catching lightning..

[geoff]

In message , Andy Dingley writes

Hmmm

ISTR something like that in the dim distant past

NO idea where it was though

[geoff]

Waddya mean?

These things worked

[Gib Bogle]

Ooh, that's cruel!

[Gib Bogle]

Heh. It could be a long trip.

[Bruce]

There was something similar at Llandudno at the root of the pier.

Long time ago, though!

[Gib Bogle]

Clever!

[tony sayer]

In article , Harry Bloomfield scribeth thus

What this church had a lightning conductor that vaporised?. Whatever was it a bit of mains earth lead?..

Not as large as that.. the stuff we normally use is Inch by eighth but it comes in several shapes and sizes. What's getting fashionable is to use Aluminium as Copper gets nicked all too easily by the Pikey's...

>> (are lightning conductors designed to typically only work a handful of

They are usually designed for a hundred years or so;!..

What has the power if the strikes gone up or was this seriously corroded?..

[The Natural Philosopher]

When I lived in Jo'burg, a lightning strike within 50 meters was a weekly occurrence.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The key is to actually discharge the clouds before lightning occurs.

There's a few megavolts there you could tap at small current.

Probably the best use of windmills anyway. They could do the capturing;-)

[Clot]

Agreed, I was just about to make that comment to Geoff prior to reading your post! When that disappeared though, I cannot recall though certainly there circa 1955/57.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember NT saying something like:

Drivel would know. Connect it to a Priapism.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Bruce saying something like:

Ditto.

Might have been. I recall going to N.Wales as a nipper in 1960-ish. I never went anywhere near Lowestoft.

[ARWadsworth]

[dennis]

The main problem will be the currently unknown environmental problems caused by disrupting the storms.

[NT]

I've always understood that when it strikes oscillation occurs, hence despite originating as dc it ends up ac.

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

But if you caught it, it wouldn't bounce would it? Simples!

eek.

[dom]

Can you quote a source or reference for that?

[John Rumm]

I thought it was a first ionisation strike - small current not particularly visible, and then a much mire substantial return strike following the path of ionised air created by the initial strike. Hence bidirectional, but not AC in the accepted sense?

[Huge]

Correct. The initial ionisation being the "leader".

[The Natural Philosopher]

However the direction of ionisation is not the direction of current flow, by and large.