What is Digg?141 Comments
- inio, on 10/15/2007, -0/+218This isn't really "wasted" energy. By putting the bulbs there he's increasing the impedance of the power line slightly, increasing the energy lost in transmission.
- fober, on 10/15/2007, -41/+187WTF THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WARCRAFT
- Lisztman, on 10/15/2007, -6/+124Take my word too.
I'm an electrical engineering student, and that is exactly the case. =P - chromie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+101We've all stolen stuff through a series of tubes at one point or another.
- quantumHobbit, on 10/12/2007, -4/+88very cool experiment. The Mythbusters tried to get power from electric lines like this, but could only manage a few Watts. Tesla would be proud.
- Mexicorn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+68Actually tesla envisioned a world where power would be sent wirelessly to all, though the main problem was where to put the meter..hence his goals of wireless power were slashed by his corporate masters
- GeekDLB, on 10/12/2007, -5/+69yes, in a storm of ninja kicks.
- redforty, on 10/15/2007, -0/+62CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS!
- cassholio, on 10/12/2007, -10/+63Think I will have to take on your word on that one.
- walfredo26, on 10/12/2007, -5/+57Could you imagine running around like a crazy person and just smashing all those fluorescent bulbs?
- BorsKaegel, on 10/15/2007, -8/+56CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL, GUYS!
(..and to illustrate blatant sarcasm..) - noncn4mst, on 04/15/2009, -2/+47You're being dug down because this has already been stated... as in the 2nd comment posted.
- mrlost117, on 10/12/2007, -19/+62WOW, you both are morons for not getting the WOW joke
- Otto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+41The MythBusters screwed up on that one by not using a large enough coil. They just ran some wires and tried to get some power. If they had ran a large enough coil of wire, they would have gotten a lot more power out of it. The more turns in the coil, the more power.
- mglmouser, on 10/12/2007, -1/+35Actually, this isn't entirely wasted energy.
By polling the magnetic field of the power lines, he's actually polling power directly from the power lines.
So, I wouldn't advise anyone to coil up their homes in hope for free power. They'd get a visit from the cops at one point or another.
It's a cool show. Though. - bigtallmofo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+33Is this a joke? The guy's name is really Dick Box?
- jsg7, on 10/12/2007, -8/+41Apparently he stole that power from the server...
- PDelahanty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+32Lightsaber duel until you actually hit something, shatter your light, and get glass shards in your skin.
- Scotepi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+27site died fast..
direct link: http://stopgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/richard-box.jpg
mirror: http://img516.imageshack.us/my.php?image=richardboxbx0.jpg
mirror: http://img516.imageshack.us/my.php?image=richardboxbk6.jpg
mirror: http://img123.imageshack.us/my.php?image=richardboxme2.jpg - merripen, on 10/12/2007, -4/+30It's helpful when people put words like "wow" into their titles. That way I know which things to be impressed by!
- elhaf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23Yes, in fact we all get our electricity this way. There are no lines running "directly" from your house to the power station, it all goes through transformers, which are just coils of wire next to each other.
- ezweave, on 10/12/2007, -6/+28Yar, marked as inaccurate. It's amazing that over one hundred years later people STILL think electricity is magic.
- KaserPro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21It flickers nicely, if you walk amongst them they change brightness, you have to see it to believe it.
Photos dont really do it justice - bbtrev, on 10/12/2007, -6/+22Agreed that this is not wasted energy, and he is in effect stealing energy. Using induction as a transmission medium for the power is pretty much the same as wiring directly up to the lines, in that he is pulling X number of watts off the grid for free.
@Turpenine: "@siko, it isn't stealing so long as he stays a distance away from the wires."
If I use a big magnet to steal change from a cash register from 20 feet away, is that stealing? I think so. So is pulling power off the grid without paying for it. - merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19Looks like coral is our only hope....
http://stopgeek.com.nyud.net:8080/richard-boxs-light-field.html
http://stopgeek.com.nyud.net:8090/richard-boxs-light-field.html
dotcache came up pretty fast:
http://www.dotcache.com/http://stopgeek.com/richard-boxs-light-field.html
For all three, all I got was the text, no pictures.
Richard Box’s ‘Light Field’
Using wasted energy, Richard Box was able to get over a thousand fluorescent tubes powered by low overhead power lines.
