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Posted by TKM on January 25, 2008, 11:00 am
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>> Hello,
>>
>> I have a question.
>>
>> About 15-20 years ago while in Greeley Colorado I had a friend take me to
>> a college library. He took me to an area in the library he had remembered
>> from several years earlier. In that area was some very interesting books
>> on power. This was the non-fiction section.
>>
>> In one book there was a story of a guy that did an experiment. He
>> suspended a metal (cable?) grid/mesh on wooden power poles that he had
>> hammered into the ground. This mesh covered huge amounts of ground. I
>> don't remember the size. He tied it together and left one end of the of
>> the mesh hanging and he saw huge sparks going from the grid to the
>> ground.
>> From what I remember he was actually generating electricity from the
>> magnetic field of the earth.
>>
>> Does anyone know of any books on this subject? These books were very old
>> at that time and I can't imagine them still being there. Greeley is too
>> far from where I live today but I'd like to read through them. I'll check
>> out local libraries but didn't know exactly where to start.
>>
>> I am under the understanding that metal framed buildings have to
>> ground for similar reasons. I know there's also lightning to deal with. I
>> have also read that airplanes generate an electric field flying.
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> Steve
>
> It seems like I saw something about a satellite once that had a very
> long, trailing wire that produced electricity. A satellite would have
> a big advantage, though, assuming it was moving and not in stationary
> orbit.
A conductor has to move in a controlled way through a magnetic field for
useful electric power to be produced. That kind of useful power involves
both electric and magnetic fields. But sparks (lightning) can be produced
from just a high-voltage electric field at very little current. An
insulated grid could certainly gain a charge (static electricity) from
passing clouds, wind, blowing dust, etc. and, once charged to a high enough
voltage would arc over to ground. Think of what happens on a cold, dry day
when you touch the metal of your car after moving around in a winter coat or
heavy sweater. That kind of electricity is very difficult to control,
however. It's similar to the problem of harnessing lightning to power your
house. But many have tried to solve that problem -- Benjamin Franklin, for
example.
Another person, who worked at solving such problems in a more practical way
was a brilliant electrical engineer, Nikola Tesla. There's a very readable,
almost non-technical review of his work, which was done during the 1880s, in
Jill Jonnes book, "Empires of Light" (2003).
TKM
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