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Electromagnetic Emission Art
mr_lithic writes "The artist Richard Box has used the electromagnetic field generated by overhead transmission cables to power 1300 fluorescent lightbulbs positioned underneath. Some pictures available.
Professor Denis Harshaw at Bristol University explains "There's an interactive element to all this, too, for those who go to the site itself. 'You affect the lights by your proximity', explains Richard Box, 'because you're a much better conductor than a glass tube. And there's sound as well as light - a crackling that corresponds to the flashing of the lights. There's a certain smell too, and your hair stands slightly on end.'"
Sounds cool and it is on until February 29th. Directons here."
Yeah, yeah chips in your hair. 2000.
A3 x 30. Taken in the studio this series of photographs depicts the artist fending off a swarm of silicon chips as if they were flying insects. The work deals with the effect, intended or not, of technology on the individual.
"Until you do what you believe in, how do you know whether you believe in it or not?" -- Leo Tolstoy
The bulbs will be 'planted' across the site at the foot of an electricity pylon, and will pick up the waste emission from the overhead power line.
Not really. Lighting the bulbs most certainly reduces the power on the lines. The inductance of the power lines change because of the presence of the bulbs.
It's cool to see art and science actively collaborating. From the article:
Also, check out some of his other art. "A rotating, pulsating, elevating, sound and movement activated, life-size neon brain." Now that's just strange.
Enjoy your job, make lots of money, work within the law. Choose any two.
What? No GPS coordinates?
I toyed with ideas of free lighting (living close to high tension power lines)... seems a little pointless considering thousands of locals run jumper leads of the damn things anyway, with complete immunity from Meralco (Elec company)
Easier to jumper someone elses jumper leads anyway.
The artist Richard Box has used the electromagnetic field generated by overhead transmission cables to power 1300 fluorescent lightbulbs positioned underneath
Technically, he scoops out energy from overhead lines. True, it's insignificant, but still he could be charged with theft. Of course, since it's art, I doubt anybody at the power company will say anything, but I wouldn't be surprised if they told him to take his art somewhere else.
A well know, similar "application", was demonstrated when wireless transmission technologies boomed in the 30s in Paris : the first antennas had been installed on top of the Eiffel tower and were putting out dozens of kilowatts. Some smart guy started selling battery-less flashlights under the tower, and a lot of gullible people bought them, amazed that they indeed created light magically without batteries. Little did they know the magic flashlights had a little coil inside that used the Eiffel tower antennas' HF power to light up the bulb, and therefore could only work under the tower. The flashlight seller was eventually caught and, far from being charged for scamming people, was charged for stealing TDF (French wireless authority) energy, which was apparently much worse.
But anyway, pretty cool art I say. The cows in the field nearby must have fun watching that every night.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Yeah, at least if you're gonna kill your brain cells, do it with something fun like booze, pot or ecstacy.
Like the Joker says, "If you gotta go, go with a smile!"
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Will be headed out there with a camera ASAP. Perhaps local /.ers should arrange a meeting time and all go at once.
Cure cancer.. and stuff! www.team45.info
Does arrangements like that actually "steal" any power from the powerlines, or would it be lost anyway if it was just air instead of neon tubes?
They do draw energy from the line. If they weren't there, the voltage differential in the static field would stay high and no (or little) current would be sinked into the ground under the tube.
Another proof: assume each tube spits out the equivalent of 10W in light, there must be like 1000 tubes in that field, so they burn about 10kW all the time. I don't think the ground underneath normally sinks 10kW for each 100mx100m square : if it did, it would heat up, and very long lines would lose so much power over the distance that they would bankrupt the power companies.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Is this theft? I ask because in the past, before the current overkill laws againts computer crime, crackers where charged with theft of electricy. Could he be charged?
Microwaving chocolate is a fun way to both measure the speed of light and get some edible artifacts of the patterns of the electromagnetic fields inside a microwave oven.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Growing up on a farm, I have learned of the negative effects "stray voltages" cause to farm animals.
This is often linked to the power return to the station. Everywhere, electrical service has everything connected in relation to ground, with any difference in the power balance of the phases of power taking a different path back to the source of the power, i.e. the ground itself, and potentially through anything in its path.
This "stray voltage" manifests itself when animals, with 4 bare hooves, paws, etc. touching the ground, detect small but irritating (to varying degrees) levels of current taking an alternate path back to the source. Animals have also been proven to have a higher sensitivity for detecting stray currents as well, compared to humans.
Often in cases, to the power companies defense, they will come out to do a check on the premises, and often do find a problem in the local, on-farm wiring, potentially causing the problem.
