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The ball of fire that comes down the chimney and into Taragon's living room in The Seven Crystal Balls: is that a natural phenomenon? Has this sort of thing been known to happen and if so have such fire balls been known to cause injuries to people?

I know that there is the connection to Rascar Capac's mummy, but I've always wondered about the way Calculus just sits calmly in his chair while the others in the room panic. If fireballs are harmless then he, as a scientist, would know it better than the others, but is it really the case? And have fireballs been known to actually go into homes?

To all you Tintin fans out there, Merry Christmas!

It's ball lightning. Read all about it. Merry Christmas.

I think, while I agree with Mr. The Beeper that ball lightning is what Hergé based the phenomenon on in the book, that it is still a controversial subject as to its reality or not (as you will see if you read the Wikipedia article).

I was in France in the summer of 1985, around the time of Bastille Day, and thus LiveAid. My sister and friends went into the local village for a fireworks display, and I stayed in to watch highlights of the concert on TV. I didn’t get to see much of it, as there then arrived a huge electrical storm, with tremendous amounts of lightning, and high wind. Initially I thought I was seeing fireworks as it approached, as there were regular flashes back and forth along the horizon, then getting closer, but it was in fact lightning striking and arcing between pylons or telephone poles, climaxing in an almighty flash as the pole at the end of the garden was struck. In amongst all this, several coloured balls of light shot over the roof of the house.

What I don’t know is if this was ball lightning, sparks carried on the wind from something which had been hit earlier, or perhaps even a firework or two blown off course ((my sister was actually hit by a falling rocket casing as she walked around the village, away from the display, which cut her head, and burnt the back off her shoe, so they were going astray that night). It didn’t look to me like a firework would have, being a ball as it travelled, rather than a sudden burst of light, but I really don’t know what they were.

The weirdest effect of the lightning wasn’t even actually the balls: I was more struck by the fact that in the biggest flashes you had a bit where the flash made the sky white, and the rest of the scene (the garden and the pole, for example) were in silhouette, then it sort of flipped, and the garden was bright as day, but with a night sky. I tried to photograph this, although sadly the pics came out rather blurry as there was nothing to focus on.

Well there is your explanation, jock. Was someone on the phone to Cutts?

You know it's dangerous to telephone during a storm?

;-)

Wow, Jock. That's a really interesting story. I've never heard any eyewitness accounts of the phenomenon before.