Increase Mather was born in New England on June 21, 1639. He was the son of Richard and Katherine Mather. His father was a minister of the gospel so it was only natural that his son followed in his footsteps. As a young man Mather sailed for England and received a Master of Arts at Trinity College in Dublin (Sanseri Int.) After Cromwell's fall and the restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, Mather sailed for Boston, rather than be forced to take up the Anglican communion. He became a prolific writer and was a leading figure in 17th century New England Puritan theology. His Remarkable Providences recorded instances where people had witnessed apparitions (ghosts) and told of miraculous stories of people being delivered from almost certain death at sea only to be saved by what he termed "the works of the lord." His chapter on thunder and lightning records an early occurrence of what I believe to be Ball Lightning. Mather writes:
July 31, 1658, there happened a storm of thunder and lightning with rain, in the town of Marshfield, in Plymouth colony in New England. Mr. Nathanael Thomas, John Phillips, and another belonging to that town, being in the field, as they perceived the storm a coming, betook themselves to the next house for shelter. John Phillips sat down near the chimney, his face towards the inner door. A black cloud flying very low, out of it there came a great ball of fire, with a terrible crack of thunder; the fire-ball fell down just before the said Phillips; he seemed to give a start on his seat, and so fell backward, being struck dead, not the least motion of life appearing in him afterwards. Captain Thomas, who sat directly opposite to John Phillips,about six feet distance from him, and a young child that was then within three feet of him, through the providence God, received no hurt; yet many of the bricks in the chimney were beaten down, the principal rafters split, the battens next the chimney in the chamber were broken, one of the main posts of the house into which the summer was framed rent into shivers, and a great part of it was carried several rod from the house; the door before Phillips, where the fire came down, was broken.
Another possible encounter with Ball Lightning as recorded by Mather:
On the 18th of May (being the Lords day) A.D. 1673, the people of Wenham (their worthy pastor, Mr. Antipas Newman, being lately dead) prevailed with the Reverend Mr. Higginson of Salem to spend that Sabbath amongst them. The afternoon sermon being ended, he, with several of the town, went to Mr. Newman his house. Whilst they were in discourse there about the word and works of God, a thunder-storm arose. After a while, a smart clap of thunder broke upon the house, and especially into the room where they were sitting and discoursing together; it did for the present deafen them all, filling the room with smoke, and a strong smell as of brimstone. With the thunder-clap came in a ball of fire as big as the bullet of a great gun, which suddenly went up the chimney, as also the smoke did. This ball of fire was seen at the feet of Richard Goldsmith, who sat on a leather chair next the chimney, at which instant he fell off the chair on the ground. As soon as the smoke was gone, some in the room endeavoured to hold him up, but found him dead; also the dog that lay under the chair was found stone dead, but not the least hurt done to the chair. All that could be perceived by the man, was, that the hair of his head, near one of his ears, was a little singed. There were seven or eight in that room, and more in the next; yet (through the merciful providence of God) none else had the least harm. This Richard Goldsmith, who was thus slain, was a shoemaker by trade, being reputed a good man by the main; but had blemished his Christian profession by frequent breaking of his promise; it being too common for him (as with too many professors amongst us), to be free and forward in engaging, but backward in performing; yet this must further be added, that half a year before his death, God gave him a deep sense of his evils, that he made it his business, not only that his peace be made with God, but with men also, unto whom he had given just offence. He went up and down bewailing his great sin in his promise-breaking; and was become a very conscientious and lively Christian, promoting holy and edifying discourses, as he had occasion. At that very time that he was struck dead, he was speaking of some passages in the sermon he had newly heard, and his last words were, Blessed be the Lord.
In early September 1998 my wife and I decided to take a road trip from my adopted state of North Carolina to Vermont. Along the way we stopped at many historical sites which dotted the landscape. One of these stops was at Saratoga Springs in upstate New York. We arrived late on the evening of September 6th and searched high and wide for a hotel. Everywhere we looked we were dismayed to find the ubiquitous "NO VACANCY" sign lit up in all of its neon glory. We were about to despair and resign ourselves to spending the night in the car when we found a small motel with only one word lit, "VACANCY." I thought that perhaps the neon letters "NO" had flamed out years before, especially after getting a second look at the place. In fact, I was almost convinced of it! It was a seedy looking dump with one of those signs in the window that said "Color TV." Are you serious? Color TV? That alone will get me to stop every time. Needless to say, it was not this thirty year old antiquated sign that had me pulling into the motel parking lot. It was the lack of sleep that had me turning the doorknob of the front office.
"You are lucky folks" said an old man sitting behind the front desk. "We have one room left." I thought to myself "perhaps there is a reason why no one has taken that room...I paid the old man cash since that was the only payment he would take, and he handed me a key to the room. "Have a good nights rest." he said in a way reminding me of Norman Bates. "I'm sure we will "I remember thinking as a sickening vision of cockroaches and bedbugs passed through my head. The next morning we were going to pay a visit to the Saratoga battlefield a few miles down the road. At that moment, however, after being on the road all day, we could think of nothing but sleep. It had been a nice drive through Pennsylvania and New York, and we did not run into any foul weather along the way. I did notice a few drops of rain on the windshield of the Firebird as I pulled into the motel, but I did not think any more about it until after we had turned in and the sky decided to open up. Soon we could hear the rumbling of thunder in the distance, and see the flashes of lightning through the cheap curtain covering the window in our room. Slowly the thunder became louder, and the flashes of lightning more frequent and intense. it soon became one of the most violent storms that I had ever experienced with strong wind gust added to the fury. After a while the storm abated somewhat and the thunder became more distant as it receded to parts not relevant to our station. I thought that I might actually get a little bit of sleep on the rock hard bed when I suddenly became aware of an illuminating glow at the window. Curious, i got up and parted the curtain slightly and found myself looking at something across the street that had me a bit perplexed. I can best describe it as a globe of light, almost too bright to look at directly. It appeared to be about the size and shape of a basketball, but I must admit that I could have been deceived by the distance. The ball of light was pulsating as if it were attempting to increase in size. It was also moving in a small arc toward the sky. It appeared to be a good twenty feet or so off the ground. After watching it for ten or fifteen seconds I called my wife, who was just getting up, when suddenly the flaming ball exploded in a blinding flash which caused me to temporarily lose my vision. It was sort of like looking at the arc of a welders torch. After slowly regaining my eyesight I began to ponder the cause of this strange light. I first believed that it was a transformer that exploded. However, even indoors with the door shut and the window closed I still should have been able to hear the loud pop from one of these exploding, but it was a silent explosion. The next morning i examined the ground where i had viewed the fireball, but could find no trace of a transformer. So if it wasn't a transformer that I observed on the evening of September 6th, 1998 what might it have been? I can think of no other possible explanation than to say that the mysterious globe of light was Ball Lightning.
Early depiction of Ball Lightning
Mather had never heard of Ball Lightning. To him these atmospheric disturbances were the result of Gods hand. We still do not know what causes Ball Lightning. Several theories have been proposed. A recent article in National Geographic suggests a few possibilities. One of them is that plasma clouds are made up of charged particles that form new atoms. These charged plasma bodies emit a light that we see as Ball Lightning. Another competing theory suggests that traditional lightning may trigger the phenomena. This makes sense seeing that most cases of Ball Lightning seem to occur during or just after a thunderstorm. This theory holds that right after a lightning strike, a vapor forms which then condenses into particles which amalgamate with oxygen. This oxygen rich environment then burns away. The result being a massive amount of electrical energy that has created a chemical reaction. This causes the glow that we see in Ball Lightning.
www.fireballhistory.com
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