Some of you may recall my recent post about having erected a 99 foot tower to hold a wind measuring and weather station aloft at my place. The very tip of the tower is a needle point sharpened 1/2" diameter brass rod that is well grounded through a long #3 AWG copper cable to the earth below. I was awoken to the sound of thunder in the wee hours this morning and since this was the first lightning storm in the area since putting up my new tower I was eager to see if there would be any corona discharge off the lightning rod tip. It was very dim but clearly visible through binoculars. I guestimate the discharge to have been about a foot and a half in length and it looked EXACTLY like this discharge off a vacuum tube Tesla coil I show here operating in my lab a few years ago. Way cool! I did not witness a strike this time.
Lightning phenomenon
- Thread starter Rob
- Start date
A tabeletop laboratory device like this with lethal high voltage all exposed and the ease to set things on fire is not a safe 'toy'. This device is processing over a kilowatt of power with an 833A triode, the tube some of you know as the big power tube in the famous Wavac monoblock amplifier. Yes the plate is glowing orange hot!
