Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!fluke!strong From: strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: Free power from 'whispering wires' ?? Keywords: power transmission Message-ID: <4353@fluke.COM> Date: 7 Jul 88 18:50:38 GMT References: <3170@tekgen.BV.TEK.COM> <5373@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> <537@ablnc.ATT.COM> Sender: news@tc.fluke.COM Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA Lines: 24 In article <537@ablnc.ATT.COM> maxwell@ablnc.ATT.COM (Robert Maxwell) writes: }In article <5373@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, sparks@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Steve Gaarder) writes: }> In article <3170@tekgen.BV.TEK.COM> steves@tekgen.BV.TEK.COM (Steve Shellans) writes: }> 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 can't verify if the story is true, but I have heard that farmers along }the Columbia River tapped the power generated by the dams on the river. } }I was told that they used insulated wire for their fences and were able }to light their homes and barns with it. Get real! I've heard this one since I was a kid. It's one of the great body of Urban Myths, and goes right along with the story about Standard Oil suppressing the carburetor that would give every car 100miles per gallon. -- Norm (strong@tc.fluke.com)