Abstract
THE development of the spark discharge has been studied with the aid of the rotating camera1,2,3 in a manner similar to Schonland‘s studies of the lightning discharge, and the leader-stroke mechanism which he first described has been shown to precede in similar manner the main spark discharge in air at atmospheric pressure. Schonland4 suspected that the stepped leader discharge was not advancing into wholly un-ionized or virgin air, and suggested that it travelled along a pre-existing ionized path, the path of a ‘pilot streamer', which probably moved from cloud to ground with the effective velocity of the stepped leader process, say, 107 cm./sec. He failed to record this pilot streamer—if it exists—photographically.
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References
Allibone and Schonland, Nature, 134, 736 (1934).
Allibone, J. Ind. Elect. Eng., 82, 513 (1938).
Allibone and Meek, Proc. Roy. Soc., 166, 97 (1938).
Schonland‘s most recent review, Proc. Phys. Soc., 55, 445 (1943).
Bruce, C. E. R., Proc. Roy. Soc., 183, 228 (1945).
Schonland and Allibone, Nature, 128, 794 (1931).
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ALLIBONE, T. Development of the Spark Discharge. Nature 161, 970–971 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/161970a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/161970a0
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