In message QkAAd.35660$7p.12710@lakeread02, Jack Painter
writes

"Ian Jackson" wrote
'Protected' is the word. What is not always appreciated is that the
primary purpose of lightning rods (usually called 'lightning conductors'
in the UK) is to PREVENT a strike by allowing the electrical charge to
leak away before sufficient voltage builds up to cause an actual strike.
Ian.

Hi Ian, while Franklin originally thought this was the case, he and others
soon realized that safe handling of a lightning attachment was the function
of his Franklin Rods, NOT avoidance of attachment. There has never been any
proof that any device can prevent a strike from attaching to a particular
point. The controversy surrounding the CTS (Charge Transfer System) and ESE
(Early Streamer Emitters) exposes some of the dumbest junk science ever to
hit the lightning-rod snake-oil trail. It has been thoroughly discredited as
having absolutely zero effectiveness as a preventer and limited usefulness
as a standard Franklin Rod when installed as its snake-oil purveyors
proscribe. So please never assume that any rod, termination device,
voodoo-doll on the roof or anything else can have any affect whatsoever of
preventing a strike from attaching at any particular point.

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia



As I said, I WAS scraping the very bottoms of the memory banks (and
licking them clean as well).....
Ian.
--

Wasn't Franklin that lunatic who used to walk around flying kites in the
middle of thunderstorms? And he now gets praised for it!

"Reg Edwards" wrote

Wasn't Franklin that lunatic who used to walk around flying kites in the
middle of thunderstorms? And he now gets praised for it!

That was an experiment thousands of schoolteachers must dread, or rather
that it actually made the schoolbooks and includes artist renderings, in
case enterprising young minds wish to recreate this "experiment".
Frightening thought how many may have actually tried it, eh? ;-)

73,
Jack
Va Bch

My favourite technological American Hero is a name which I cannot remember
at present and I seldom have much success with Google.

It was in the age of early chemical engineering and the manufacture of
sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid was, in the Victorian age, and still is, the
foundation of chemical engineering. From the age of steam the progress of an
industrial country could not advance without great quantities of sulphuric
acid which was usable in the production of a vast range of other chemicals
from fertilisers, explosives, medicines, battery acids, dyes and eventually
micro-processor chips.

The person concerned was the usual ragged-trousers European who arrived
penniless at the shores of America before they took fingerprints. He had
some rudimentary chemical engineering experience obtained probably in France
or Germany where sulphuric acid was already being manufactured in small
quantities.

Manufacture was in small vats made with very pure thick lead. Lead is a
metal relatively impervious to attack from sulphuric acid. But pure lead was
a very expensive metal in those days. It probably still is.

To reduce the exorbitant manufacturing costs of sulphuric acid the person
had the brilliant idea of using ridiculously cheap timber vats painted with
ridiculously cheap coal tar. The whole USA chemical industry immediately
boomed, eventually overtaking Germany, and expanded into all fields making
the USA what it is at present - far and away the World's greatest and
richest industrial nation.

All based on dirt-cheap timber and coal tar. What a pity USA presidents
still have their brains lined with heavy lead, unable to walk and chew gum
at the same time.

Praps someone will remind me of the person's name.
----
Reg.

"Reg Edwards" wrote

My favourite technological American Hero is a name which I cannot remember
at present and I seldom have much success with Google.

It was in the age of early chemical engineering and the manufacture of
sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid was, in the Victorian age, and still is,
the
foundation of chemical engineering. From the age of steam the progress of
an
industrial country could not advance without great quantities of sulphuric
acid which was usable in the production of a vast range of other chemicals
from fertilisers, explosives, medicines, battery acids, dyes and
eventually
micro-processor chips.

The person concerned was the usual ragged-trousers European who arrived
penniless at the shores of America before they took fingerprints. He had
some rudimentary chemical engineering experience obtained probably in
France
or Germany where sulphuric acid was already being manufactured in small
quantities.

Manufacture was in small vats made with very pure thick lead. Lead is a
metal relatively impervious to attack from sulphuric acid. But pure lead
was
a very expensive metal in those days. It probably still is.

To reduce the exorbitant manufacturing costs of sulphuric acid the person
had the brilliant idea of using ridiculously cheap timber vats painted
with
ridiculously cheap coal tar. The whole USA chemical industry immediately
boomed, eventually overtaking Germany, and expanded into all fields making
the USA what it is at present - far and away the World's greatest and
richest industrial nation.

All based on dirt-cheap timber and coal tar. What a pity USA presidents
still have their brains lined with heavy lead, unable to walk and chew gum
at the same time.

