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Article: No strike zone: technology to prevent lightning strikes.(Buyers Guide)
- Article from:
- Trailer Boats
- Article date:
- August 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Poole Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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For more than 200 years, the concept of lightning protection has involved routing a lightning strike to ground in an attempt to limit damage and take advantage of the "Cone of Protection" principle afforded by lightning rods ("Lightning: How To Avoid A Deadly Strike," TBM, June 1993). Beginning in the early 1970s, a new approach, called the streamer-retarding static dissipater, was designed for use on microwave, radio, and radar towers to protect their electrically sensitive equipment from lightning damage.
Lightning, by its very nature, is the attempt of free electrons to bring themselves into equilibrium. Friction--caused by moving air, falling rain, and the ...