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The dowel of death



Original poster: "Garry Freemyer by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <garry-at-ndfc-dot-com>

Well, Long time ago, I made a rod to draw off sparks from my TC using a
wooden dowel with a brass doorknob attached to the end, and coaxial cable to
ground the knob. Now with such an arrangement, you would think it would be
relatively safe, but nope.

I was operating the coil from a good distance and I got several good zaps
off the wooden dowel, even when I wasn't drawing sparks to it.

I turned on the coil and got several good zaps off the rod, before the
freeze from astonishment at the shocks off the wooden dowel prompted me to
drop the rod with a shuddering shake of the hand.

My only guess was the coaxial cable was just the right length, to act as a
kind of coil of it's own and instead of going down into the ground which was
a huge metal water pipe under ground, it decided to travel down the dowel
and into me, or maybe there is a carbon track inside the dowel.

This rod was used very little.

Either way, it's a case for choosing plastic over a wooden dowel for a
"Jesus Stick"