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Shortly after Röntgen's publication about a new kind of rays, a dispute about priority claims began. Röntgen was not the first researcher to produce X-rays nor the first to take X-ray images. An analysis of the history of cathode ray research in the 19th century reveals ample evidence that researchers before Röntgen had already produced X-rays, albeit without knowing this. Most of them, for their part, did not claim any priority, some did so rather casually. The German-Hungarian physicist Philipp Lenard, a co-founder of German Physics, considered himself a "true discoverer". It remains to be said, however, that he, like many others before him, failed to recognize the character of the new radiation. It was Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, with his three scientific publications on X-rays, who laid the foundations for their physical clarification and paved the way for the success story of their application in a variety of fields that continues to this day., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier GmbH.. All rights reserved.)

Gas discharge properties have been calculated, considering electrons, negative ions, positive ions and the metastable singlet delta oxygen molecules, to assess the possibility of ball lightning resulting from an electrical discharge. It is found that if the metastable molecules have very large densities of the order of 1017 cm−3, a stable ball-like plasma of electrons, positive ions, negative ions and metastable molecules is obtained, with electron densities of ~1011 cm−3. The ball can exist independent of the electrodes. There is an equilibrium within the ball between the detachment of electrons from negative ions by the metastables and the re-attachment of electrons to oxygen atoms reforming negative ions. As the ball is highly conducting, electric fields within the ball are very low. Such a high density of metastable molecules could be accumulated from corona pulses from a high voltage point within any structure such as a house or aircraft fuselage. Large electric fields would be present at the tips of such metal conductors within an ambient electric field existing during a thunderstorm. It is also calculated that significant electric fields exist at the edges of the plasma ball to match the ball potential with the ambient potential and that these fields can be sufficient to excite further metastable molecules and increase the ball lifetime. • Calculations indicate that the formation, energy source and lifetime of Ball Lightning can be explained by the production of singlet delta metastable states of oxygen. • Metallic cylinders such as pipes in houses or the metal fuselage of an aircraft can amplify ambient electric fields from thunderclouds and produce ionization. • Pulsed electric discharges at points near the tips of cylinders can, in a few seconds, produce large numbers of singlet delta metastables. • High metastable densities detach electrons from negative ions and can produce a conducting ball that is independent of the electrodes. • The lifetime of the ball depends on the number of metastables produced initially and by electric fields in the sheath regions of the ball. • Red and yellow radiation is produced from dimer and trimer metastable collisions and the high fields at the edge of the ball. • The metastable mechanism explains the observation of a dozen ball lightnings occurring about 5 km from an extremely large lightning strike in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]