Elmo's Fire

Elmo's Fire, St, is the popular name of an electric appearance sometimes seen, especially in southern climates during thunder-storms, of a brush or star of light at the tops of masts, spires, or other pointed objects. It is also observed at the tops of trees, on the manes of horses, and occasionally about human heads. It is similar in kind to the luminous glow seen at the point when a lightning-rod is working imperfectly, or when there is any very rapid production of electricity (see ELECTRICITY). In the four years 1884-87 eleven cases of St Elmo's fire were recorded at the Ben Nevis observatory. The phenomenon, as seen at sea, was woven by the Greeks into the myth of Castor and Pollux, and was regarded as of friendly omen. The name of Elmo is by many thought to be a corruption of that of Helena, the sister of Castor and Pollux. Others take it to be a corruption of St Erasmus, a Syrian bishop and martyr of the 3d century (Italianised, Ermo, Elmo). The phenomenon has also been called the fire of St Elias, of St Clara, of St Nicolas, and of Helena, as well as composite or composant (i.e. corpus sanctum) on the Suffolk seaboard.