[Rockhounds] fulgurites

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Making your own 'fulgurites' is pretty easy.

Take a chunk of metal, attach a wire to it, and put at the bottom of a 
bucket. Run the wire up the side of the bucket. Fill the bucket with 
sand. Hook the wire to a neon sign transformer (12-20K volts).

Hook another wire to the other side of the transformer and fasten it to 
one end of a long dowel. Push it thru the sand until the wire contacts 
the metal in the bottom of the bucket.

Plug in the transformer and listen for the spark. The spark will melt 
some of the sand, making it conductive. Slowly withdraw the dowel, 
extending your tube of molten sand. When you get to the top, unplug the 
transformer.

Take care not to get close to the wires. Even at a few milliamps, a 12K 
jolt will knock you across the room and can be deadly.

Let the sand cool. The glass needs time to temper. Let the sand cool. 
Pour off the sand and collect your 'fulgurite'. Be warned, it will 
probably still be hot enough to burn your fingers. It will also be 
fragile.

If you don't have a neon sign transformer, you can also use an arc 
welder. Neon sign transformers are more forgiving than arc welders 
because they can put out a two inch spark. Arc welders make thicker 
'fulgurites' because they have more current, but it is harder to keep 
the spark going in the bucket.

Kreigh



On Monday, Sep 15, 2008, at 10:05 America/Detroit, Lawrence 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
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "ROBERT A SANTEE" 
> <timeman123 at optonline.net>
> To: <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
> Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 9:19 AM
> Subject: [Rockhounds] fulgurites
>
>
>> Hi can anybody give me any info how I can find fulgurites I just 
>> started to collect them and I thought it would be great to look for 
>> them.I live in New Jersey and I do not no if that would be a good 
>> area to collect them any info would be great thanks bob.
>>
>>
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