Robbie Rhodes wrote in Mechanical Music Digest 97.01.08:

> ...  but I think the more likely cause of failure is the voltage
> surge when the mains of a neighborhood (e.g., one square kilometer)
> is abruptly disconnected from the regional mains system during a storm.
  [snip]
> ...  Surges of more than 600 volts, lasting tens of milliseconds,
> are observed on American 120-volt mains.  The available current during
> this short period is monstrous: it's equivalent to the transformed
> current at the power-pole fuse before the disconnect event.

Yes, this can be true from some technical viewpoint.

But, the truth is more complicated than some figures on a voltmeter or
wave forms on an oscilloscope can tell.  Did you ever think of the fact
that somebody could touch even an Austrian 230 VAC line and say there is
nothing, while others could more likely come to death?  No, no -- not the
simple thing, I do _not_ mean the pole with zero voltage, instead I speak
from the counterpart.

Stomp on yourself if you say you know what's going on.  Okay, they tell us
there are electrons, positive and negative charges, and electric current
can only happen mainly together with some metal things.  Sure, capacity as
well as inductance of an electrical network is a given fact, resonating
can take place, and so on.  Someone found out that interrupting such a
network at the point of zero of a +/- wave could even be the worst case.

They do not lie, but : Ever heard of the small and tiny *animals* of
current doing the _real_ work?  No doubt, they hate plastic and like cool
metal.  And of course, they have a good knowledge of, let's say, what is
the difference between common copper and precious platinum; moreover, they
do everything for gold!  Okay, that's simple too.

So what will happen in case of an interrupt of their normal work during
that boring flow from electric power plant to some ordinary refrigerators?
Guess there will be a big _panic_!

Due to the small size of their outline and due to the fact that in the
first microsecond they know nothing from the break, besides the immediate
loss of guidance from their big generator or the nearby also big trans-
former. The result is, obviously, no one can expect all of them can hold
the predicted 120 (American) or 230 (somewhat European) volts.

Therefore, here you will have 815 V, and some hundred meters afar a minus
314 V -- but only for some milliseconds.  Because all the loads -- burning
lamps, refrigerators and ventilators, ac-to-dc-transformed motors for
player pianos (!) too, and so on -- due to an unknown reason, refuse entry
for all of the small and tiny animals of current.

Yeah, this is normally the real problem; but only for a small time.
Because after that small period of time the running motors will remember
their turning movement and takes as much animals as he can -- but rapidly
suffers from the delivery of more of them, and the story comes to an end
-- _finito_ -- zero volts on both ends of the electric lines within
milliseconds.

I could tell you more about their life, e.g. the special situation where
large groups of animals cannot decide to go right or left on the cable --
on your oscilloscope you can see non-sinusoidal waves with high amplitudes
(if you can trigger it!).  But sorry now, it is too late, maybe another
time.

Claus Kucher

 [ My goodness!  We must continue this discussion off-line, Claus!
 [ Do get a good night's sleep first!  ;-)
 [
 [ The American test specification ANSI/IEEE C62.41-1980, prescribes
 [ "class A and B" surge wave forms, which power line conditioning
 [ equipment must receive as input.  I'll try to locate the spec and send
 [ it to you via fax.  Certainly there is a similar European document.
 [
 [ -- Robbie