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 >> >> >> >> >
