Re: electrocution experiences

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Christopher Boden by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>

There have been 3 deaths, and a few thousand near-misses. There are a LOT 
more "Oh S***!" experiances out ther than you'll ever hear of becaus of fear 
of ridicule. However, I haven't been getting enough hate mail lately so here 
goes...

Long before I got into HV I was a fan of taking things apart. When I was 
about 10 I got ahold of a television. This was long before I learned about 
things like capacitors and flybacks and such. I plugged it in, turned it on 
and the picture wouldn't come in. Had I been smart enough to know about the 
verical hold knob it wouldn't have been an issue.... I unplugged it and went 
at it with a screwdriver. I didn't know they would hold a charge.

Now, 16 years later, I STILL refuse to work on a monitor :)

In my VERY early days with HV I kludged together a Jacob's Ladder from an 
obit and 2 welding rods. It was 10kV 23mA and I accidentally brushed against 
it reaching for something on the bench. The pain was immediate and intence 
and scared the heck out of me.

In one of our first tests with the Group's first coil I was phasing NSTs and 
got a nice bite from the HV side of an NST. This happened because even 
though the variac was turned all the way down, the 1 or 2 volts coming 
through was being bumped up to 1 or 2 HUNDRED on the HV side of the NST. 
This is why now in all our demos you see me wearing a key around my neck. 
The key arms the control panel, and there is NO possible way for the panel 
to output ANY power without the key in place.

While playing in the driveway one evening we tossed together a 6" setup just 
for kicks, not a demo or Lab project, just to play. Well, being out of the 
lab and not at a demo we didn't use the checklist and just cobbled it all 
together for a few hours of running. I had *just* tuned the primary and was 
walking back when the operator (who shall remain nameless) armed and fired 
the coil without following ANY of the voice/hand signals we religiously use. 
I was about 8' from the coil and he fired it, and I quote "Because I LOOKED 
a safe distance away and he wanted to scare me" in some sort of a sick joke. 
Well, he did. He scared me nearly to death. I heard the panel click as the 
contactors armed and I turned around to look....that was dumb, I shold have 
just dropped flat and I'd have been fine, but I turned and looked.

I turned just in time to see the a beautiful 7-8' streamer connect with the 
right side of my nose. It went through my entire body and out my right 
big-toe. Fortunately it was the first time we tested the new rotary and I 
had ALL the electrodes in it, making our BPS about 4-times what it should 
have been and the bang-size was VERY small. I could *feel* every bang of the 
gap, I don't kow how to describe it. It hurt, but not like a regular 
electrocution. I think the shock was more adreniline than Voltage...I was 
absolutly terrified. I knew that I wasn't taking a nice, reletively safe 
streamer from an insulated platform. I was taking a ground-strike, where the 
amperage is much more intence. That's how transom died. I honestly though I 
had died for a couple seconds. The whole experiance lasted less than 2 
seconds, I was visibly shaken, and with all the tact and tolerance of a 
teacher I could muster....I promptly beat the living heck out of the 
operator. He has (and never will) touched a piece of HV gear in my lab 
again. Other than a funny feeling that lasted the rest of the day and some 
muscle aches, there have been no lasting side effects of the incident, no 
burns, nothing. I thought I saw a small black mark on my toe where it came 
out (and I cold easily feel exactly where it came out), there was nothing.

I'm sure that every coiler has one or two similar stories (I know a few of 
them for sure do, I've heard them). But getting people to admit to something 
that is universally stupid in front of 800 other people, all of whom KNOW 
better....you'll never get all the stories out there, I'll bet not even 10%. 
There is ABSOLUTY no excuse for being electrocuted with a coil or subsystem. 
Never. The only reason you get bit is you were lazy or stupid and broke 
common sence and protocol. If you follow the SIMPLE rules and pay attention 
you will NEVER get bit, period.

I hope someone ele can learn a bit from this, I know I did. I was a safety 
fanatic before, and even more so now. I'm proud of the Group's safety 
record, and I plan on keeping it that way.



duck




Christopher A. Boden Geek#1
President / C.E.O. / Alpha Geek
The Geek Group
www.thegeekgroup-dot-org
Because the Geek shall inherit the Earth!