On 9 May 1605, while on the second voyage of John Davis commanded by Sir Edward Michelborne to the East Indies, an unknown writer aboard the Tiger describes the phenomenon; "In the extremity of our storm appeared to us in the night, upon our maine Top-mast head, a flame about the bigness of a great Candle, which the Portugals call Corpo Sancto, holding it a most divine token that when it appeareth the worst is past. Tintin recognizes the phenomenon on Captain Haddock's ice-axe. St. Elmo's fire was reported by New York Times reporter William L. Laurence on August 9, 1945 as he was aboard Bockscar on the way to Nagasaki. As the weather rocked the plane, the cockpit window suddenly glowed an eerie blue-violet due to an electrical phenomenon called St Elmo’s Fire. Was this plane engulfed in St. Elmo's fire? It was, I surmised, a surcharge of static electricity that had accumulated on the tips of the propellers and on the dielectric material in the plastic windows. 34, and Antonio Pigafetta's journal of his voyage with Ferdinand Magellan. Bergreen, Laurence. Note: High over Borneo we encounter some amazing St Elmo's fire lighting up our flight deck windows. New York: Morrow, 2003. St. Elmo's fire is named after St. Erasmus of Formia (also called St. Elmo, one of the two Italian names for St. Erasmus, the other being St. Erasmo), the patron saint of sailors. I express my fears to Captain Bock, who seems nonchalant and imperturbed at the controls. said Emily, "see how it darts upwards,—and now it vanishes! It was the main theme for Joel Schumacher's 1985 film St. Elmo's Fire. "St. Elmo's fire (also St. Elmo's light) is a weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by a coronal discharge from a sharp or pointed object in a strong electric field in the atmosphere (such as those generated by thunderstorms or created by a volcanic erupti [32], On the American television series Rawhide, in a 1959 episode titled "Incident of the Blue Fire", cattle drovers on a stormy night see St. Elmo's Fire glowing on the horns of their steers, which the men regard as a deadly omen. I noticed a strange eerie light coming through the window high above in the Navigator's cabin and as I peered through the dark all around us I saw a startling phenomenon. In Shakespeare's The Tempest (c. 1623), Act I, Scene II, St. Elmo's fire acquires a more negative association, appearing as evidence of the tempest inflicted by Ariel according to the command of Prospero: The fires are also mentioned as "death fires" in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: Later in 18th century and 19th century, literature associated St. Elmo's fire with bad omen or divine judgment, coinciding with the growing conventions of Romanticism and the Gothic novel. However, one of the earliest direct references to St. Elmo's fire made in fiction can be found in Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem Orlando Furioso (1516). ST ELMO’S FIRE LIGHT SHOW A pilot has captured the dramatic light show from a St Elmo’s Fire event while flying through intense thunderstorms. St. Elmo's Fire is an electro-luminescent corona discharge caused by the ionization of the air during thunderstorms inside of a strong electric field. Conditions that can generate St. Elmo's fire are present during thunderstorms, when high voltage differentials are present between clouds and the ground underneath. One of the earliest references to the phenomenon appears in Alcaeus's Fragment 34a about the Dioscuri, or Castor and Pollux. His song has since been sampled various times by artists like Absolutely Fabolous, & more. The first was in the Southern Ocean midway between Cape Town and Sydney and the second was in the Tasman Sea, a day out of Port Jackson: 26 June 1799: At 4 Began to Blow very Hard with Heavy Shower of Rain & Hail and Extraordinary Heavy Clap of Thunder & Lightning when fell a Cormesant [corposant] a Body of Fire which collect from the Lightning & Lodge itself in the Foretopmast Head where it was first seen by our Captain when followed a Heavy Clap of Thunder & Lightning which occasioned it to fall & Burst on the Main Deck the Electrific of the Bursting of this Ball of Fire had such power as to shake several of their Leg not only On the Main Deck as the fire Hung much round the smith Forge being Iron but had the same Effect on the Gun Deck & Orlop [deck] on several of the Convicts.25 July 1799: We were now sourounded with Heavy Thunder & Lightning and the Dismal Element foaming all round us Shocking to see with a Cormesant Hanging at the Maintop mast Head the Seamen was here Shock’d when a flash of Lightning came Burst the Cormesant & Struck two of the Seamen for several Hours Stone Blind & several much hurt in their Eyes.