Light Field
richard-box.jpg
Richard Box, artist-in-residence at Bristol University’s physics department, got the idea for Field (2004) – 1,301 fluorescent tubes powered only by the electric fields generated by low overhead powerlines – after a conversation with a friend. ‘He was telling me he used to play with a fluorescent tube under the pylons by his house,’ says the artist. ‘He said it lit up like a light sabre.’ Box decided to see if he could fill a field with tubes lit by the ‘waste’ energy emanating from powerlines. Box denies that he aimed to draw attention to the potential dangers of powerlines, ‘For me, it was just the amazement of taking something that’s invisible and making it visible,’ he says.
via channel4
Another one of his projects.
g_landart_1.jpg
Walter de Maria’s The Lightening Field is permanently installed in the desert at Quemado, New Mexico, and was commissioned by the Dia Art Foundation, who run the site and provide accommodation for visitors. The work consists of hundreds of stainless steel rods projecting from the ground to a uniform height of around six metres (20 feet). Rows of 20 rods extend for one mile, while rows of 16 extend for a kilometre, making a square grid of standard and metric proportions. The work is designed to attract spectacular lightening strikes. (photo: John Cliett/© Dia Art Foundation) - Yesplease, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16This is another site with some pictures of the same thing and a pretty good article.
http://www.pureenergysystems.com/news/exclusive/2004/pylon_ambience/index.html - N00F, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15When I was in college, this was the subject of one of my studies. I actually performed this experiment and was holding lighted flourecent tubes in my hands, while standing under high tension power lines.
I was doing a study of Electromagnetic Radiation and its effect on the human body. Here's a short note, the 60Hz frequency that our electricity is delivered with is the natural resonant frequency of lithium in our bodies. It has been supposed that the lithium ions are being excited by the 60Hz power fields and caused to exit our cells at a faster than normal rate. The resulting effect is a form of schizophrenia. A popular treatment for schizophrenia is lithium supplements.
Just saying is all. - vizerei, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14You beat me to it. :(
Not wasted energy at all, stolen energy through concepts pioneered by Tesla (i.e. wireless energy transfer). - PharmaPhool, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14I just want to be the 10th electrical engineer poster indicating its not wasted energy, the bulbs are actually scavenging power from the electric field set up by power passing thru the wires. If the guy sets up enough of these bulbs, the "smart" circuit breakers at the substation will determine a loss in power and shut the mains down.
Now, if the guy really wanted to have some fun, he would string some bits of aluminum foil onto some fishing line, and using some lead weights and an old fishing rod he could "cast" these over the wires.... fun light show! He should, of course, do this whilst standing on a stack of old rubber tires, lest he roast himself. - jorgenmz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8There's the artist's page:
http://www.richardbox.com/ - samadam, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10@mexicorn: corporate masters and logic, that is.
to have strong (that is, not radio) em waves crossing the planet would be rather dangerous. Any looped conductor would have alternating current set up in it by the B field. Not pretty. To have enough power to do things like run motors it would have to be so massively strong as to be unfeasible.
-ece major. - jwigum, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Actually, it's not. The power companies watch their lines very carefully. They'd notice if something changed without an apparent cause.
There's actually been someone that stole power for quite a while by putting a bunch of copper coils in a shed under some high power transmission lines. They caught him. - sikosmurf, on 10/12/2007, -17/+25Don't forget: it's also considered stealing.
- NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Apparently he couldn't get enough to power his wordpress server.
- owanderhoffe, on 10/12/2007, -9/+16You're thinking of 40 Year Old Virgin. Good times.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6When i worked on the road as a communications technician i had to cross the expanse of the Southwestern Desert - via the north EAST corner, of Arizona: the Navajo Reservation. This high desert is one big, rather bleak, windswept baby. Not beautiful, but not quite ugly: big, and straight up 'meet me:i am the desert '.
Now, it's dry; but, crossing back and forth through the years i crossed it at all times; summer& winter, day & night.
Myself and two other technicians had been far from home for several weeks of good old 'on the road makin it happen' action; we headed home, to Arizona, from New Mexico in the dead of night, from about 11 p.m., till about 5 a.m. home-time.
It snowed. The snowflakes were so far between, that the sky was lit -with that full haze a light snowstorm can make: looks foggy in headlights, barely sticking, but if you stop, it's the sweetest, most silent, and gentle of things you can ask for;
snowflakes, not big, kinda far apart, and each one, in near zero wind: oscillating downward, in little side-to-side wafts, each one alone, making it's own path, like a migration of little insects, or tiny life forms almost.
