Jack Painter wrote:
"Modelimg examples cited below appear to be incorrect for lightning,
similar to how modeling for ocean weaves cannot be done in a
bathtub,---."

As far as I know there is one set of rules which rules electrical
phenomena, not rules for weak snd onother set of rules for strong
electricity. Lightning is so stromg that it sometimes seems to play by
its own rules, but it really does not.

Jack`s waves in a bathtub metaphor was particularly ironnic. Franklin`s
experiments proved the electricity he was studying was the same stuff on
whatever scale. He charged Leyden jars from the clouds then used the
stored charge to conduct other experiments with the stored charge as his
contempories were doing. Franklin found that hemp twine was a conductor
of sorts while silk was an insulator.

Irony springs from Jacj`s bathtub metaphor. According to the December
2001 issue of "Modern Maturity":
"Alexander Graham Bell - yes, of telephone fame - also invented the
hydrofoil, a boat that rides on a duchion of air. He tested models of
this invention in his tub."

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI