[LINK] Re: Pythonesque One-upmanship

[Stewart Fist]

> 
> With the right conditions, the corrosion will create crystals between
> the earth lead and the pipe. The result can be startling, such as
> hearing radio in the stereo speakers when the stereo is switched off;

Have any of you ever done of seen the following.

My dad did this once when we were kids.

Take a high impedence headset, strip the plug, and add two nails, one for
each of the two wires.

Then you wander out onto the lawn where the kids are playing and plug the
two nails into the grass, and tell the kids you are just listening to the
radio.  No one believes you at first, but they can hear it also.  Real
magic.

It just takes a couple of wires from the output of an old radio-amplifier,
buried on either side of the lawn.  There's enough leakage through the soil
to carry the signal, provided the nails are a few inches apart.  I think it
only works with those old valve radios, probably because of the loudspeaker
impedence.


Sixty years since I saw this one.


-- 
Stewart Fist, writer, journalist, film-maker
70 Middle Harbour Road, LINDFIELD, 2070, NSW, Australia
Ph +61 (2) 9416 7458