Okay, Okay, Next time I go out to the platform, I will get you the specs on the cable. It shouldn't be too long as I get to live there most of the time anyways. And, to answer the question how it was discharged, it was shorted (touched against) some plate steel, and it made a small arc. It was charged probably a few minutes, directly removed and shorted. I do not know the voltage, but I will ask more when I go out. It couldn't have been tooo much as The most I "think" they have on site is 480 vac 3 phase. Yes, it was still spooled on the spool. I will also get the length, I'm sure its written on the spool. The spool was approx. 3 feet in diameter, CLX Wire, and It was mutiple conductor (want me to find that out too)? It wasn't intended as a scientific experiment, but to show me and others, that sometimes things "can" get you when you least expect it. I was being a smart ass about powering a clock from it, but the main content was if anyone knew, or seen this trick before, as I never expected such. Geez, I think Ryan was right about people being very agressive on the list here. I made a mistake to begin with, I thought I posted to the stamp list, but mistakenly posted here. If I was making this crap up, I would have bailed out when I had the chance? Richard Skinner rwskinner@worldnet.att.net http://home.att.net/~rwskinner ---------- > From: Reginald Neale > To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU > Subject: Re: [OT] Cable retained energy, was Super Caps > Date: Wednesday, March 11, 1998 4:08 PM > > Rob said: > > >I'm sorry I missed some of this discussion but I was wondering how he > >proved t held a charge? How did he charge it (voltage level, type of > >instrument, lenght of time...etc)? How did he show it held a charge > >(voltmeter)? How did he discharge it (short, resistor leak path)? > >Where was the cable during the test (rolled, laid out..etc)? Did he show > >the cable was at close to no voltage after discharge? > > > >I have heard of antenna wires showing charges, but this was because of > >the natural EMF of the background. > > > >Just curious. > > > I too am curious about the the specs on this cable. As a reference, a small > camera flash stores about 5 joules of energy. That's enough to make some > decent sparks, and more than enough to be dangerous. The formula for > capacitive energy storage is [C*V^2]/2. As an earlier poster mentioned, > RG-58 is approx 30pf/ft. When you do the math, you'd have to charge about > 666 ft to about 1KV (probably wouldn't handle that) or 66666 ft to 100V to > get 5 joules. That's 11 miles of cable. Or maybe this cable is something > really exotic... always possible, given the eclectic nature of PicLister > backgrounds. > > Reg Neale