Chapter 3
Early Observations
Publication: Electrical Phenomena During Freezing of Water and Soils
Abstract
According to Drake of Imperial College, London, the first observations of electrical charges produced during the melting of ice were reported by Dinger and Gunn. The charge separation effect during freezing and thawing of water attracted the attention of Blanchard and Day, who interpreted them as arising from an electric double layer at the freezing interface. Simpson, in a lecture delivered to the Royal Meteorological Society on January 28, 1942, described the electricity of clouds and rain. A cloud should be thought of as a mass of non-conducting air in which are suspended various particulates, spheres of water droplets, and ice crystals, which carry the electrical charges. The first observations of these charges carried by atmospheric precipitation were made around 1887 by Elster and Geitel. They captured the precipitation during thunderclouds in an insulated vessel connected to an electrometer and measured the charges.
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References
Blanchard, D. Cg. 1963. Vol. 1 of Progress in oceanography. Oxford: Pergamon.
Day, J. A. 1964. “Production of droplets and salt nuclei by the bursting of air-bubble films.” Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 90 (383): 72–78.
Dinger, J. E. 1965. “Electrification associated with the melting of snow and ice.” J. Atmos. Sci. 22 (2): 162–175.
Dinger, J. E., and R. Gunn. 1946. “Electrical effects associated with a change of state of water.” Terr. Magn. Atmos. Electr. 51: 677.
Drake, J. C. 1968. “Electrification accompanying the melting of ice particles.” Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 94 (400): 176–191.
Gschwend, P. P. 1922. “Beilage zum Jahresbericht der kantonalen.” Lehernstalt in sarnen Pro, 1921/1922, pp. 1–55. Quoted by Chalmers in his book: “Atmospheric Electricity” Pergamon Press, NY. 1957. 515 pages.
MacCready, P. B., and A. Proudfit. 1964. Self-charging of melting ice. Altadena, CA: Atmospheric Research Group. (This research was done under the Atmospheric Research Programme of the National Science Foundation, Ref: 551.574.14: 551.594.25: 536.421).
Mason, B. J. 1957. The physics of clouds. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
Nave, C. R. 2017. “Potential: Charged conducting sphere.” HyperPhysics. Accessed October 7, 2022. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/potsph.html.
Schottky, W. 1918. “Uber spontane stromschwankungen in verschiedenen electrizitatslitern.” Annalen der Physik v 362, No. 23, pp. 541–567.
Simpson, G. C. 1909. “On the electricity of rain and its origin in thunderstorms.” Philos. Trans. R. Soc. A 200: 379–413.
Simpson, G. C. 1942. “The electricity of cloud and rain.” Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 68 (293): 1–34.
Wilson, C. T. R. 1929. “Some thundercloud problems.” J. Franklin Inst. 208 (1): 1–12.
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Electrical Phenomena During Freezing of Water and Soils
Pages: 7 - 11
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8448-7
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© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Published online: Feb 8, 2023
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