tony.latham wrote:The lookout was built in 1947. It's heavily grounded with several runs of 3/8" copper wire. I don't know how many times it's been struck by lightning but in all those years, it's been struck, a lot. We took over from a guy that's been staffing this lookout for 51 years and has been inside when it's been hit several times. When we took over from him last year, the night before the shutter bolts were lit with St. Elmo's fire from the static during a storm.
Okay, that's exactly what I would expect. Of course, my knowledge is from theory. I can easily explain why it's perfectly safe in the tower during a thunder storm, especially after others have demonstrated it is so. If I were the first, I would be concerned there might have been some aspect of the theory I overlooked.
As for the half inch or so of glass insulation between the legs of the wooden chair and the thinly covered metal floor, when the lightning bolt travels several thousand feet through ionized air, what's to prevent it from ionizing that last few inches of air around the glass?
tony.latham wrote:I really want to be inside when it gets struck. (Weird, eh?)
Sounds like an adventure!
"Adventure is the romantic name for trouble." -- Louis L'Amour
But, okay, I think I would be up for that too!
Incidentally, what I would like to see for such an adventure are good non-corroded bonds between the ceiling, walls, and floor of the inhabited shell on the tower, even the grounding down the tower into the ground wouldn't be as important. (In our friend's hydrogen balloon--that Shelly and I once flew in overnight--that bonding between conducting parts is the primary insurance against any sparks making it a Hindenburg re-enactment.)
Tom
it's loud.
