist. Djp~enwiki (talk) 01:18, 5 December 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  "100 kV/m local field strength?" Clarifications needed 

message: Are there any good, and authentic, video examples of SEF?   Searching on YouTube, I found several claimed examples, including some filmed from inside an aircraft cockpit, but they were spark discharges, not SEF as usually described (e.g. in the present article). The inset picture in the article may come from one of these videos, but the ones I have seen did not show any light except when there was  a spark discharge.  There was one more relevant case, with some young people by a lake filming a glowing discharge of light at their finger tips, but I had some doubts about its authenticity.  If I suddenly found my fingertips glowing with electricity I wouldn't stand around laughing and photographing it, I would be afraid of a lightning strike.  Also, it might be possible to fake the effect with concealed lights.  Not saying it was faked, just that I would want verification. If there are no good natural examples, a laboratory example would help.  I am not questioning the existence of the phenomenon, which seems much better attested and understood than, e.g., ball lightning, but if video examples exist it would be useful to have a link.2A00:23C8:7906:1301:391D:EEDE:F25A:EB6 (talk) 21:05, 17 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Video examples? 

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