we bucked up a lightning struck tree earlier this year, it was a cherry.....it had a characteristic "corkscrew" wound that had healed over, down the entire trunk, right to the ground..... I'm sure it'll burn just fine, sounds to me like an ol' wive's tale.......
I've got a Red Oak that was struck about 3 weeks ago blew the bark from the ground up to about 20' just started to notice that all the leaves are dying. I'll try to get some pic's tomorrow.
Apparently the electricity misses the heart.. that is one club I don’t want to be a member of.... Hit by Lightning: Tales From Survivors Here’s another one. Category:Fall survivors - Wikipedia Because his parachute had gone up in flames and thus was unserviceable, Alkemade jumped from the aircraft without it, preferring to die by impact rather than burn to death. He fell 18,000 feet (5,500 m) to the ground below. His fall was broken by pine trees and a soft snow cover on the ground. He was able to move his arms and legs and suffered only a sprained leg. The Lancaster crashed in flames, killing pilot Jack Newman and three other members of the crew. They are buried in the CWGC'sHanover War Cemetery.
I'm not trying to hijack the thread, but it's because the electricity delivered is in a different amperage rate than the heart, similar to a Taser. The volts deliver the pain, but the amps deliver the rate of electricity that can affect the heart. Taser is 50,000 volts, but the amperage rate is below what the heart operates at, which is why the concerns about a Taser killing someone is (almost impossible). Not to diminish the effectiveness or the pain level of electricity or the Taser- when I went through the training, I took the full 5 seconds of 50,000 volts; and yes, it hurts like hell. I would never want to ride the lightning again!
Hmmmmm... learn something new every day,, Just curious, at what “amperage rate” does the heart operate?
I don't know exactly, but I cut this part from the web, see the very last sentence for what looks like the closest description. Maybe mike bayerl could add to this one? WHAT HAS TESTING REVEALED REGARDING THE TASER DEVICE? Anesthesiologist and specialist in medical electronics, Dr. Frank Summers, MD of St. Joseph’s Hospital, Orange, California, directed tests of volunteers at St. Joseph’s in 1971 and 1974, after the invention of the first TASER device. Dr. Summers stated, "We conducted this [volunteer test] in the operating rooms at St. Joseph’s Hospital. We had an assembly of cardiovascular surgeons, cardiologists. We had a real [TASER]. We tested extensively and made movies. The tests were impressive. We monitored all parameters of physiology, including electrocardiographs. The tests did not produce any lethal effects and we found that the background work that had been done did indeed pan out in practice." DOES THE TASER DEVICE AFFECT THE HEART OR A CARDIAC PACEMAKER? The TASER’s output is well below the level established as "safe" by the federal government in approving such devices as the electrified cattle fence. In a medical study of electronic stun guns, Dr. Robert Stratbucker of the University of Nebraska Medical Center confirmed that the T-Wave does not interrupt the heartbeat or damage a pacemaker. Any modern pacemaker is designed to withstand electrical defibrillator pulses that are hundreds of times stronger than the TASER device's output. The TASER device current of 0.3 joules is well below the 10-50 joule threshold above which cardiac ventricular fibrillation can occur.
Interesting... seems like lightning is just a bit over that threshold.. yet people still survive..... wonder why.. The energy of an average 3 mile-long lightning strike is one billion to ten billion joules. To keep a 100-watt light bulb going for one second, one hundred joules of energy will be used. With one billion joules, the light bulb will be lit for 116 days. Q & A: Energy of a Lightning Strike | Department of Physics | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
I saw a tree get hit by lightning on my yard, 3 foot diameter ash. First the moisture in tree vaporized, blew pieces of bark over a hundred feet, I fire pitted most. The rest got caught in lawnmower belts. Burned that tree, after CSS, in stove it burned great!! I wasn't on FHC yet never heard of 3 year plan. Ash is a drier wood anyway, but that couple of cord was very dry!!
[QUOTE="VOLKEVIN, post: 850137, .[/QUOTE] Cardiac electrophysiology is out of my area of expertise. I defer on the issue of Tasers and pace makers, etc. As far as surviving lightning strikes on humans, it is yet another example of how amazing the human body really is. But do keep in mind that plenty of people get struck and killed every year please be safe. I spent one month training in the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's office in the '90's and that really drove home how easy it is die by accident and how precious every day is.
I have seen lighting strike a tree that was near where I was camping. I think I was about 50-75 feet from that strike. It blew the top of the tree apart causing a limb come down and go through the hood and windshield of a truck (not mine). I had sneakers on, but I recall feeling a mild electrical shock. That tree was toast after that hit. I was very grateful I wasn't affected more. I've seen huge white pines that had been blown to bits. Big black char marks on the wood.
No that I remember but then again I split it and put it in a stack that wasn't burnt for another 3ish years.
Amperage kills, not voltage. As long as the amperage is quite low, like a Taser, it does no real harm. On the other hand, a lightning bolt delivers very high currents. What goes on there is a function of the path through the body missing the heart. If the current travels mostly along the skin you may get severe skin burns from it but your heart should be OK. I had a lightning strike on my garage and it blew the siding off two opposite corners of the garage but did not impact anything much inside the building or the main sides of the building. My guess is that the corner trims that hold the ends of the siding were catching some rain water and thus provided a conductive path to ground.
Finally got out to take pic's All the leaves are dead The bark is spread around 50' from tree and it looks like if you cut it it will already be split. Any ideas on taking this tree down? Thanks
Very carefully.....I would think you could bore cut it maybe but I'll let those more experienced than I answer for sure. I love those pre-split trees but I've never cut one down. Usually I see them split when they hit the ground.
Ours we chained together with heavy duty chain at 6, 12 and 18 feet up. Used bore cut and a lot of spotters.. Be extra cautious!!