I noticed a blue glow above the truck windshield, as i drove, and thinking it was some snowflakes making blue spots, as they hit the high Voltage lines, which crossed the road: two sets, several hundred yards apart, and then another set, some miles on....
i stopped at the second set; and the guy with me got out; the other guy pulled in behind, and he got out.
We stared around us:
Looking up, each snowflake as it came within about 16 inches of the line, would *p00F* -make a star, of blue light, as it ionized into gas.
this was happening so much, that along the entire length, of all the lines, as far as we could see, in a land with NO and i mean, not ONE artificial light -in sight- anywhere- on a huge plain-
the wires- all of them, had a corona of blue, beautiful ozone blue, that was around them in a complete and perfect circle: like you'd think, with one side a little brighter, due to the snow coming from one side just a bit; and in those cylinders of blue, there were millions, of individual snowflakes blinking on, blinking on...lightening bolt blue; all precisely the same color; each, seeming to be about the same brightness as a lightening bug, but with the point-source, being larger- the snowflakes themselves each formed a little blue plasma star, abot an inch to maybe an inch and 3/4ths across:
there were no other cars, and for about 30 minutes, we sat there, and talked and monitored these coronas.
They remained; it kept snowing, and we had to keep going; but it was an unusual occurance for me. As our eyes adjusted we could see how bright the glow was, because you could detect, the diiminishing intensity of the glow out from the lines, on the ground below which kept a thin sheen of snow crystals: till you could plainly see the difference in color, between the blue generated and the more white natural light, on the snow.
Oh well; back to coffee, flirting with my sweet, sexy wife, pickin the guitar and tek dreams: things known, not yet known and to be known,...... and back to not BEING ON
the doggone road. Hooah, lol, - u3b3rg33k, on 10/15/2007, -0/+5induction != wasted power
- nottidredd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6anyone thinking what I'm thinking? lightsaber duel?
- JamesWilson, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6 kite + spare electricity + motor = flying kite.
all you have to do is bring the kite near a big electrical transformer thingy and let it take over with its motor, genius! - bittie, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Dude...new pants!
- Thuktun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Here's a link to a story on this, rather than just an image.
http://www.pureenergysystems.com/news/exclusive/2004/pylon_ambience/index.html
Whether or not this is "waste", it indicates the potential of the EM flux around high voltage lines like this. When you can wave a fluorescent tube around and have it light up just from the fields in the air, one starts to wonder what it's doing, even on a small scale, in one's body.
In any case, long-distance transmission of electricity via high-voltage AC can lose about 30% of the original energy in heating the wires.
http://www.bsharp.org/physics/stuff/xmission.html - saigumi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Growing up, I lived near a power plant. We had florescent bulbs in the house and instead of a lightswitch, we had a shutter. The bulbs stayed on all the time and were not hooked to electrical lines. I wonder how many watts of cancer causing juice I sucked up all those years.
- zarex, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@mexicorn
You know the meter part is total BS, right? The technology simply wasn't feasible (and still isn't). - phillydrifter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3So he rescued 'wasted' energy so he could... waste it?
- FastZ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Anybody notice that he did this experiment three years ago? (February 2004)
- merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Duggback has a much more extensive list of caches than duggmirror. That's how I found the dotcache link that loaded crazy fast.
http://www.dotcache.com/http://stopgeek.com/richard-boxs-light-field.html - Jozer99, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Its not wasted energy. Very little energy is wasted on maintaining an electric field unless something is USING that electric field, in this case, those light bulbs. So, the electric company isn't wasting electricity, this guy is stealing it.
Not to mention the fact that there is literally NOTHING they can do to stop current flow from generating an electric field. Its the laws of physics. They can reduce power loss due to heat by running high tension cables at much higher voltage than home wires, and using transformers to step the voltage down when it comes near your house. - brokenboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3As has been half mentioned, these are not powered by a coil picking up power from the power lines. In the presence of a large, alternating electric field, fluorescent tubes will fluoresce- they'll light up with no wires attached at all. These tubes are just stuck in the ground. They do change the impudence of the environment there, so this isn't free energy, it's just wireless energy.
This has nothing to do with the power company insulating wires. This is physics. - LeegleechN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Umm, I don't know if you guys are well versed in electromagnetic induction, but this isn't "free" energy. Yes it's a cool experiment, but you're actually stealing power from the electric company the same as if you had split a line off a transformer.
- SecularG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Looks like the tubes are worshiping the pylon. The lightning rod field picture is pretty cool too.
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