Support the Blog — Buy This Book!
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
Put this ad on your blog!
Syndicate
Subscribe to Main Blog feed here:
Subscribe to Comments too (below):
Junk Email Filter
Only a dim bulb would stand under transmission lines for any length of time.
Shows how much energy is wasted sending over long lines. Decentralized energy production is the future, baby!
I suspect the bulbs are illuminated by the electrostatic field rather than the magnetic field.
For those concerned about electric fields here is a spray on product
http://tinyurl.com/2am6nz
It could also replace tinfoil hats.
Two questions. Is this really what it seems to be ? If so, how’d they get them all so plumb ?
It’s not just magnetic field, and it’s not electrostatic field (because it’s not static, it’s alternating), it’s the electromagnetic field that surrounds all unshielded AC transmission lines. And the closer you are, the stronger the field.
And this is a fun and easy trick to do near high voltage (a Van de Graaff for an electrostatic field, for example, or a Tesla coil or transmission lines, for instance, for an alternating field), this tube lighting – as long as the field strength is different at one end than the other you can light a fluorescent tube. Better yet? Ground one end of the tube by sticking it in the, yes, that’s right, GROUND.
I’m very attracted to that picture.
Are those internet tubes?
[Interwebitubes are invisible. – ed.]
#5, Steve, they fell from a plumb tree.
This picture is totally bogus! None of the bulbs cast light on the ground around them and there is nothing holding the bulbs in place, they would simply fall over. I have seen plenty of evidence that there is a hell of a lot of energy leaking out of transmission lines, but this is not credible. I have seen fluorescent bulbs lit up this way in the laboratory and they lit up the objects around them as though they were plugged in.
I call bogus, and not well done Photoshop work on this one.
#6 You are right I should have said E field. Maybe it is a HVDC transmission line then it would be static.
This may or may not be photoshopped, but the effect is real. We had 33KV lines crossing one of the paddocks on the property where I grew up, and can remember my father showing me and my brother this trick late one night. The flourescent tube didn’t fully light up (it wasn’t bright white), but it did glow quite brightly when held it up underneath the lines.
We also used to take delight in hitting the lines with boomerangs, but gave up after several of them snapped (the boomerangs that is, not the power lines).
#10 – It’s most likely NOT photoshopped since the tubes only glow and don’t give off enough light to illuminate the surrounding area.
#13, hopper.
At first I didn’t believe you. I copied it into PhotoShop and raised the brightness level. After a while you can see clearly the tubes glowing on the ground. Faintly, but enough to convince me.
Mister Catshit you photoshopping bastard!
That looks cool.
Try rubbing a wool sweater on the plastic cover over some florescent tubes. It works best in the dark so you can see the glow.
#15, Ya, and I got it for my favorite price (free) over at the Pirate Bay Store.
So when you raise the brightness level can you see what holds the tubes up and how they are laid out in such geometric precision. Not one of them is off vertical. Again, I know the effect is real but this photo isn’t.
#18…Mike Johnson….if you go to the Gizmodo site this is on, you can order a copy of the whole project on dvd. Also, there are other photo’s….and since it was done as an art project, I would suspect that the layout was picture perfect(excuse the pun) 🙂
ha! lighting up tubes… puullleeeze! out here in the clevleand area, we can watch the power lines sag in the heat of summer and see the trees glow afire, this is short lived of course, and then all the lights go out…………
ok move along, nothing to see here……
#18, Mike J.
Yes. They appear to be stuck in the ground.
Click on the picture. Right click and save. Open any image editor and call up the saved picture. Increase the brightness. At the extreme the picture will generate a lot of noise but you will be able to see the glow on the ground.
I am convinced the photo is real. As Joshua points out, it is an art piece and falls into the category. Also note that some of the tubes appear green. Those are the older, cheaper tubes with the narrower light spectrum. Taking pictures under fluorescent lights will generally give a green cast.