opened loaded switch on a high volt power line video

[sdowney717]

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=1587733

A video of what happens when a high voltage power line is opened under load
The plasma arc extended upwards of 100 feet

a further explanation and fix for this is related here
http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8680

The phenomenon was terminated by the test conductor by tripping off an interrupter at the source of the line (several miles away). Otherwise, both the test switch and the surrounding infrastructure would have probably been completely destroyed. One observer estimated the total path length of the arc just before extinction at over 100 feet.

 

[Featherweight]

Where can i buy one of these???? i want one above my shop! lol

 

[CraigFL]

There is a whole field in electrical engineering related to this. A lot of engineers just get a brief exposure and very few go into this kind of specialty. When I was involved with overhead crane drives of the DC type for steel mills, we had to be very careful. Opening any kind of disconnect with 550VDC, high current and inductive loads could cause an arc like that. People have been fried to ashes if they did it while the enclosure door was open.

 

[gary300]

Half a million volts can do a lot of very exciting stuff!!

 

[kbs2244]

Some years ago I saw an interesting sight while driving home after dark on a Sunday night.
It was mid summer and a line of thunder storms had passed through.
Still some distant lighting flashes on the horizon.
Then I noticed some of the flashes were kind of regular in when they happened.
And I was getting closer to where they coming from.

It turned out that the storm had broken a wire on one of those high tension lines.
The wire was drooping down from the 200 foot tall tower.
As it got close to the ground it would arc and snap back up into the air like a bull whip.
Then drop back down and do it all over.

It took about 30 seconds each time.
It was about half an mile off the road.
I stopped and watched it for about 10 minutes.

I always wondered what the dials in some control room looked like.
Bouncing from one peg to the other I bet.

 

[Stuart in MN]

As an electrical engineer I see a lot of those kinds of videos, they get passed around in the trade. Even relatively low voltages (480vac or less) can produce an impressive arc flash.

 

[abnorm]

More Arcs and Sparks.........

http://205.243.100.155/frames/longarc.htm

 

[bimmer1980]

speaking of flashes and arcs and all that.... if I recall my college physics, the reason we are safe from lightening in a car is that the "electrical charge" always goes to the outside of a metal container or a shell....







bottom line, don't drive a fiberglass car in a lightening storm.....

 

[rsanter]

that arc can hit 40,000 degrees
you do not want to be near that when it happens

bob

 

[Jack90210]

speaking of flashes and arcs and all that.... if I recall my college physics, the reason we are safe from lightening in a car is that the "electrical charge" always goes to the outside of a metal container or a shell....

I believe that this is an example of a Faraday cage.

 

[Teken]

More Arcs and Sparks.........

http://205.243.100.155/frames/longarc.htm

That was incredible! For those who haven't watched the video on the link provided. Watch the 3rd one, that is something out of a sci-fi movie from Terminator . . .

 

[NUTTSGT]

Some wildly wicked pic/vids.

 

[Evogun]

Haha who doesn't like a enormous Jacobs ladder!