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Darwin Awards
2015 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
Should I include it in the archive?
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The Sad Truth of Crispy Coppers

2015 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Being an electrician by trade, I've learned much about the physics of electricity, the method of its transmission, and its lethality toward those who get too close.

When people think about electricity and its transmission, they immediately think about homes, businesses, and industries, that use copper wiring to power their devices. With the exceptional period during the 1970's where aluminum wiring was frequently used in buildings until its flaws were found regarding its brittleness and corrosion issues when tied with copper, this is a correct assumption.

However, a lot of crispy copper crooks think that stealing from such places is a waste of time and money; if they want to steal a -lot- of copper, then they obviously want to steal from bigger wire! And what better place to steal it from, than a transmission line or an electrical substation? And I've seen this time and time again in the archives of people wanting to take this risk.

With those ideas in mind, and with my knowledge of electrical systems, I have to simply shake my head, because what these crispy crooks don't know, is that transmission wire, let it be residential transmission (say, outside your home running up and down the street), to the giant towers stretching for miles on end, or even the wire underground, is almost always -aluminum-!

The reason why this is, is for multiple reasons; one, unlike household aluminum wiring, transmission lines are designed to be cross-compatible with copper (as is the power from the street to your electrical panel, I should add). Two, the cost of aluminum is far less than copper, and is easier to come by. Three, it is much lighter than copper, making it far more suitable for long-range transmission (in the case of overhead wire, it is traditionally reinforced with steel cable to prevent it from flexing too much). And, finally, it is only slightly less efficient than copper, which makes it far more feasible to use on a wide scale like in electrical transmission (the art of sending power from the power plant to your household).

Though this is not a Darwin Award story in the traditional sense, I know that this site is looking for stories regarding crispy coppers. What these stories always neglect, however, is that when these "crispy coppers" try to go for the big haul, not only are they risking their lives to the utmost extreme, but they are doing it for what is likely a measly prize of common everyday aluminum. This should hopefully give some context as to how ludicrous and profitless it is to enter an electrical substation, since only in rare circumstances do such systems have copper.

Submitted on 09/15/2015

Submitted by: The Legacy
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission#Overhead_transmission

Copyright © 2015 DarwinAwards.com

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Candi said:
Neutral: For Darwin's Eyes
In the future, you might want to send stuff like this through the "Contact Darwin" link, or message the page on Facebook. It is *very* interesting, though, and definitely gives context to the boneheaded lack of research these people put in! Thanks very much, Legacy!


James said:
Definitely Keep: For Darwin's Eyes
Thanks for the expertise! I'm sure it will be useful in any potential book on such wire-happy mooks!


Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: For Darwin's Eyes
Thanks for all the details!


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