--- In VanDeGraaffGenerator@yahoogroups.com, Khem Caigan <Khem@...> wrote:
>
> Paul Thompson doth schreibble :
> >
> > The oddest example of interference I've experienced was with a digital
clock/thermometer.
> > When I run my Van de Graaff downstairs in the kitchen, the thermometer,
which lives in
> > an upstairs bathroom, goes nuts, scrambles, reverts to 24 hour time and
centigrade
> > instead of Fahrenheit. This puzzled me until I realized the sensor for the
thermometer
> > hangs out the bathroom window at the end of a long wire. I imagine the wire
acts like
> > an antenna, picks up the waves from the VDG, and conducts them into the
unhappy device.
>
> This is more-or-less the way that radios worked,
> Once Upon a Time :
>
> Spark-Gap Transmitter
> From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> http://tinyurl.com/rdgm2x
>
> 1921 Spark Gap Transmitter / Ham Radio
> YouTube
> http://tinyurl.com/pnfygw
>
> A 375 Meter/800 KHz Spark Transmitter On The Air
> September, 2006
> Submitted by Ken Beck, WI7B
> http://tinyurl.com/ojsqc3
>
> Cors in Manu Domine,
>
>
> ~ Khem Caigan
> <Khem@...>

Of course, but I was puzzled why the clock, out of all the appliances and
devices in the house, was the only thing affected. I use rabbit ear antennas on
my TV, and the TV wasn't affected. I guess the length of the thermometer sensor
wire was closer to the wavelength of the VDG's sparks?

PBT