🚀 go-pugleaf

Thank you gentlemen for supporting my original statement so elegantly... I
couldn't have said it better myself.

"Lightning rods DO attract lightning..."

As a kid I had a 64 ft Amateur Radio Tower with a large triple element
beam that not only towered over our house but both neighbours as well.  I
told them that it was a great lightening protector and it was indeed...
lightening would *regularly* strike it instead of the houses.  I didn't
have to worry about *vapourized wires* since it was mounted on a base with
3 augers drilled into the ground.

The neighbours were sort of pleased, but they still objected to the
haunting effect of the flourescent tubes in their kitchen flickering in
the middle of the night as I sent morse code (even though they were *off*)

- Denis

On Fri, 16 Sep 1994, Pete Lohstreter wrote:

> According to Ed Henke:
> >
> > On Wed, 14 Sep 1994, Doug Michael Benning wrote:
> >
> > > Denis says in part:
> > > attract and merely conduct the  waves in the same way that a lightening
> > > rod
> > > does
> > > electricity?
> > >
> > > Does a lightning rod really attract electricity???? If it does I am
> > > moving mine to my next door neighbor's house!!!!!!!
> >
> > Doug,
> >
> > The lightning rod is the sharpest curve on the building and it is usually
> > the high point on the building.  The excess charge on the building builds
> > up at the point of greatest ccurvature.  The excess charge attracts
> > oppositely charged ions in the air.  This neutralizes the electric charge
> > on the building.  (bleeds off the charge)  If the charge does not bleed
> > off fast enough, and lightning strikes the house.  The hope is that it
> > will strike the rod which is grounded instead of the house where the
> > lightning will bounce around on the house until it "finds" a ground.
> > This causes holse and fires.  Putting the rod on your neighbor's house
> > will only serve to protect his or her house nad not yours.
>
> Ed,
> I think the key word in your above reply is 'hope'.  The lightning rods
> that I have seen are grounded with either 10 or 12 B&S gauge wire.  The
> current limit of either of these wire sizes is significantly less than
> the current surge of a lightning strike.  I think that, at best, you can
> hope for is that there will not be further damage to your house from the
> flash vaporization of the ground wire. 8-)
>
> Pete:
>
> >
> >         Practice safe electrostatics.  Don't put your house out there
> > without protection!
> >
> > Ed henke
> > Pittsburgh PA
> >
> >
> > > > Just a thought--
> > >
> > > Doug benning
> > > Rockwall HS
> > >
> >