[Rockhounds] fulgurites

[Lawrence Rush]

Wow...Ben Franklin lives! That may be the process I heard about 
(anecdotally)...

I don't know as I would want to be anywhere near the rocket/wire as it 
performs it's duties, 'tho.

Thanks, Earl......Larry

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Earl R. Verbeek" <everbeek at ptd.net>
To: <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 10:43 AM
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] fulgurites


> Hi Larry,
>
> Well, there are legitimate "cultured" fulgurites too, and I remember
> reading through a web site about a group in Florida that makes them.
> They're above-board, selling them for what they are.  And what a neat 
> idea!
> I forget the exact mechanics, but they prepare a target bed of sand, wait
> for a storm, and then (this is the part that's fuzzy in my mind) they fire
> a little rocket to carry a long wire up into the air, and WHAM! the
> lightning strikes the wire and follows the wire down to the target area.
> Neat trick.  And the fun part is that you can select anything you like for
> the target -- if you want a zircon fulgurite, go right ahead.  Just buy a
> 50-lb sack of zircon sand and go for it.
>
> So, are these fulgurites?  Sure.  They bear the same relation to natural
> fulgurites as synthetic ruby does to natural rubies:  they're both ruby,
> just one natural and one made in a lab.  Same thing here, I think, with 
> the
> fulgurites
>
>          Cheers-   Earl
>
> On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:05:15 -0400,  Larry Rush wrote:
>> Bob: Fulgurites are hard to find. The best way is to see precisely where
> a
>> lightning strike has taken place, and look over the surface there (after
>> the
>> storm!). The bolt may follow a tree trunk into the ground, too. Since you
>
>> live in NJ, the beach is a good spot to look after a strong lightning
>> storm.
>> The quartz beach sand will be fused into tubular, twisting forms at and
>> under the beach surface, sometimes for relatively long distances into the
>
>> surface depending on the strength of the strike. I have heard of people
>> also
>> finding them at the site of car crashes, where a car has struck and
>> knocked
>> down the power poles and where the live wires have sparked against the
>> dirt
>> and gravel on the roadside. Are these Fulgurites??? Some are sold as
> such,
>>
>> even if they are not formed by lightning. I have also heard of an
>> enterprising shyster in Florida who takes a welding machine to a remote
>> area
>> and somehow fuses the sand with that. (Let the buyer beware!!). I would
> be
>>
>> careful of the ones being sold on E-Bay or the web from overseas, for the
>
>> same kinds of reasons.
>>
>> Larry Rush
>>
>
>
> -- 
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