[Jim O.]

Hello all,

 This is my first post here and off the bat I should admit I am no kind of organic chemist whatsoever, but as an electronics and high voltage arc experimenter (tesla coils and related plasma stuff) my question to you chemistry scholars is inspired by the following article: 

http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/caseof.html

 A hydrocarbon is made up of hydrogen and various kinds of carbon molecules, correct? My experiments show that when ignited, hydrocarbon substances such as presto-log fragments exhibit a negative temperature coefficient for electrical resistance per unit of volume.  This quality is especially interesting for high current arc experiments that I am thinking of doing

My question is this:

Is there a convenient way of getting a solid substance such as elemental lithium powder to absorb hydrogen from an environment of hydrogen gas (creating "lithium hydride", perhaps)?

The idea would be to then combine a very small amount of the hydrated lithium powder with hydrocarbon "stuff" and ignite that, hopefully achieving a slow burn.  After I get the slow burn going and the sample's electrical resistance goes down then I dump a big current from a capacitor bank into it.

 Will a ball lightning be created?

Just wondering....

Regards,

Jim O. (Jim Ostrowski)

P.S.To view my stuff, click here!.