A Model of Ball Lightning as a Formation of Water Molecules Confining an Electric Charge and the Classical Theory of the Electron

Abstract

Ball lightning or faintly luminous floating spheres with radii of the order of ten centimeters appearing transiently in air notably during stormy weather continue to remain an unresolved phenomenon. It is suggested that these objects are organized structures constituted of an electrically charged spherical thin shell of electro-frozen dipole oriented water molecules carrying an electric charge, balanced by the internal negative pressure and outward electrostatic stress. A model presented, resembling the classical theory of the electron with Poincare stresses explain almost all observed attributes of this phenomenon. The possibility of realizing macroscopic spherical surface charge distributions in the vacuum and their implication on the problem of electron are commented.