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Tesla coil electrocutions

Hi Everyone,

I was looking at my small coil in operation the other day (driven by a 15kv
30mA neon and beer bottle salt water capacitors) and I got to wandering what
the effect of actually getting a shock from the tank circuit would be. Has
there ever been a documented case of someone being electrocuted from the tank
circuit of a Tesla coil?

The peak power in a tank circuit is meant to be pretty high, what would the
effect of this power be if it discharged through a person? I guess the
resistance of a person is much higher than the resistance of the primary so I
guess this would mean that much less current would flow through the person
but I bet that it would still be a lot higher than what you would receive
thru the mains.

I know in Sing Sing prison in New York when they electrocute criminals they
use a voltage of 2000 to 2200 volts at 7-12A for 30 seconds at a time and it
still can take a couple of minutes for the prisoner to die (Electronics
Australia, March 1992). I guess if the human body can stand such electrical
shocks then maybe getting a shock from the tank circuit of a coil would not
automatically be fatal.

BTW if you wanted to electrocute a criminal wouldnt it be far more humane to
charge up a large capacitor bank and then discharge it straight thru the
criminal resulting in instant death instead of the torture it appears to be
at the moment?

Sorry about the gruesome nature of this post but it was just something that I
got curious about.

Regards,
Mark
  

-- Mark
       _/_/_/   _/_/_/_/       Mark Conway
      _/    _/    _/          Deep Thought BBS, Auckland, New Zealand
     _/    _/    _/          A FirstClass(tm) Macintosh GUI BBS
    _/_/_/      _/          Internet: mconway-at-deepthnk.kiwi.gen.nz