catching lightning..

[John Rumm]

Well that's kind of how it is stored by nature. You would presumably need something of similar size.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Lightning isn't AC.

[Jules Richardson]

Ditch the battery part, and you've just re-invented the dodgem car.

[Andy Dingley]

Yes. A less farcical suggestion for catching this energy has been to pull it from charged clouds _before_ it builds to the level where they start arcing over (kite, wire, Leyden jar, bigger).

[The Natural Philosopher]

nah, the 'off your trolley' bus.

[Andy Dingley]

here from Lowestoft?

[Clint Sharp]

In message , NT writes

Yeth Marthter, I thall thee to it immediately..

[ARWadsworth]

Wow. How the hell did you find that photo?

Adam

[Bruce]

>>>Wow.>

Francis Frith was one of Britain's biggest producers of postcards, and has gradually bought up other producers including their archives. The result is an outstanding collection of images that portray a wide range of subjects and locations over a period of more than a century. I'm sorry if that sounds like an advert but the Frith collection is an invaluable help in my research.

[Andy Dingley]

In the best pf Blue Peter traditions, I'd prepared it already last week (by sheer coincidence)

Also this one:

[Harry Bloomfield]

The Natural Philosopher submitted this idea :

Too the best of my knowledge - We have had one local (within 100yds) strike in the 30 years that I have been living here, so even had that been counted as a direct strike, you would be waiting an awful long time for your weeks worth of free energy.

[Harry Bloomfield]

NT wrote on 08/03/2010 :

OK, so far....

It is actually DC, generated by movement and a built up stored DC charge.

[Jules Richardson]

Yeah, although it does depend on where you are. I can probably count on 5 strikes a year within that kind of range (well, I'd say 500 feet) up here. Trees don't half go bang when they get hit.

In the spirit of the previous post, that's still only 5 weeks of energy, though.

Questions: If flying a kite in a storm, surely the kite string only takes a fraction of the hit before something vapourises and the 'leccy takes an alternate path? What size cable would be needed to 'fly' some kind of collector array and repeatedly channel that kind of energy to ground? (are lightning conductors designed to typically only work a handful of times before burning out, or are they meaty enough to last for as long as it takes for the metal to corrode?)

cheers

Jules

[Jules Richardson]

[Huge]

IIRC, the map of isostrikes I have here somewhere (in a paper copy of the British Standard for the protection of structures against lightning strike) averages out at 1 strike per sq.km. per annum over the UK as a whole, but the average is severely skewed by the fact that there are far more strikes in built-up areas - the map looks like a map of population density rather than lightning strikes per sq.km. per year...

There's also a scary graph showing current flow during a strike, with the vertical axis in units to 10s of kiloamperes. Fortunately, the time axis is in units of milliseconds. Still quite a long time to be carrying 2 or 3 kiloamperes, though.

Bear in mind there are two different kinds of lightning; negative going and positive going, which strike in opposite directions. Positive going lightning carries a lot more energy that negative going, but fortunately is much rarer.

Yep.

What usually happens is the string vapourises and the lightning flows down the plasma formed thereby.

Lightning conductors are designed to dissipate "leaders". Lightning strikes down a conductive path formed between the end points, called a "leader". If you can dissipate the leader, but means of an earthed point, there won't be any lightning.

The Wikipedia article looks quite good.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Jules Richardson laid this down on his screen :

Based on my own single strike experience, I think I would be inclined to find somewhere less dangerous to live :-)

It hit the church travelled down the conductor on the spire, which burnt out and it then passed through the wall into the tower and took half a ton of plaster off the wall.

The same strike's local field blew my rather expensive at the time, satellite system, a printer and a modem. It also passed down the above ground phone lines, took out part of the telephone exchange and melted several lines.

This was about 3 am, I was sound asleep in bed and whether due to the sudden awaking or due to the near field - I actually launched up from the surface of the bed.

It will vapourise, but once the path to ground is started, the discharge will continue along roughly the same path.

Probably something of similar size to a lightning conductor or even bigger due to the increased flow due to its lower resistance. These are around 1.5 x 0.25 inches.

It depends on the strength of the strike - the one on the local church tower was not adequately sized on this occasion, but was perfectly adequate for 100+ years before.

[James Salisbury]

I do know of a Peta watt laser that can be run off a large diesel gen set. The capacitor bank is top left

[D.M.Chapman]

is interesting (well, it is when storms are about - not much at the moment :-))

Darren

[Rod]

And an even better trick would be a pocket sized device for storing the energy from a falling star. That should last forever never fading away.

(Apologies, Perry.)

[geoff]

Prius and a kite