[time-nuts] White LED's

Charles P. Steinmetz charles_steinmetz at lavabit.com
Sun Jan 31 06:21:56 UTC 2010


Max wrote:

>I remember hearing about a law suit in an engineering law class I 
>had to take way back when.  It seems a farmer had a long fence 
>running under and parallel to a high tension distribution line.  He 
>had hidden a copper line in it and was harvesting enough power to 
>operate most of his farm buildings. This amounted to a measurable 
>loss from the distribution line and the power company found him out 
>and sued.  The court ruled he had to pay for power used in the past 
>and stop getting his power that way.  Considering the source I don't 
>think this is an urban legend.

Both long wires running parallel to transmission lines and coils 
situated under transformers were used "back in the day."  The power 
companies' ability to detect small losses (hundreds of watts on a 
line carrying megawatts) has always been much better than the average 
person would think.  Well-established law (at least in the US) holds 
that it is theft of services, although some folks think it should be otherwise.

I knew several people who lit outbuildings with fluorescent tubes 
powered from wires strung in the near field of a 50 kW AM radio 
station I once worked for.  The closest farmers had to take 
precautions putting up wire fences (limiting the continuous length 
and grounding at intervals), without which they could give you a nasty RF burn.

Best regards,

Charles







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