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From: aduncan@rhea.trl.oz (Allan Duncan)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.electronics,sci.physics
Subject: Re: "Stray Voltage" on 60 Minutes
Message-ID: <3357@trlluna.trl.oz>
Date: 11 Apr 91 23:11:22 GMT
References: <1991Apr9.204135.108@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
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 wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil (Will Martin) writes:
 
>There was a 60 Minutes segment the night of Sunday, 7 April, that dealt
>with the problems caused to several dairy farmers by a power-company-
>caused condition called "stray voltage". Unfortunately, this being mass-
>market TV, there was absolutely no coherent technical explanation of 
>what they were talking about. They used the "stray voltage" term roughly
>equivalently to saying "evil vapors" or some other archaic phrase to
>describe the cause of sickness. Does anyone on the net know the details
>of what this is all about, and can you post an explanation?

I don't know of the situation in the area in question, but in some areas
of Australia the is a distribution called Single Wire Earth Return.
This uses a single phase conductor with the return path via ground.  At
each farm there is a pole-mounted step down transformer that provides
two-conductor single phase 240V that floats relative to the pole earth.
This system works well in areas with conductive soils - but would give
trouble if it was put in areas with dry sandy soil.  Maybe this is the
problem being discussed - a cheap but inappropriate distribution
system.
Allan Duncan	ACSnet	a.duncan@trl.oz
(+613) 541 6708	ARPA	a.duncan%trl.oz.au@uunet.uu.net
		UUCP	{uunet,hplabs,ukc}!munnari!trl.oz.au!a.duncan
Telecom Research Labs, PO Box 249, Clayton, Victoria, 3168, Australia.