Antenna Now a Loud Speaker (Jan, 1933)
Antenna Now a Loud Speaker
RADIO “freaks” or hearing of programs without apparatus, are reported occasionally; but are usually hard to verify. However, an occurrence at the Hilversum (Holland) station, reported by no less an authority than Dr. Balthasar van der Pol, in a letter to Nature, is well authenticated by competent observation. Increased power, during exceedingly dry weather, was followed by the appearance of a “coronal” discharge—that is, light surrounding the antenna wires, produced, of course, by the ionization of gas affected by the leakage of electrons from the wires. The corona, however, appeared in the shape of balls of light, a few inches in diameter, first at one end of an outside wire, and then inside. When the power of the station was reduced to its normal figure—about 10 kilowatts, 296 meters—the light disappeared. In addition to being luminous, the antenna was loudly audible.
The program of the station was heard by passers-by, as sound from the antenna, up to a distance of a mile, on later high-power experiments. The action is undoubtedly similar to that of the glow-discharge loud speaker, with which interesting experiments have been performed in the past; but needs voltage too high for ordinary use.
This look like a job for…MythBusters!
Comment by Software_Samurai — December 18, 2009 @ 2:06 pm
Maybe it was the most powerful plasma speaker ever?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_speaker
Comment by Pardik — December 18, 2009 @ 10:57 pm
At the big CBC-Radio Canada International antenna array near Sackville, New Brunswick, one used to be able to almost hear broadcasts audibly. I say ‘almost’ as they were a cacaphony – and the middle frequencies (around 1 khz) were attenuated, so you only heard highs and lows.
It sounded somewhat like Italian opera being played in the apartment next door.
Comment by Toronto — December 19, 2009 @ 12:03 am
Artificial Ball lightning?
St. Elmo’s Fire?
We need a 21st Century’s Nicoli Telsa!
(Well, not need exactly.)
Comment by jayessell — December 21, 2009 @ 12:43 pm
Hmmm, plasma speakers.
Comment by Casandro — December 21, 2009 @ 3:24 pm
I’ve actually posted about plasma speakers:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com.....ma-driver/
Comment by Charlie — December 21, 2009 @ 3:27 pm
THIS LOOKS ALOT LIKE THE “HARRP” PROJECT IN GAKONA ALASKA NOW..GOOGLE EARTH WILL BLACK OUT OVER GAKONA .. ONLY BIGGER AND MORE ELECTRIC.
Comment by GEO — January 25, 2010 @ 3:29 pm
GEO: Don’t write in all caps, genius. By the way, if you actually GO to Google Maps, it doesn’t look “blacked out” to me (but you knew that).
Comment by Firebrand38 — January 25, 2010 @ 3:47 pm
I guess Terraserver isn’t in on the conspiracy like Google Maps, huh? HAARP
And no, it doesn’t look “a lot” like HAARP. It looks like high tension power lines. And the HAARP array doesn’t look like the picture in the article (but you knew that too).
Comment by Firebrand38 — January 25, 2010 @ 3:56 pm