WALLY LUM TELLS OF SEEING THE STONE TOWER ON MT. CONSTITUTION IN A GREEN, GLOWING FLAME
In my book about the Stone Tower on Mt. Constitution, I make mention of St. Elmo’s Fire on Mt. Constitution as seen by a technician. As some of us remember, there was a steel tower about 30’ adjacent to the Stone Tower. This steel tower was constructed in 1955 and demolished in 2009. It towered above the Stone Tower on Mt. Constitution and supported, among many other installations, the broadcast antenna for KVOS TV. The components on this tower required constant and continued maintenance by a group of the toughest, dedicated employees. They climbed this tower in the high winds, driving rain, night or day, and, yes, in the snow. One such inveterate technician is Mr. Wally Lum who worked at KVOS and its tower from 1965 to 1975. Mr. Lum describes one night, while doing necessary repairs with his boss, Mr. Erling Manley, in the winter, at night, during a vigorous snow storm with lightning as well, when suddenly, the Stone Tower lit up as if contained within a huge flame, glowing and shimmering in a greenish, blueish light. I can only speculate on the grandeur of this scene…a glowing tower, in the snow from a perspective that only a privileged few have seen. Without a doubt, this was a perfect example of St. Elmo’s Fire (described below) if only Wally had his cell phone….not possible in 1970.
St. Elmo’s Fire is a weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by corona (the light generated by heated particles such as what you see around the moon in a solar eclipse) discharge from a rod like object such as a mast, spire, chimney, or The Stone Tower on Mt. Constitution in an electric field. The nitrogen and oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere cause St. Elmo’s Fire to flouresc with a blue or violet light. This is similar to the mechanism that causes neon light to glow. The term plasma designates matter with a high unstable energy level. Conditions that can generate St. Elmo’s Fire are present during thunderstorms, when high-voltage differentials are present between clouds and the ground underneath. A local electric field of about 100 kV/m is required to begin a discharge in moist air. When plasma comes into contact with solid materials like plastics or metal such as the Stone Tower on Mt. Constitution which has extensive copper conductors surrounding it, its energy acts on the surface and changes important properties properties such as the surface energy. If one is welding with electricity, you see the actual fire, AND, a surrounding, quivering glow. This is a similar thing. The Stone Tower on Mt. Constitution has an intricate and robust system of copper conductors from a copper “house” on the apex of the tower roof down the sides in large guage copper conductors to larger pipes (as long as 100’, 1/2 inch wall) filled with a conducting agent. Plasma “power” occurs when an electrically charged medium (such as the Stone Tower on Mt. Constitution) in which there are roughly equal numbers of positively and negatively charged particles, produced when atoms in a gas become ionized. It is sometimes referred to as the “fourth state of matter”, distinct from the solid, liquid, and gaseous states. The intensity of the effect as the electricity from the clouds travels to the ground, a blue or violet or green glow around the object often accompanied by a hissing or buzzing sound, is proportional to the strength of the electric field and therefore noticeable primarily during thunderstorms or volcanic eruptions. Clear as mud…..I welcome further clarifications.
St. Elmo’s Fire is named after St. Erasmus of Formia (also known as St. Elmo), the patron saint of sailors. The phenomenon, which can warn of an imminent lightning strike was regarded by sailors with awe and sometimes considered a good omen.
