A particularly vivid ball lightning account from 1901 describes a luminous sphere entering a European dwelling during a severe thunderstorm and traversing multiple rooms before disappearing. The witness provided an unusually detailed description of the phenomenon's interaction with the environment: the sphere illuminated the rooms it passed through with a soft, steady glow distinctly different from the harsh flash of ordinary lightning. Objects in its path were unaffected, but the witness reported a tingling sensation and the smell of ozone when the sphere passed within arm's reach.
The 1901 account exemplifies the consistent features of indoor ball lightning encounters reported across centuries: the sphere moves at a slow, deliberate pace; it appears to navigate around obstacles; it enters and exits through openings in the building envelope; and it leaves witnesses shaken but physically unharmed. The psychological impact of such close encounters — watching a glowing, apparently intelligent sphere of unknown origin float through one's living space — is a recurring theme in ball lightning literature.