A sea voyage in our days on a modern liner can be a risky event. The element is stronger than man and technology. And what was it like for sailors who set sail for uncharted lands on fragile sailboats? Who was to count on, to whom to cry for help during terrible storms?
Since ancient times, the sailors of the Mediterranean rejoiced and calmed down when an inexplicable glow appeared on the masts of sailing ships in bad weather. This meant that their holy patron Elm took them under protection.
The dancers spoke of the intensification of the storm, and the motionless lights of St. Elmo spoke of the weakening.
Saint Elm
Memorial Day of the Catholic martyr Elma, who is also known as Erasmus (Ermo) of Antioch or Formia, is celebrated on June 2. The relics of the saint are in the temple of his name in Gaet (Italy), he died in neighboring Formia in 303. Legend has it that he was martyred - the executioners wrapped his insides on a winch.
This item remained as an attribute of the saint, with whom he came to the aid of sailors in distress.
Cold flame
The fire at the ends of the masts, according to the descriptions, looked like a candle flame or fireworks, tassels or balls of a pale blue or purple color. The size of these lights is amazing - from 10 centimeters to a meter! Sometimes it seemed that all rigging was phosphorus-coated and glowing. The glow could be accompanied by the sound of hissing or whistling.
Attempts to break off part of the gear and transfer the flame failed - from the wreckage the fire rose to the mast. Nothing caught fire from the flame, it did not burn anyone, although it shone for quite some time - from several minutes to an hour or longer.
Historical information
The ancient Greeks called this glow "Castor and Pollux," "Elena." There is also such a name for lights: Corpus Santos, "St. Hermes", "St. Nicholas".
The written sources that have reached us from Pliny the Elder and Julius Caesar, notes on the travels of Columbus and Magellan, letters from Darwin from the Beagle ship, the writings of Melville (Moby Dick) and Shakespeare refer to meetings of sailors with lights.
The chronicle of circumnavigation of the world by Fernand Magellan narrates: “During those storms, Saint Elm himself appeared to us many times in the form of light ... extremely dark nights on the main mast, where he stayed for two or more hours, relieving us of gloom”.
Familiar not only to sailors
Not only on ships, but also on the spiers and corners of buildings, flagpoles, lampposts, lightning rods and other tall objects and structures with sharp ends, the lights of St. Elm light up.
Aircraft pilots are also familiar with this phenomenon. On the screws, the pointed tips of the wings and the fuselage of a liner flying near the clouds, tassel-like discharges may appear - the lights of St. Elm. A photo of James Ashby - the crew commander - taken once during a thunderstorm during a landing in Phnom Penh, shows a blue glow on the nose of the aircraft.
At the same time, strong static radio interference occurs. It was suggested that it was this fire that caused a fire of hydrogen and caused the crash of the huge and luxurious airship Hindenburg in May 1937.
Climbers are well acquainted with the lights of St. Elmo. When they enter a thundercloud, a luminous halo may appear above their heads, fingertips shine, and flame blows from ice axes. Observers say that even the tops of trees, horns of bulls and deer, tall grass shine in a thunderstorm.
Mysterious effects
Nature presents people with many interesting things to solve. Everyone knows that such phenomena as a rainbow, a halo (three suns) in the cold, a mirage in the heat are optical tricks of the atmosphere, creating prisms and mirrors in the air that refract and reflect light.
The bewitching blue and green flashes of aurora creates a disturbance of the electromagnetic fields of the Earth. The electricity of the atmosphere is responsible for the lights of St. Elmo.
Scientific explanation
So what are the lights of St. Elmo? What is the nature of this phenomenon? Mythology has receded before the explanation of Benjamin Franklin made in 1749. It was he who described how a lightning rod draws a heavenly "electric fire" from a cloud at a distance even before a strike occurs. The glow at the tip of the device is the fire of St. Elmo.
Atmospheric electricity ionizes the air, around the pointed objects the concentration of ions becomes maximum. Ionized plasma begins to glow, but, unlike lightning, stands still, and does not move.
The color of the plasma depends on the composition of the ionized gas. Nitrogen and oxygen, which make up the atmosphere, create a light blue glow.
Corona discharge
A corona or smoldering discharge occurs if the potential of the electric field in the air is inhomogeneous, and around a single object it becomes more than 1 volt / cm. In good weather, this value is a thousand times less. At the beginning of the formation of thunderclouds, it grows to 5 volts / cm. A lightning strike is a discharge of more than 10 volts per centimeter.
The magnitude of the potential is distributed nonuniformly in the atmosphere — it is larger near pointed objects located at a height.
It becomes clear that the proximity of a thunderstorm (or tornado) creates in the atmosphere a potential sufficient for the appearance of an ion avalanche, causing a bluish glow of pointed objects located on a hill. A sandstorm and a volcanic eruption also ionize the air and can cause this phenomenon.
Tamed Glow
Modern man does not have to go sailing or flying during a thunderstorm to look at the glow of ionized gas, which is what the lights of St. Elm are. What is it - can be seen in a conventional fluorescent lamp, neon and other halogen lamps.
On airplanes, you have to install devices that prevent atmospheric electricity from accumulating on the surface and interfere.
But although romance and myths give way to everyday life, interest and excitement associated with unusual natural phenomena will never leave a person. The mysterious blue lights of St. Elmo will excite the imagination of travelers and interested readers.