Quoting Franklin: "The electrical fire would, I think, be drawn out of a cloud silently, before it could come near enough to strike...."
On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 6:01 PM, Terry Blanton <hohlr...@gmail.com> wrote: > Sorry, Axil. The purpose of lightning rods are not to attract > lightning. To the contrary, they are for dissipating the charge > buildup in the surrounding earth and thus create a lightning shield. > One company has made quite a business of building dissipation arrays. > > http://www.lightningprotection.com/ > > On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 1:48 PM, Axil Axil <janap...@gmail.com> wrote: >> The phenomena you describe is what Jo Papp used in his engine to activate >> his electrodes, that is, to make them more reactive. Interestingly, >> lightning rods in the 1930s contained alpha emitters to better attract the >> lightning. I believe that this common practice back in the 30s is where Papp >> got his ideas for his electrodes. >> >> >> On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 7:07 AM, Nigel Dyer <l...@thedyers.org.uk> wrote: >>> >>> >>> I have built myself a marx generator which produces an output voltage of >>> the order of 20kV and which can produce a very nice fat spark if the output >>> electrodes are close enough. I have a conventional geiger counter and I >>> find it beeps if it is within 5cm of the high voltage output. The distance >>> suggests alpha particles, but a peice of card makes no difference so I >>> assume that this is an artefact picked up by the large and abrupt change in >>> the voltage gradient. Oddly I could not find any reference to this artefact >>> on the internet. Is this just something that everyone knows but no-one >>> writes down? >>> >>> Nigel >>> >>> >>> >>> >>
