Xref: utzoo rec.boats:4202 sci.physics:13800 sci.electronics:13154
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!icdoc!tmp
From: tmp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Trevor Peacock)
Newsgroups: rec.boats,sci.physics,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: St Elmo's Fire (was Re: Lightning)
Keywords: Induction, space charge, capacitance, point action
Message-ID: <2139@gould.doc.ic.ac.uk>
Date: 27 Jul 90 08:22:19 GMT
References: <1990Jul18.111525.5749@ioe.lon.ac.uk> <richard.648454274@snap.la.locus.com> <kimf.648884649@arrester>
Reply-To: tmp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Trevor Peacock)
Organization: Dept. of Computing, Imperial College, London, UK.
Lines: 20


 kimf@arrester.caltech.edu (Kim Dorian Flowers) writes:
>
> Anyway of hooking up to this potential difference and drawing some
> energy from it? :)
>
> Kim Flowers

Well, I seem to remember reading how experimenters in the early days obtained 
their high voltage supplies from insulated wires held aloft on poles and strung
across the countryside. The end of the wire was brought into the lab and 
connected to a metal sphere to hold the charge. There was mention that the 
charge increased significantly when it was snowing.

I haven't tried this - my garden is a bit too small :)

I think the book was called "the man who was frankenstein" or something like
that. 

Trev..