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Show ' W; ? 14 T0P T,MES H1-1- , August 8. 1975 Wendover Field Of Sciisinitiffic Exparimeniation 11 1-- 1 The Old Hangar glowing mass of somewhat hot gases that float into houses, airplanes, along telephone wires and the like. It is usually formed from a lightning discharge to the ground and then floats around for periods of up to a minute. One scientist reports that it came down the chimney of his house, rolled around the kitchen then down the hall and into his bathroom where he had a tub of cold water. It went in the water and almost instantly, the water was boiling, indicating a very strong source of energy. jt comes in sizes up to the size of a basketball and may be any color. the Second, what is significance? According to Mr. Golka, for 25 years man has been wrestling with the problem of nuclear fusion for generating electrical power and steam from the atom. Vast amounts of thermal energy are released when the Mr. Golka checks the wires prior to running his machinery. Story and photos by MSgt. Sieve llokanson It all took place in an old hangar which needed paint and had a few holes in the roof where rain leaked in. When I say it all, I mean the old hangar reeked of history-o- ld history and new history. What today is the site of experiments to create ball lightning was in yesteryear the site where the "Enola which dropped Gay" the the atom bomb on Hiroshima was housed 30 years ago. As far as this story, the old history is past. The new history is being made by one young, enthusiastic scientist who is attempting to create ball lightning. First he tried it on Utah's Salt Flats but the elements proved difficult to overcome, so he obtained permission from the Air Fore to use the old hangar at B-2- 9 Wendover Air Force Auxiliary Field now operated by Hill AFB. The field is used for training and testing of the Ogden Air Command's men and equipment. The old hangar has the era of the future about it with the corral like electrical circuits-- a circular corral perhaps 40 feet in diameter with wires leading to a small wire tower. of The creator this conglomeration of wire is Robert K. Golka, president, Golka Associates.. This man who holds an electronic engineer degree from North Western Cvanston, budget of works on a low are working to develop fusion power technology is who containment of the plasma which is a highly ionized gas containing an approximately equal number of positive ions and electrons. Its excessively and high temperature defied current has instability techniques. Ball lightning is considered by a number of physicists to ,, ; with whatever agencies. equipment is mostly His home made to serve his particular job. When ask about his lack of money, he said, "All the money in the world can't buy success in research, it takes self-containi- a spherical " .'.13' --- ; long ng periods of time. (0.1 second is a maximum for present fusion processes.) Ball lightning has been known to exist for periods of minutes. Mr. Golka has used the work of Nikola Tesla, who invented the alternating current power transmission system that ushered in the modern Mr. Golka starts his equipment experiment, technological age. Tesla did his experiments in 1899 in Colorado Springs, Colo. However, little was known about his work. Mr. Golka in preparation for his traveled to the Tesla Museum in Yugoslavia twice to read Tesla 's journal and was able to make copies of a portion describing his experiments with ball lightning. To close out this encounter with the old hangar, this reporter along with several other base officials and some KSL-Tmen witnessed one of Mr. Golka's tests. All the lights were turned off and the generator was turned on; the alternating switch, a large circular saw blade; began to whir and the wires in the big hangar began to sizzle and pop. As the power increased, V ') A mainly time." What is ball lightning that a man should devote several years of his life to creating it Logistics artificially? It is ! of its be orginally injected energy for University 111., volunteer help he can get. His support comes from small grants of the government and private hydrogen atom is changed into helium atom. In simplified terms this is what keeps the sun going. If this process could be carried out on earth under controlled a clean conditions, of source uncontaminating energy, the likes of which man has never seen, would become available. The fuel reserves in the oceans alone would last for ten million years. He explained further that the reproduction and study of ball lightning in the laboratory might yield the information necessary for the confinment of gases and elevating of temperatures to bring about thermonuclear fusion. A chief problem facing those Electricity bleeds from his wiring as the whole building begins to crackle and pop. electrical long jagged currents began to shoot out, some as long as 30 or 40 feet. My hair tingled enough that f wondered if some of the electriety zagging around in the center ol the hangar was not leaking through he floor to me, or was it just my imagination? One observer commented that perhaps the experiments going on at Wendover now will have more impact than the dropping of the Atom bomb which Wendover played such a significant part in 30 years ago. |