Topband: Spark gaps

[Mike Waters]

Man, I don't know, Dave. How long have they been selling those carbon balls
for that purpose?

I don't have the figures in front of me, but carbon has a significant
amount of resistance. (Maybe that's the secret: the current gets limited as
a result. :-)

It would be interesting to calculate the resistance of a carbon sphere
sometime (how big are those?). Then we could roughly estimate the voltage
drop across it and so come up with a ballpark figure of the instantaneous
power dissipated in those balls.

At that point, someone with way too much time on their hands could estimate
the temperature rise based on the specific heat of carbon. :-)

73, Mike
www.w0btu.com

On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 2:42 PM, DAVID CUTHBERT <telegrapher9 at gmail.com>wrote:

>   www.rossengineeringcorp.com/toroids_spheres_corona_nuts.htm
> On Jul 27, 2012 9:43 AM, "DAVID CUTHBERT" <telegrapher9 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  <http://www.rossengineeringcorp.com/toroids_spheres_coronary_nuts.htm>
>>
>> Ross recommends carbon for lightning.
>> On Jul 27, 2012 9:33 AM, "Mike Waters" <mikewate at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I don't think carbon balls are suitable for lightning protection. Think
>>> of
>>> the voltage drop that would appear across each ball during a direct hit.
>>> I
>>> think they would vaporize.
>>>
>>