ed_l1@verifone.com (01/19/91)
In article <4655@wrgate.WR.TEK.COM>, jeffw@midas.WR.TEK.COM (Jeff Winslow) writes: > New Year's Eve brought the usual assortment of firecrackers, skyrockets, > M-80s (I guess - bright and LOUD), and so forth. As I was enjoying the show > (and giving thanks I live a good mile away from the jokers with the M-80s), > I was startled by a green flash from a nearby substation. This thing was > BRIGHT - so bright it effectively washed out all other lights for dozens of > blocks on either side. The flash itself appeared to be about a half a city > block wide. There were two of them, about 10 seconds apart. And funny thing - > a lot of people's lights went out. :-) Anyway, at the time I assumed some > fool had thrown a wire rope into the substation, or something like. But later > I wondered - with so much powdered metal in many pyro formulas, and > particulate matter (conductive metal oxides?) left after their explosion, > is it possible that a skyrocket of some sort exploding among the wires would > alter the conductivity of air enough to let such an arc happen? > > I still think the cable explanation, or something similar, is most likely. > It was quite a climax for the New Year's Eve "display"! > > Jeff Winslow In Hawaii, during hurricane Iwa in ('82?), we had high winds, lightning, rain, and every once in a while a huge, no _*HUGE*_ green flash that lit up the entire island (I live on the windward side, they were coming over the mountains!)! Later, the media informed us that they were, "transformer explosions," whatever THAT is.... And yes, we lost our electricity, for about a week. :-( I think, also, that I heard somewhere that there is a lot of ionization in the air during intense storms... could relate to your situation.
torre@msa3b.UUCP (Patrick Torre) (01/24/91)
ed_l1@verifone.com writes: >In article <4655@wrgate.WR.TEK.COM>, jeffw@midas.WR.TEK.COM (Jeff Winslow) writes: >> I wondered - with so much powdered metal in many pyro formulas, and >> particulate matter (conductive metal oxides?) left after their explosion, >> is it possible that a skyrocket of some sort exploding among the wires would >> alter the conductivity of air enough to let such an arc happen? >> >> Jeff Winslow >In Hawaii, during hurricane Iwa in ('82?), we had high winds, lightning, >rain, and every once in a while a huge, no _*HUGE*_ green flash that lit >up the entire island (I live on the windward side, they were coming over >the mountains!)! Later, the media informed us that they were, "transformer >explosions," whatever THAT is.... And yes, we lost our electricity, for >about a week. :-( I dont remember the flashes from Iwa (I was eating Thanksgiving dinner), but I do remember that several times that same year, while the sugar cane was being burned, we had some incredible power outages (rolling blackouts for weeks...) . This whould happen every now and then when the thick smoke whould rise into the High Tension wires, I dont think we had any explosions, but the whole system couldnt take the rapid changes in load that occured when a whole generating station was effectively cut off from the power grid. This seemed to cause a chain reaction of generators blowing out. or at least thats how I remember it. :-) a lot of milk spoiled -- Patrick Torre @ Dun and Bradstreet Software, Inc (404) 239-2061 {emory,gatech}!nanovx!msa3b!torre
witters@tc.fluke.COM (John Witters) (01/26/91)
In article <2525.2796c1e3@verifone.com> ed_l1@verifone.com writes: >In article <4655@wrgate.WR.TEK.COM>, jeffw@midas.WR.TEK.COM (Jeff Winslow) writes: > >In Hawaii, during hurricane Iwa in ('82?), we had high winds, lightning, >rain, and every once in a while a huge, no _*HUGE*_ green flash that lit >up the entire island (I live on the windward side, they were coming over >the mountains!)! Later, the media informed us that they were, "transformer >explosions," whatever THAT is.... And yes, we lost our electricity, for >about a week. :-( > >I think, also, that I heard somewhere that there is a lot of ionization >in the air during intense storms... could relate to your situation. I guess this is plausible. I seem to remember reading about a problem Quebec Hydro had with sunspots. I'm hazy about the details, but I think the sunspots caused a difference in potential between the generator and the transformer at the end of the transmission lines. The resulting DC current through the transformer saturated the core, radically reducing its efficiency. The wasted energy (several megawatts?) has to go someplace, and the transformers got very hot very quickly. Don't trust my memory on this. Maybe a power engineer in Canada can give us the straight story, eh? -John -- * * * John Witters voice: (206) 356-5274 * \ * John Fluke Mfg. Co. Inc. * \ * P.O.B. 9090 M/S 241F fax: (206) 356-5116 * DRIVING * Everett, Washington 98206-9090 or (206) 356-5174 * \ * * \ * domain: witters@tc.fluke.COM * * * uucp: {sun,microsoft,uw-beaver}!fluke!witters
wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) (01/26/91)
There is an article in an IEEE spectrum magazine describing problems with a geomagnetic diruption cuase by solar particle flux. Check the 1990 volume of Spectrum for info. My recollection was that the incident happened last March. The power grid in Canada was seriously disrupted to the point where some transmission lines had to trip out. Norway and the United States were also effected to a lesser extent by the same disruption. ==Bill== -- Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-9995 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu ....!uunet!aablue!neoucom!wtm via internet: (140.220.001.001)
kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov ( Scott Dorsey) (02/12/91)
In article <2525.2796c1e3@verifone.com> ed_l1@verifone.com writes: >In Hawaii, during hurricane Iwa in ('82?), we had high winds, lightning, >rain, and every once in a while a huge, no _*HUGE*_ green flash that lit >up the entire island (I live on the windward side, they were coming over >the mountains!)! Later, the media informed us that they were, "transformer >explosions," whatever THAT is.... And yes, we lost our electricity, for >about a week. :-( > >I think, also, that I heard somewhere that there is a lot of ionization >in the air during intense storms... could relate to your situation. I was working for a commercial radio station in Waipahu at the time. The power went off early in the evening and from all indication it wasn't going to come back on. I tried to start the Studebaker Cyclone generator that we had as a backup, which began squirting oil when it was turned over. (By this time KGU was the only station on the air. K-59 did manage to get on the air the next morning as I recall.) So, since the power showed no signs of coming back on in my lifetime, I decided to disonnect our (AM) antenna. I unbolted the line from the transmitter and was preparing to ground it. I left the cable in the air, and went searching for the grounding straps, when a white spark a good foot long jumped from the end of the cable to the side of the transmitter, melting the cable connector. There was no bolt sighted hitting the antenna, so I assume this discharge was entirely caused by ionization, or by inductive pickup. (Stations in Hawaii don't use lightning arrestors because there is never any lightning there.... at least they didn't at the time, but I know of at least one that does now). --scott