Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!sparks From: sparks@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Steve Gaarder) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: Free power from 'whispering wires' ?? Keywords: power transmission Message-ID: <5373@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> Date: 5 Jul 88 15:11:20 GMT References: <3170@tekgen.BV.TEK.COM> Reply-To: sparks@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Steve Gaarder) Organization: Computer Aided Design Instructional Facility, Cornell Univ. Lines: 22 In article <3170@tekgen.BV.TEK.COM> steves@tekgen.BV.TEK.COM (Steve Shellans) writes: >If you have an AC transmission line, each wire has a >60Hz magnetic field around it (in USA). If you place an inductor (at ground >level) such that it is closer to one wire than the others, it seems to me >you could draw power out of it. Well, you probably could. There's a story I heard once: A transmission line somewhere crossed over a number of farmers' fields. Some one figured out that if you wound a coil of wire around two of the towers near the ground, you could draw power from it. Soon all the farmers in the area were doing it, and the power company freaked out when the losses on that line went through the roof as a result. It is said that the power company couldn't stop the farmers, and wound up giving them free electricity if the agreed to stop this inductive tapping. (I have no idea how true this story is) -- Steve Gaarder Cornell University, 171 Hollister, Ithaca NY 14853 607-255-5389 UUCP: {cmcl2,shasta,rochester,uw-beaver}!cornell!batcomputer!sparks BITNET: sparks@crnlthry.BITNET ARPA: sparks@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu