On 16 Dec 2004 03:56:34 GMT (FoulDragon) wrote:

A hollow circular arrangement, even helical, would only be an unstable
equilibrium. Any perturbation would cause it to collapse.

What if each strand was keystone shaped?

Well, that would certainly increase the stability, but I think you'd
still have trouble supporting it at each power pole. I could imagine
some kind of internal support at each support point, but that sounds
like a nightmare to install at every tower.

Adding the tongue and groove to the keyhole shape would be even
better, but you'd still be limited by the shear strength of the
tongue, which is not very great for copper or aluminum.

Does anyone know if any of this has actually been used, or was it just
someone's pipe dream?

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Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
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