Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!agate!ig!uwmcsd1!dogie!uwvax!oddjob!gargoyle!att!mtune!codas!ablnc!maxwell
From: maxwell@ablnc.ATT.COM (Robert Maxwell)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Free power from 'whispering wires' ??
Summary: Heard it.
Keywords: power transmission
Message-ID: <537@ablnc.ATT.COM>
Date: 6 Jul 88 19:58:42 GMT
References: <3170@tekgen.BV.TEK.COM> <5373@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Organization: AT&T, Maitland, Florida
Lines: 33

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:
> >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 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.

The other difference in the story as I heard it was that the power company
( a U. S. Gov't corporation along the lines of TVA ) was able to stop the
practice by charging the farmers with theft of the power.

I think the name of the corporation was Bonneville, but I am sure that
someone will correct me or give us the full name of the corporation 
(whether or not we really want to know.) :-)
-- 
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R. M. Maxwell   AT&T IMS             |  I speak for nobody-
Maitland, FL    ablnc!jezebel!bob    |  not even myself.
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