Shocking!

if its cooper it well burn greenish. aluminum is white & blueish
 
That seems like a good conjecture, as I just read up on it, and it said that electricity doesn't really have a color, but the color is derived from the gas it's passing through.
 
Check this one out :)
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Strictly speaking, electricity doesn't "jump" unless it gets over about 45kV. It can "draw"; where contact will start a spark, that then can be made longer as the object gets further away.
As for "how far" it can jump, that depends on the atmosphere. High humidity/salt in the air makes the distance longer. A perfect vacuum does too. Add to that many voltage and current variations...

That black stuff you see on power lines (with the exception of hendricks) isn't insulation; it's just a weatherproofing to keep the AL line from oxidizing.

Also, oxygen makes an electrical spark turn blue, so unless that climber was inhaling neon...
 
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That black stuff you see on power lines (with the exception of hendricks) isn't insulation; it's just a weatherproofing to keep the AL line from oxidizing.

I was wondering when someone was gonna pipe up with that. :drink:
 
I dunno. Gravity should have influenced the dust/chips and brought them well below the arcing point.

Implausible... the sawdust and chips couldn't have conducted the electricity to begin with to draw the arc through them to change it's color.
 
It does insulate the wires, but the power companies cannot admit to it because the insulation isn't perfect and it doesn't last forever. If they ever admitted that it insulates the wires even a little bit, they would instantly open themselves up for lawsuits every single time somebody got electricuted.
 
I was wondering when someone was gonna pipe up with that. :drink:

The wx-proofing is only a few mils thick.

So yes, it can be an insulator, but it's not designed for that purpose.

True insulation for say 28.8kV would require about 3/8" give or take.
 
Almost every one of the questions that have come up in this thread are answered in the EHAP workbook and tests. Since everyone works closer than 10' from an electrically charged line, including phone and cable, everyone has a current [there's a pun waiting to happen] EHAP card...right? Uh, yup, I thought so... :)


I''ve talked with the husband of the woman who took the picture. She's still at work so I won't be able to talk with her until later.

I've talked with the owner of the tree company. A friend of mine in Minneapolis gave me an insight about the owner. I have a call into a friend of mine who used to work for this company.

I have a call into the climber. It will be a surprise if he calls me back.

It only took me about five minutes to get the homeowners phone number and make the call.

http://tinyurl.com/treebuzz

http://tinyurl.com/arbtalk
 
Almost every one of the questions that have come up in this thread are answered in the EHAP workbook and tests. Since everyone works closer than 10' from an electrically charged line, including phone and cable, everyone has a current [there's a pun waiting to happen] EHAP card...right?

Got mine, but then I'm also an electrician.

A quick EHAP class is cheap insurance to get some skills.
 
They are now stringing fiber optic cables on the poles. if you break one of those, the charge is $10.000.00, plus any amount due to lost revenue for someone who was on-line and was inconvenienced. That's really the truth, though I didn't believe it when I heard it at first, and made subsequent enquiries.


Ha, it isn't that bad here, yet. John busted up some underground fiber optic phone lines one Christmas Eve, and it was costly. Poor phone man had to work Christmas Eve, till around 4 pm.
 
some stuff we have seen before: boom truck vs power lines. one of the most effective vids I have shown my labourers
<object width="464" height="392"><param name="movie" value="http://embed.break.com/Njg2MjU="></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://embed.break.com/Njg2MjU=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess=always width="464" height="392"></embed></object><br><font size=1><a href="http://www.break.com/index/boompower.html">Boom Truck Hits Power Line</a> - Watch more <a href="http://www.break.com/">free videos</a></font>
 
That picture just looks fake to me. But the story must be true, if Tom says it is.
Why else would the newspaper yank it?
 
I saw a similar incident to Paul's video a few months ago, but the ball was only a few feet off the ground and the operator had the presence of mind to grab a rope and use it to snag the ball and pull it away from the wires. No damage other than a couple tires getting soft spots where they melted to the driveway a little bit.
 
Jerry, that is a video I found a couple years ago or more, if you google 'boom power' it still finds it. talk about welding the truck to the ground! Never had a write up or any other info for it, just the vid.
 
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