Readers with a functioning memory will, of course, remember this story we ran 9 years ago: answers-on-a-postcard-please. To save you clicking and looking, I asked what the hell is this little salt pot thing I saw hanging beneath a power pole in a remote valley in mid Wales.
Well thanks be to Chris Morris from Newtown who was also wondering what these are and so took a pair of binoculars to find out. Turns out, they are Fault Passage Indicators. According to Chris they are completely wireless and detect faults by analysing the phase currents and their imbalance, by analysing the electromagnetic field(s).
For the really curious out there they are made by a company called Bowdens whose registered address is Spook Hill (I write this on Halloween – you couldn’t make this up).
This from their online catalogue of hard-core nerdy gadgets. I couldn’t find an “add to basket” button otherwise I’d have bought one and turned into a mug.
Anyway, thanks Chris. I can now look to rebuild my life again after 9 years of restless, troubled nights not knowing what this thing was.