Good grief NO!!!!! I was talking about the puny 13.8 KV that will
merely fry a tree that leans against the wire. That clip was some of the
100++ KV lines!!! I've seen that kind of switch gear, never seen it in
action. Wild!

Jeff Wisnia wrote:
RoyJ wrote:

The big high voltage fuses used by the power company to disconnect
13.8KV feeder lines do have a powder charge in the base. It's needed
to blow out the plasma arc. Roughly equivilent to a 12 ga shotgun
shell. I have one that sits about 100' from my bedroom window, feeds a
very old underground line to the neighbor's place. When the cable
faults late at night in the heat of summer and the windows are open,
it sure gets the adreneline going!!!

Side note: A few weeks back, one of those fuses did NOT blow out the
arc properly. Lit up the neighborhood like a search light for 45
minutes until the power company boys showed up to put it out. (Man,
that's a job I don't want!) Fire department showed up, parked 200'
away and just watched it.




Sort of like this?

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/temp/zap.mpg

I don't know if the clip is real or fake, but it is impressive.

Jeff