Re: WOAH ,tesla coils KILL?

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

Original poster: "Thomas McGahee by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <tom_mcgahee-at-sigmais-dot-com>

More people have been killed changing light bulbs than have
been killed using Tesla coils. You can be killed by almost
ANYTHING if you are wantonly stupid. The fact that there are
so few deaths due to Tesla coils is a combination of
good luck (and lots of it!), and the observance of basic
safety rules.

Now there are some who break some of the safety rules and
simply rely on good luck to save them. This is tempting
fate.

There are some who fully understand all the safety issues
and try to address all the issues while still pulling off
some extraordinary stunts. Henry Transtrom was such a person.
He even wrote a book about Tesla coils. He performed
thousands of times before audiences... up until the day
he made a mistake and got killed. His mistake was not taking
note of a nearby hanging curtain section above the stage.
It turns out that there was a chain sewn into the bottom of the 
curtain section so that it would hang down nice and straight.
An arc leapt from HIM to the chain, and he died.

You don't even have to be connected to the secondary coil to
get killed. Touching the tank circuit is actually more dangerous
than touching the topload of an operating coil.

Terry mentioned this one, too:

>March 29,1998 - An unsupervised 14 month old boy wandered into the poorly
>made AC line wiring of a Tesla coil. He was found some time later but could
>not be resuscitated. 

In this case it wasn't even the Tesla coil per se that lead to the death.
The 110 or 220 circuit voltages can be lethal all by themselves. 

Many of us who have worked with Tesla coils could tell you personal
stories of how we ALMOST got killed working around our coils.
Most of us have learned from these episodes, and it has made us
even more safety conscious. So, if it seems to some like we are
over-reacting when it comes to the safety issue, just remember
that we know whate we are talking about from experience. Learn
from the mistakes of others, and avoid making those same
mistakes yourself. I think you will find that you will live
longer if you develop a healthy respect for ALL aspects of the
Tesla coil.

Fr. Tom McGahee