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Regarding "AFAIK you could get serious burns [2][3] even when antenna was not powered any more", does it mean I can get "free" electricity from "thin air"? Did

by hippich 11y ago

Regarding "AFAIK you could get serious burns [2][3] even when antenna was not powered any more", does it mean I can get "free" electricity from "thin air"? Did someone try this already?

upofadown 11y ago
You sure can. The normal fair weather voltage gradient in the atmosphere is around 100V per metre. When there are close thunderstorms this increases. Unfortunately for energy collection air is quite insulative. That's also fortunate in that we don't get shocks all the time just from standing around in an environment where your head is 200V different than your feet. Popular Science once ran an article that showed how to build an electrostatic motor that ran off the atmospheric electricity you could get with something like a wire used as a kite string. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_electricity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_electricity
- jonahx 11y ago
  What's required for a tower to become electrified from the air? I feel like I've played on other metal towers in my life that were inert...
  - upofadown 11y ago
    Most tall towers are aggressively grounded. You would need a tower insulated from the ground. A tower used as an element for a low frequency antenna for instance. I strongly suspect that those large black interlocking rings are used as a spark gap for lightning protection in the absence of a solid ground. Once you were on the tower you wouldn't notice anything. You would have to get between the ungrounded tower and ground.
    - jloughry 11y ago
      The interlocking rings are an Austin Transformer [1]. It's the only way to feed electricity to the aircraft warning beacons on the tower without frying the power supply for the light bulbs. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_transformer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_transformer
DanBC 11y ago
There are a few "art installations" where people put fluorescent tubes under power lines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXhZvyGtMrk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXhZvyGtMrk http://www.richardbox.com/press.htm http://www.richardbox.com/press.htm If I lived close enough I'd be trying to work out some kind of trickle charger for phones.

by hippich 11y ago

Regarding "AFAIK you could get serious burns [2][3] even when antenna was not powered any more", does it mean I can get "free" electricity from "thin air"? Did someone try this already?

upofadown 11y ago

You sure can. The normal fair weather voltage gradient in the atmosphere is around 100V per metre. When there are close thunderstorms this increases. Unfortunately for energy collection air is quite insulative. That's also fortunate in that we don't get shocks all the time just from standing around in an environment where your head is 200V different than your feet. Popular Science once ran an article that showed how to build an electrostatic motor that ran off the atmospheric electricity you could get with something like a wire used as a kite string. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_electricity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_electricity

jonahx 11y ago
What's required for a tower to become electrified from the air? I feel like I've played on other metal towers in my life that were inert...
- upofadown 11y ago
  Most tall towers are aggressively grounded. You would need a tower insulated from the ground. A tower used as an element for a low frequency antenna for instance. I strongly suspect that those large black interlocking rings are used as a spark gap for lightning protection in the absence of a solid ground. Once you were on the tower you wouldn't notice anything. You would have to get between the ungrounded tower and ground.
  - jloughry 11y ago
    The interlocking rings are an Austin Transformer [1]. It's the only way to feed electricity to the aircraft warning beacons on the tower without frying the power supply for the light bulbs. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_transformer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_transformer

DanBC 11y ago

There are a few "art installations" where people put fluorescent tubes under power lines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXhZvyGtMrk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXhZvyGtMrk http://www.richardbox.com/press.htm http://www.richardbox.com/press.htm If I lived close enough I'd be trying to work out some kind of trickle charger for phones.