Unfortunately, in the cases of newer farms where all the wiring is new and up-to-code, a stray current is often traced to off-the-farm sources, for example, a newly-installed High-voltage Power Line.
Do Not Accept Defeat; Believe in your Dream. --me
The power company deserves to have their power stolen because they are too cheap to reconfigure their lines to reduce the electromagentic output:
/
http://tdworld.com/ar/power_line_designs_reduce
pot doesn't kill brain cells...cops beating you over the head because you have some does.
Well, I liiim, er, lvoplx, er, liiivee unnnder pwoer liens, and n-n-n-othin gggg has has has has has has has has [thwack thwack] huppened two too to MY brain.
He is using a source of energy, and translating it into work.
The source of energy is clearly owned by an identifiable person or group. Therefore the use of that energy is actionable. The right-of-way that allows the powerline in the first place gives the power company further arguments to strengthen their position.
The amount of energy used is measurable. Therefore he could be billed for it. Need I go on?
A smart Power Company would probably like it all to just go away, because it raises the possibility of health issues, so making a big deal out of it probably isn't a good idea.
Then again, a smart law firm that senses an opportunity to bill a few hours might convince a gullible board to pursue it. There are plenty of reasonable arguments that could be offered to encourage them to re-affirm rights over the use of borrowed power in this fashion (even though those rights are well established already). Companies don't always do what is in their best interest.
If it becomes popular or more common (negating the value of shutting up about it) expect to see the lawyers get a call.
As a final note: consider that the actual means to use the power is irrelevant; just because it doesn't directly connect to the grid means nothing, now that it's proven it's not necessarily a prerequisite to using the energy in the first place. it's just a technical detail.
I think the piece is more of an artistic rebuttal of the assertion that these high energy transmission lines are safe for humans and animals.
If you've got an EM field that is powerful enough to light up 1000 light bulbs, it seems intuitive that there is enough energy to cause harm to humans living at similar distances.
This is my sig.
Our physics teacher was using the Van der Graaf for an experiment (in fact, he was intending to measure the current it produced). Over the demonstrator's bench, a fluorescent tube was flickering. He got annoyed. He climbed on a stool to remove the offending fluorescent.
You can guess the rest. The remote end of the tube dropped towards the van der Graaf. About 10cm from the dome, there was a spark. The dome discharged through the tube, which flashed, the physicist, and the stool. Most impressive.
The tube survived falling on the bench. We learned several things from this:
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
I also remember one of my high school teachers talking about how he used to work for hydro and look for this sort of thing while flying in a helicopter and inspecting power lines.
Really it shouldn't be that hard to find this sort of thing. You can just use a time domain reflectometer, and power companies have these for finding cable faults.
Breathing: you're taking oxygen that clearly was produced on a farm somewhere or maybe in the Amazon.
Tinfoil hats: these devices intercept electromagnetic waves and cause transmission losses.
Heat pumps: you didn't really think you could take all that "free" heat out of the air, did you?
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
It'll be okay. Just reach around behind your ear and hit the degauss button.
I was grading papers for a college writing class the other day when I came across a paper that a student had written about measuring the speed of light using the microwaving chacolate method. At first I thought he was just making shit up, but then I looked it up on the interweb, and lo and behold, he hadn't made it up.
Granted, he had copied his paper almost word for word from the interweb and I failed him for that, which just goes to show that it's dangerous to write papers that interest the graders.
Mod my comments down. It'll be fun.
I am not allowed to use all the electromagnetic waves that pass thru my property.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
But the parent post did mention beer. That does kill brain cells. You do it every time you get drunk. That's what drunk is; the poisioning of your brain by alcohol. And death on alcohol? Go and ask an ER doctor. Lots, never published in the news.
Of course, when the majority of anti-drug messages are funded by the booze industry you have to laugh. I quite like the one on DrugFreeAmerica.org, telling how Ecstacy almost killed a girl, until you actually read the article and find that it was GHB. Actually, all the articles on that site are just as bad, and they seem to have been written by the same person, very similar style etc. ALL LIES I TELL YOU!! ;-)
During a visit to a power station, we were shown the
12 Mega Watt output cables. Asides from the crackling noise due to a light drizzle falling on the cables, there were other effects too.
Having stood under the cables for a couple of minutes, I felt no adverse effect... until I started to walk away. That's when I started to get a headache...
My hyperlinks aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
Since high power lines are set back from the road at least 30m in most of the US and EM falls off at the cube of the distance I think there is a BIG difference between being right under them and driving past them.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.