Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Mid-air lightning strike

[Peter Rychel (dino308gt4]

I’ve seen that before. It’s an awesome effect. Obviously they have to be careful not to come anywhere near the tower itself (anything beyond those glass/ceramic insulators).

 

Have you ever welded in the rain, or in a shop with a wet floor? Yep, that wakes you up in the morning. A trick I “discovered” when setting up a TIG machine at work many years ago, if you have it set to DC polarity (negative work-piece), place the torch handle near your bare finger tip with the tungsten electrode about a 1/16” away and hit the trigger. You’ll create a nice little static arc which you can pull away and hold it for about ¾” to 1” long. Just gives a slight tingling feeling. It freaks everyone out when I show it to them.

 

Peter

 

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From: Rick Moseley
Sent: October 10, 2021 1:27 PM
To: PeterGT4
Cc: The FerrariList
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] Mid-air lightning strike

 

...Think of those guys wearing the mail suits that work off of helicopters on high tension wires... as much as 3/4 million volts.  They're isolated from the ground.  They reach out with a pole and pull a huge spark then it's gone once they touch the wire and all bodies are at the same potential.   They slide off onto the HT wires and do their work.  Sure the static in the air will make their hair stand up, but they feel little else.    Now, if someone were to lower a cable from the helicopter to the ground then have the guy reach out with a pole, it'd kill the guy and blow the helicopter.