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Re: Stunts and Fatality

Hi Nick,

	I'll give my thoughts on these but no one can anticipate every consequence
of such things.  What ever you do, you do at your own risk!


At 12:51 PM 5/13/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi All,
>         As a coil which may be able to do some cool stuff is in prospect I 
>wondered how dangerous the cool stuff is.  Here are my questions:
>1.  Is there a power throughput above which coils are considered potentially 
>lethal?

If it delivers more than 30 volts or 10mA yes.  Apparently, some people can
find ways to kill themselves with as little as 30 volts. 10mA is the
current level were shock effects can get serious.  Of course, any coil will
exceed these levels by many orders of magnitude.  If a typical 10nF cap at
20000 volts hits you and you are say 100 ohms, you will conduct 20kV at 200
amps!!  I think ANY Tesla coil can kill you with ease...

>2.  Is it safe to take a hit if you wear a conductive suit ( a boiler suit 
>with copper wire woven into it) ?

If you can take any given wire in your coil system (like in input mains)
and ground it to the suit without damaging it or you, you're getting close.
 Woven wire will be vaporized by a primary cap discharge as will an AC line
contact.  Of course, being in a grounded suit may just be the equivalent of
being in a bathtub full of water too.  You may be just grounding yourself
REALLY good to eat the full jolt...  Thus, you almost have to be in a suit
of armour to prevent you bare skin from coming into contact with the
current.  A suit "could" be safe, but there are too many variable to be
sure in just an e-mail forum.  Normally, I would think that anyone needing
a protective suit also needs some pretty close and very expert advice
before using up one's life on some oversight. 

>3.  What exactly is my legal position if some one complains of RFI and I am 
>traced as the source (I am in GB) ?

I general, in any country, you are TOTALLY responsible for the problems you
cause.  The fines and punishments are more or less in proportion to those
problems...

>4.  Does anyone have any advice on public demonstrations?

Keep the public back so that they can never touch anything live!!!
Electronic device may be destroyed.  Basically, you have to insure that no
one will get hurt...  Difficult to do with Tesla coils...  Also, an
audience is VERY distracting making is easy for you to grab the wrong thing
and such...

These comments fall far short of the "total" answers, but maybe they will
give some clues...

PLEASE don't kill yourself or anybody else!  I know of three deaths so far.
 Since there are really very few coilers (maybe 5000??), this could become
a statically dangerous hobby pretty quickly...

	Terry

>
>Thanks in advance
>Nick Field
>