Hi Messaline! What you previously stated was useful and valuable because it completes our information, but kindly allow me to note underneath :
- as far as I know, following the daily news on TV (same as, I believe, Loxuru did) the theory of electrical short circuit in one of the lifts
keeps being considered by the Investigators. I did not hear however of any official confirmation as yet: it is correct to suppose that
technical details as well as detailed chronicle of the events will come along with more complete information of the succession of the events
- far from contraddicting your notes and with all procedures respected as indicated by you, fortuitous incontrollable elements could
have been determinant ( direction of the wind which fed up occasional sparks from any source close to electrical wires or equipment, including the lifts and/or any other cause no matter how much absurd it may seem): a lot has been said within this Forum on this argument: please let it open till its definition for which a bit of patience and some time are needed.
-a new detail had filtered yesterday indicating that the scaffoldings on the Cathedral's side facing the Seine were the first one subject to the fire's attack: let's wait to learn more about this too.
- The source of my information is the italian State controlled TV first Channel (RAI 1): this is the top professional TV in Italy.
I frankly doubt they would put in jeopardy their consolidated italian (also european )prestige with 'fakes' or omit control of their
sources.
I will be grateful to you for your attention to the above.
I seize the opportunity to wish you a very happy Easter!!
Let me think out loud about this. If I make you feel sleepy, well at least you won't need a pill (or a Seagram's) tonight.
Current flows through a conductor if there is a voltage difference between the ends. Generally, the amount of current (for a given conductor) dictates how much heat is generated (which would likely be the cause of the fire). That's why the old-style light bulbs with filaments would "burn out" when they were turned on. When the filaments were cold, they conducted electricity more easily so there was more current and more heat and they could melt.
Some things, like air, are not good conductors. But given enough voltage, the current will find its way (think lightning).
"Turned off" means a switch was thrown--basically the path through the conductor was interrupted. Certainly the elevator wasn't in constant motion, so there was a switch to activate it when someone wanted to use it--the switch created a conducting path for the electricity, like bringing the ends of two wires together . But here "turned off" probably means more than that--it was unplugged, like a lamp--so throwing the elevator switch wouldn't help. There was no "juice".
The ignition system in a car works with electricity, which is used to ignite the gasoline (basically the "cylinders" drive the car using controlled gasoline explosions). My simple understanding is that there is a rod with a gap, surrounded by a coil. Turning the key creates a path to the coil from the battery, current flows in the coil, the causes a magnetic effect, and the two ends of the rod are forced together. This allows a current (quite a bit) from the battery to flow through the rod, ignite the gasoline, and boom, you're off. The battery is the source of the electricity. You plug the car's engine into the battery. (Once a fossil-fuel car is running, you don't need the battery any more, because some of the motion of the engine is used to generate electricity to ignite the fuel--and "recharge" the battery.)
There is battery analogue called a capacitor--basically two plates with different charges (so a voltage difference between them) with something between them that won't conduct electricity below a certain threshold. These things can produce current when the threshold is reached or when some other connection (a short) is made--current flows between the plates.
So, the elevators are unplugged from EDF's grid. The only possible sources for current (and therefore heat) are internal sources in the motors in the elevators. There may be batteries. If there are areas in the motor held at different voltages, they can act like a capacitor. Normally, there isn't a path between them, so no current, no heat. But a "short" means a conducting path is created (like two bare wires where the insulation has worn off touching). If the ends of the "short" are at different voltages, current can flow (even if it isn't coming from EDF), you get heat, and you start your fire.
I am not an expert on elevator motors, or any kind of motor. But any electric motor is probably going to be susceptible to an accidental short, even if it isn't "plugged in", and one hefty enough to power an elevator probably could generate enough internal current to catch fire. Or, since the elevators were probably "uplugged" using a switch to EDF's grid, a short in that switch could have allowed current to flow into the system as well.
Voltta, they guy for whom "voltage" is named, was from Italia, wasn't he?
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