@ epiphany:

I don't disagree with anything you said in your post.  Since we all really don't "know" what is causing the electricity in the ground, all we can do is speculate and experiment.  I am just amazed that we have anything that works at all.  It is still very amazing to me.  When I read about the old telegraph batteries that had long since "died" and the telegraph was still operational, that tells me something.  I think the electric and phone companies think this "additional" power is just a pain to them and design ways around it.  They have for years.  I don't believe that anyone since Stubblefield has really taken the time to seriously study this effect...until now of course.  I have not had the guts (maybe too much common sense?) to test my electrode's power output during a close thunderstorm.  I would bet it would be much higher.  I almost tried it during one very large storm but it didn't make sense to be standing on wet ground holding copper wires that were well grounded to electrodes implanted in the wet earth.  Maybe next time, ha ha.

Bill

@ All:

After replying to epiphany's post I just had a crazy thought.  First, I started thinking about a safe way to see what happens during an electrical storm with my electrodes outside.  I thought about hooking up a bunch of leds to the circuit and then sit inside and see if they all light up during a lightning strike. (or burn out)  Then, I was thinking about what would happen if one were to hook up a larger capacitor to the electrodes, or several of them.  Would they charge?  And, if they did, it would make everything my physics professor told me about lightning incorrect.  Might this be a safe way to tap into just a little bit of lightning's power?  A lightning rod would obviously blow out anything we attempted to capture the power into but, our electrodes in the ground might be the key to actually doing this.  So, if I were to wire up a bunch of super caps during a storm and they charged, would I then not have tapped electricity from lightning?  My physics professor said this was impossible to do as lightning was "static" and not "real " electricity.  I think otherwise.

Like I said, it was just a crazy thought.  Any comments?

Bill

@Bill,
This reply is about Static electricity.
Bill Beaty has a whole lot to say about it too. Seems the EE's have it all over the physicists. (but we already knew that, didn't we?  )

A couple of years ago I found this page. I downloaded the pdf and watched all the little Quicktime movies. Then the page disappeared. R.Morse must have had a lot of requests to reload it because here it is,

It is a lot of fun and works on a very small budget. Instead of the big generator he uses, I found the pvc pipe generator I described to you before.
Doing those experiments then reading Ben Franklin's writings is very informative. I Think you and lots of folks here will enjoy it.

http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/personal_pages/bob_m/

Oh, and relevant too. If we are to use a spark we are right in the middle of the subject of 'static' electricity. 
jeanna

@ Jeanna:

Cool videos and info...thanks.

Bill

Hi all,

I spent today studying coil guns. It seems that it is the perfect study for where I am in this NS coil design.

I will pass on one of many good sites. This one has good explanations of the math but it also sums it if you don't want to follow along with a pencil.

No page is too long but every page contains valuable information of some kind so here it is:

http://www.coilgun.info/home.htm

jeanna

PS Yes, Joe, I did make one sort of like the one you described to me the other day. It is fun. Even when I missed the coil wires and got a BIG BANG instead of a nail being sucked into the coil.