"tom" wrote
. net...
Dave wrote:
On Oct 22, 8:40 am, "Szczepan Bialek" wrote:
You wrote: "I'd rather have a grounded mast struck every 5 years with no
damage,
vs an ungrounded mast struck every 10 years that led to heavy
damage or even burned the house down.
So worrying about that is kind of silly I think, when you know
an ungrounded mast is big trouble if it ever does get hit."

The grounded tower catch the electrons in form of "electron conveyer
belt"
and lightning. If the "belt" is efective enough no lightnings. All local
excess of electrons from the cloud flow without lightning. If no, the
lightning appears but it is weak (the sum of electrons is the same).

The strike in the ungrouded tower is always strong.
So You are right.
S*

no, that is not right. a grounded tower can not dissipate enough
charge to reduce the stroke intensity. towers actually attract MORE
high current strokes than the surrounding ground.

Well, Szechuan obviously hasn't figured out which way the belt is pumping
electrons, so it's not surprising he's wrong. He also doesn't understand
anything of the physics involved, either, so none of his nonsensical
answers should be a surprise.

The atmospheric electricity was described in XIX century. At that time
Armstrong and Kelvin build the High Voltage Generators (steam and drop).
Also the way how the spikes work.
Have you the old books?
S*
S*