[21]. In Robert Aickman's story "Niemandswasser" (1975), the protagonist, Prince Albrecht von Allendorf, is "known as Elmo to his associates, because of the fire which to them emanated from him". The phenomenon appears to be described first in the Gesta Herwardi,[31] written around 1100 and concerning an event of the 1070s. St. Elmo's Fire is also mentioned in the novel, Castaways of the Flying Dutchman by Brian Jacques. St. Elmo's fire makes an appearance in The Adventures of Tintin comic, Tintin in Tibet, by Hergé. The same luminous blue flame appeared on the plexiglass windows in the nose of the ship, and on the tips of the giant wings it looked as though we were riding the whirlwind through space on a chariot of blue fire. I was soon deprived of these luminaries by a shower of moist snow which immediately began to fall. A group of friends, just out of college, struggle with adulthood. On the children's television series The Mysterious Cities of Gold (1982), Episode 4 shows St. Elmo's Fire affecting the ship as it sailed past the Strait of Magellan. [note 2], Weeks earlier, reportedly on 17 January 1817, a luminous snowstorm occurred in Vermont and New Hampshire. The TV series also referred to St. Elmo's Fire as being a bad omen during the cartoon. rejoined Emily. "There was an inspirational force in Elmo of which the sensitive soon became aware, and which had led to his Spottname or nickname.". He wrote of the episode in a letter to J. S. Henslow that one night when the Beagle was anchored in the estuary of the Río de la Plata: Everything is in flames, — the sky with lightning, — the water with luminous particles, and even the very masts are pointed with a blue flame. Taking off from Geneva, too early in the morning. However, one of the earliest direct references to St. Elmo's fire made in fiction can be found in Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem Orlando Furioso (1516). It is located in the 17th canto (19th in the revised edition of 1532) after a storm has punished the ship of Marfisa, Astolfo, Aquilant, Grifon, and others, for three straight days, and is positively associated with hope: But now St. Elmo's fire appeared, which they had so longed for, it settled at the bows of a fore stay, the masts and yards all being gone, and gave them hope of calmer airs. In Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. describes seeing a corposant in the Horse latitudes of the northern Atlantic Ocean. The footage was captured as part of his winning solo yacht race in 1981. Then, the autopilot disengaged. Ost. They were all watching it carefully, for sailors have a notion that if the corposant rises in the rigging it is a sign of fair weather, but if it comes lower down, there will be a storm. [29] It is also referenced in Homeric Hymn 33 to the Dioscuri who were from Homeric times associated with it. Res. This refers to the voyage made by Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł in 1582–1584. The magnitude of the electric field depends greatly on the geometry (shape and size) of the object. (1996) "The optical spectrum of aircraft St. Elmo's fire", Geophys. Was there any likelihood of danger that this heavy electric tension in the atmosphere all about us may set it off? The whirling giant propellers had somehow become great luminous discs of blue flame. My captor was pacing before me. For example, in Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), during a thunderstorm above the ramparts of the castle: "And what is that tapering of light you bear?" I express my fears to Captain Bock, who seems nonchalant and imperturbed at the controls. It is known as St. Elmo's Fire."[28]. The power of the goddess, having indeed been manifested in previous times, has been abundantly revealed in the present generation. Saint Elmo’s Fire Most pilots incorrectly refer to windshield static discharges as St. Elmo’s Fire. Print. [note 2], Weeks earlier, reportedly on 17 January 1817, a luminous snowstorm occurred in Vermont and New Hampshire. [18], In 15th-century Ming China, Admiral Zheng He and his associates composed the Liujiagang and Changle inscriptions, the two epitaphs of the treasure voyages where they made a reference to St. Elmo's fire as a divine omen of Tianfei (天妃), the goddess of sailors and seafarers.[19]. One of the earliest references to the phenomenon appears in Alcaeus's Fragment 34a about the Dioscuri, or Castor and Pollux. The same luminous blue flame appeared on the plexiglass windows in the nose of the ship, and on the tips of the giant wings it looked as though we were riding the whirlwind through space on a chariot of blue fire. St. Elmo's fire is a form of plasma. It was often considered a bad omen as it played havoc with compasses and equipment". 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