Re: [TCML] Extremely LARGE spark. 2

[gary350@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I grew up on a farm in the planes states everyone had lightning rods on their house and barn.  The cable from the roof to ground was a 5/8" diameter braided wire.  It looked like about 10 wires each wire about 1/16" diameter braided into a hollow tube shape.  Lightning rods were spaced about 10 ft apart on the roof.  The cable ran right down the center of the roof and down both ends of the house attached to a ground rod on each end of the house.  Faraday cage is what makes it work.  The barn also had the same lightning rods setup.  I remember seeing lightning strike the barn once the cables light up like a white laser bean for a split second. After the storm had passed I ran to the barn expecting the cables to be melted or something but they looked fine no different then before the storm.  The weathered copper was still green looking like before.  

I think 1/2" copper plumber tubing will work for lightning rods and cable grounds. I am going to put copper tubing on my roof with a T fitting every 10 ft.  I will mount the T straight up with a 3 ft section of copper tubing sticking straight up from each T.  The 3 ft pieces will be my lightning rods.  I can run the copper tubing down the side of the house to an earth ground.






-----Original Message-----
>From: Peter Terren <pterren@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Jun 5, 2008 4:29 AM
>To: Tesla Coil Mailing List <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: [TCML] Extremely LARGE spark.
>
> I worry about lightning at out house with a 30ft antenna on top of the 
>house, on top of a hill.  The only earth wire I can see is a small green 
>wire to a star picket segment.
>Most of the lightning protection wiring I have seen on top of buildings 
>looks like thick steel rope (but might be aluminium). Our hospital had a 
>recent hit onto this type of cable and lost only a few electricals.
>
>I have some 2x1/2 inch laminated flexible copper bus bar type wiring but not 
>enough to get from the aerial to ground with a reasonable straight channel.
>
>What would people suggest?
>
>As an aside, I have been approached to film a TC and my 200kA cap bank 
>firing for a lightning segement to show in the UK in a series on severe 
>weather.
>
>Peter   www.tesladownunder.com
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
>> Of gary350@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>> Saturday night we had another thunder storm and tornado warnings. 
>> Lightning
>> struck the house.  There is a 19" hole in the roofing shingles and plywood
>> on the roof.  Directly below the 19" hole is a 7" diameter hole in the 
>> sheet
>> rock ceiling in the upstairs bedroom.  The bedroom floor has a 28" 
>> diameter
>> hole in it.  Down stairs the 28" diameter hole is directly over the
>> refrigerator.  The refrigerator measures 30" x 33".  Several of the 
>> circuit
>> brakers in the main panel were tripped.  The 36" TV in the living room is
>> fried.  There was no fire and not even a sign of anything burned.  All the
>> holes look like a shotgun blast made them.  The wood around the edge of 
>> each
>> hole is splintered like all the wood that is gone was ripped away. We were
>> in the living room watching TV at the time when it happened it sounded 
>> like
>> a stick of dynamite went off in the kitchen. The TV made some cracking
>> sounds and went off. There was a large flash of light from the kitchen 
>> area
>> that reflected through the house. There was also a strong smell of smoke
>> like something had burned.  The burned smell had to be the wood that was
>> missing from the holes because there was very little wood pieces laying
>> round to clean up. The Insurance Company is refusing to pay for the TV 
>> since
>> it was in the living room 20 feet away it could not have been struck by
>> lightning.  Allstate is being a jerk, your not in good hands with 
>> Allstate.
>> The variation in hole sizes is very interesting.
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