Praps someone will remind me of the person's name.
----
Reg.

You might enjoy this site, Reg:

http://www.oldandsold.com/articles10...trade-22.shtml

Cheers,

Jack
Va Bch

"Jack Painter" wrote You might enjoy this site, Reg:

http://www.oldandsold.com/articles10...trade-22.shtml

================================

Jack, I enjoyed the whole site. Thanks for your introduction.

So the production of sulphuric acid began in the USA around the time of the
French Revolution and the guillotine. The very first enterprising production
engineer, John Harrison, who must have been aware of the most serious,
Earth-shaking, consequences of events in Paris, clearly had other more
useful, less destructive yet beneficial, things to think about.

I just love linking unrelated facts together.

But Harrison is not the name of the person on my mind who transformed the
USA chemical industry to one based on sulphuric acid, timber planks and coal
tar. I am under the impression he was of a later generation. Out of the
canal and barge-horse age and into the age of Watt's condensing steam
engine.

But what's in a name anyway?

I sometimes think that the relatively few engineers between 1790 and 1890
performed greater engineering feats than the many who followed them into the
present age of electronic and genetic engineering. They devoted the whole of
their lives to their work.

As for us poor souls, the best we can manage is haggling about imaginary SWR
and conjugate matches which were all sorted out 120 years back. But it's all
good fun.

Cheers, Reg.

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 18:41:40 +0000 (UTC), "Reg Edwards"
wrote:

based on sulphuric acid, timber planks and coal tar

Hi Reggie,

I can see why you would have such trouble with Google in this regard.
The words tar and sulphuric acid would lead to a jillion pages about
creosote production and the words wood and sulphuric acid would lead
to a mega-jillion pages about paper production. I spent a lot of time
spilling H2SO4 on me while measuring the K and Kappa of paper.

Anyway, it seems that lead kiln towers (upwards to 5 stories tall)
were used in acid production well into the mid century:
http://www.ul.ie/~childsp/CinA/Issue...mClassics.html

Some odd facts:
In 1746, John Roebuck established the lead chamber process,

In 1831, the modern Contact Process was patented by Peregrine
Phillips, a British vinegar merchant

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

We have to spend so much time during our own time
in education learning the achievements of past heroes, that
perhaps when our own time comes, we are intellectually
exhausted?

Also, "Necessity being the mother of invention" does not feature
when you can buy large quantities of hi-tech sophistication at
bargain-basement prices.

The spirit of enquiry dies.

We can do our bit in the world of Ham Radio by encouraging
our fellows to dabble in the innards of radios (rather than
by visiting the local emporium in order to buy a rice box
and then returning to the emporium when the "snap crackle
and pop" has gone out of it)

"Reg Edwards" wrote in message
...
I sometimes think that the relatively few engineers between 1790 and 1890
performed greater engineering feats than the many who followed them into
the
present age of electronic and genetic engineering. They devoted the whole
of
their lives to their work.

"Airy R. Bean" wrote in message
...
We have to spend so much time during our own time
in education learning the achievements of past heroes, that
perhaps when our own time comes, we are intellectually
exhausted?

Nah, we're all just becoming specialists. Colleges today have their various
'electrical engineering tracks' where you choose between, e.g., power,
communications, digital logic, etc. -- I think that change come about some
20? years ago now.

We can do our bit in the world of Ham Radio by encouraging
our fellows to dabble in the innards of radios (rather than
by visiting the local emporium in order to buy a rice box
and then returning to the emporium when the "snap crackle
and pop" has gone out of it)

Unfortuately it can be difficult to motivate people to study the innards of
radio when you have to explain to them that a modern cell phone has perhaps
some 100 man years of engineering work in it -- and that any attempt to
apply some of this same technology to amateur radio is going to be met by
protest as well!

---Joel Kolstad

"Reg Edwards" wrote in message
...


SNIP

I sometimes think that the relatively few engineers between 1790 and 1890
performed greater engineering feats than the many who followed them into
the
present age of electronic and genetic engineering. They devoted the whole
of
their lives to their work.

As for us poor souls, the best we can manage is haggling about imaginary
SWR
and conjugate matches which were all sorted out 120 years back. But it's
all
good fun.

Cheers, Reg.




That was back in the days when fantastic claims were settled with a working
model. If you wanted to argue about the efficiency of a venturi, or the
strength of a gear tooth profile, you built it and then actually used it. If
your drill bit stayed sharp longer, or you pumped more water with less coal,
you won your argument.

We spend a lot of time now arguing about how well the computer model
replicates reality, and whether the math has enough variables accounted for.
Working models seem so old fashioned.


Ed
wb6wsn