Re: Can some people extinguish streetlamps by means of their bodily emanations? 28-Oct-1994
I was a Private Investigator from 1990 to 2005. This involved lots of night travel on Long Island parkways. From about 1995 to the time I moved from NY, I began to notice that parkways lights would frequently go out as I approached them, sometimes as I was just about to pass under them. The rear view mirror showed that they did not turn back on. On my way back home, the lights were still out.
It got to be a “thing” that I looked for, but there was no common factor, i.e., weather, time of night, particular highway, type of light (incandescent, sodium, mercury), etc. I casually mentioned the phenomenon to some friends, but received “that look”.
I have an extensive electronics background, have puzzled over this peculiarity for years, and have no explanation whatsoever. I do not believe in UFO’s, ghosts, or supernatural occurrences.
I was delighted to read your article in my weekly newsletter. Now I know I’m not a looney. P.S. – There has not been a single occurrence of that nature since I moved to Florida in 2005.
Now people, it’s fairly easy to extinguish streetlamps with bodily excretions. Painful? Yes. Difficult to explain to the police? Certainly. But not impossible.
Wait… “emanations”? What the heck are bodily emanations? Maybe I should read the column again.
I once saw one of those shiny, stainless steel gas trucks going down a road - it turned all of them off. My brother was with me when it happened. He said they have sensors up there, to turn them off in the day. When that truck drove by them, it reflected light back.
I bet a lot of those people who think they turn off lights were wearing light colored clothing, or something made of a type of material that would reflect enough light to do just that. Or maybe they just have really bright smiles.
All the ones I’ve seen, the photoelectric sensors are on the top of the lights, looking toward the sky. Which makes sense, it’s the sunlight coming down from the sky that they are intended to sense.
I think your brother was just fooling you – or he is a fool.
Of course, at the time the lights should turn off (dawn), the sun isn’t above the lamp; it’s just emerging above the horizon.
It would make sense for the on-off circuit to have some hysteresis - to turn off, it should require that the ambient light be above some specified level for at least a minute or so.
When my father was still alive, he left home in the morning before the sun came up, and every morning, when he got to a certain streetlight in town, it would go out. Neither he nor I could ever figure out what it was - it was just that one light, and driving under it in any of our private vehicles wouldn’t do it. We suspected it might have something to do with the fact that his company truck had several different radios in it, including one that somehow worked as a cellular telephone.
I was amazed to read that others affected streetlights as I do. I discovered years ago that heighten states of emotion (especially anger & saddness) in me affect more street lights at once and over a slightly greater distance. I have also learned to shut them off at will. It requires that I am within ten feet of the pole and it gives me an awful headache. I have done it upon request for my wife for years; actually since before we were married, but I have shown no one else. I did tell my assistant when she showed me that our new walkie talkies could not be used in her presence. Anytime she is near one it’s like someone is jamming the frequencies. Weird!
Tony C
He’s have a bit of work to do, first, because of the new rules.
12. This offer is not open to any and all persons. Before being considered as an applicant, the person applying must satisfy two conditions: First, he/she must have a “media presence,” which means having been published, written about, or known to the media in regard to his/her claimed abilities or powers. This can be established by producing articles, videos, books, or other published material that specifically addresses the person’s abilities. Second, he/she must produce at least one signed document from an academic who has witnessed the powers or abilities of the person, and will validate that these powers or abilities have been verified. Million Dollar Challenge Rules
Sure, but it sounds like Antony is claiming he can quite consistently do this on demand - it didn’t ought to be too hard to get featured in a local newspaper or something, if that’s a true claim (actually, probably even if it isn’t).
Yep. That’s the bit if work I was referring to. As well as having “an academic” sign off on it. (That sounds a bit iffy. Endless nits could be picked over what constitutes an academic.)
Antony, next time this happens, stay put. Stand under the light until it comes back on; note down how long it was off. Then keep standing there, and keep a strict record of how often the light cycles on and off. Do this until the sun comes up.
At the same time, have a series of video cameras monitor random streetlights at different points around the city. After getting a few hours sleep, pull the tapes and compare the on-off times for all those lights with the one you were standing under; see if there’s any significant difference. Repeat the experiment a few dozen times (standing under a different light each time), and if there’s a consistent, quantifiable difference in the behavior of “your” streetlight, you may be onto something. Please share the data with us in a few months. Thank you.
Sodium vapor lamps are highly efficient … during operation. However, starting the lamp takes a fair amount of power. It takes far more current to cause the arc in the first place than to maintain it. Therefore, street lights turn on consecutively rather than concurrently in order to avoid causing massive dips in the power grid at dusk. Furthermore, street lamps next to each other are installed at the same time, are used the same amount, and so age at the same rate.
Conclusion: when all the lamps on a street are old enough to overheat, they will overheat in a pattern. Just as lamp A turns on, then lamp B, then lamp C, lamp A will overheat and turn off, then B, then C. The timing may coincide roughly with how long it takes to walk from one lamp to another.
Of course, this is an armchair hypothesis. I know less about sodium vapor lamps than wikipedia. But it explains the phenomena to my satisfaction.
