Lightning Protection for the Oil Industry

Building safe storage for the products of the oil industry is quite a different problem from making the storage already in use safe from fires started by lightning. The latter problem is discussed with some principles to be observed. Details of construction are so varied that it is difficult to give general rules. A record of several hundred installations over a period of about three years is given. Work with small models in the laboratory has been successful in some cases. It is unwise to rely too much on work of this kind, however. Since the seat of the charge under a storm cloud is largely on pipe lines, tanks, and other metal parts in the oil fields, lightning devices should be securely attached to these structures. A network of pipe lines at or near the surface makes a better ground for towers than a single shaft driven vertically downward to permanent moisture.