Power Lines facts

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A 40 acre Montana fire was caused by a hawk landing on power lines while clutching a large snake. The wriggling snake touched a second power line, completing the circuit and electrocuting both animals with up to 700,000 volts.

During WWII, the British launched nearly 100,000 weather balloons trailing long metal wires toward occupied Europe, causing power outages when they shorted out power lines and causing at least one German power station to burn down.

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 50 of the best facts about Power Lines I managed to collect.

Steve Comisar: a man who sold "solar powered clothes dryers" for $49.95 in national magazines. Unsuspecting customers would receive a length of clothes line.
California generates so much solar energy that it has to pay other states to take the excess so their power lines don't overload.
In 2004, the Parisian police in an uncharted area of the Paris Catacombs, found a secret room with a stocked bar and restaurant. They returned to trace the installed power and phone lines to discover they had been cut, with a note left behind reading, "Do not try and find us."
The Chinese use drones equipped with flame-throwers to fight trash stuck in power lines.
A man who was stranded in the woods chopped down some power lines so that the repairmen would have to come and rescue him.
On New Year's Eve, 1999, Brad Pitt rented a Mexican resort, filled it with his friends and at midnight had the government cut the power and phone lines and send in troops to raid the compound and "arrest" one of his best friends on drug charges - all as a practical joke!
A man who was lost in the woods chopped down some power lines so that workers would have to come and rescue him.
After cutting phone lines, snipers attacked a California power station, taking out 17 transformers. They disappeared one minute before the police arrived, never to be caught or identified.
Legendary daredevil Evel Knievel was sacked from his first job with a mining company after attempting to wheelie a bulldozer but ending up careening into power lines and knocking out the local town's electricity supply.
Brad Pitt once rented a Mexican Resort, had the power and phone lines cut, and bribed the Mexican government to arrest his friend on drug charges as a practical joke

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power lines fact data chart about Lines of code for powerful systems including organisms, link — Lines of code for powerful systems including organisms, link: informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/million-lines-of-code/

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The US has a cluster bomb which drops a fine cloud of carbon powder filaments, that destroys power stations and power lines

In Mozambique, overhead power lines have to be at least 12 m (39 ft) high to permit safe passage of giraffes. - source

There's a line of 70 foot long concrete arrows that bisects the country longitudinally all the way from San Francisco to New York City. They're from the pre-digital age and were installed by the Federal gov't in 1924 with 50' tall towers with rotating gas-powered lights to aid lost pilots.

Brad Pitt rented a resort in Mexico for Y2K, invited friends over and bribed the government to cut the power and phone lines at midnight. Then he had troops sent over to arrest one of his friends for drug charges. - source

Power lines look like terrifying bursts of light to animals that perceive UV light.

Evel Knievel started his motorbiking career after being fired from a mining company for making a large earth mover do a wheelie and running over a main power line, which left his hometown without power for several hours.

The power puff girls had an episode called the Beat-Alls where almost every line and plot point are lyrics from the Beatles.

In 1962 the USSR decided to test a 300kt nuclear bomb in space over a populated area, the resulting EMP fused 350 miles of telephone lines, shut down 621 miles of buried power cables and burnt down a power station. The following year they signed & ratified a treaty banning tests in outer space.

In Mozambique, overhead power lines have to be at least 12m/39ft high to ensure that giraffes can safely pass underneath.

On December 10, 1987, a squirrel chewed through power lines and shut down the Nasdaq for 82 minutes, preventing the trading of approximately 20 million shares.

Interesting facts about power lines

Existing power lines can be used to simultaneously transmit data and electrical power. There are applications for broadband transmission.

Crows in Tokyo often steal wire coathangers to add to their nests, which cause blackouts when built on power lines

If you stand near a high voltage power line with a florescent light in your hand, it will light up without being plugged in to anything.

In many jurisdictions, the only person who has the power to arrest the Sheriff is the Coroner.This practice dates back to England. During the 12th century, the British king grew concerned about the unchecked power of the sheriff and decided to grant the coroner the power to keep him in line

Osama bin Laden's eldest half-brother, Salem bin Laden, was killed in 1988 near San Antonio, Texas, in the United States, when he accidentally flew a plane into power lines.

Agent Orange was used in Canada to clear foliage for power lines and highways. Forestry students holding red balloons were used as targets for the planes.

Young, captive California Condors are trained to avoid power lines before release into the wild. They live with a mock power pole in their pen, which gives a slight shock when touched.

In 1888, Bertha Benz completed the first long distance road trip in a gasoline powered automobile. On the way she stopped for 'fuel' at a local pharmacy (making it the first filling station in history) and invented brake lining on the way. The trip covered 121 miles.

Power lines and electrical equipment are the major cause of most large California wildfires, not nature.

Male assists in building of the nest. He collects twigs, branches, mud, wires and wool while female chooses location and uses collected materials to build cup-shaped nest. Nests are usually located on the cliffs, high buildings, bridges, telephone poles and power lines.

On 1982, underestimating helium's lifting power, Larry Walters attached 45 helium-filled weather balloons to a chair to fly it and rose to 4600 m near Los Angeles International Airport, before shooting ballons and landing in power lines

Those orange basketball-like balls attached to power lines are called marker balls and are used to warn low flying aircraft of power lines.

It would cost $41 Billion to put all of North Carolina's power lines underground

The Northeast blackout of 2003 which left over 50 million people without power in the U.S and Canada. It was originally caused by a fallen tree on a power line in Ohio.

High-tension power lines used to stretch from Sicily to the Italian mainland- a span of over 2 miles. The 761 ft tall steel towers still remain.

When Dallas Wiens lost his face during a power line mishap, he was worried his young daughter would be horrified, instead she was elated to see him because she recognized "her daddy's hands"

In Feb. 2016 CA SB-1463 proposed laws to mitigate wildfire risks posed by overhead power lines. It passed House & Senate unanimously. Gov Brown vetoed it. California had the deadliest wildfires in history, caused by overhead power lines.

Power-line adapters turn your home’s electrical wiring into a high speed network and use that to transfer Internet data instead of LAN cables.

That, on a railway line in Yorkshire, UK, there used to be 'trains' that were powered by sails.

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