Re: WOAH ,tesla coils KILL?

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

Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>
> 
> Hi Drew,
> 
> At 10:52 PM 1/30/2001 -0400, you wrote:
> >Waittaminute,
> >They can kill and have killed?
> >I've never heard mention of this before.
> >Like i do know that the capacitor can do some serious damage, but even when
> >I was young and foolish at 13, i knew better than to lick my fingers and put
> >them on a charged capacitor's connector! When tuning my coil I always have a
> >piece of hv wire with probes attached to it for shorting out the caps, and
> >whenever i am transporting my coil i always short out the caps with
> >alligator clips and wire.
> >But from all of the responses i have gotten on the "COOL THINGS YOU CAN DO
> >WITH YOUR COIL" bit, most of them have mentioned the voltage coming off of
> >the top load being dangerous and can kill? Like of course I did make sure
> >that my legs were away from the strike rail!
> >Are there ACTUALLY recorded deaths from tesla coils?
> >
> >                                                   Up here in Canada,
> >                                                    Drew Murray
> 
> The list of known Tesla coil deaths is as follows:
> 
> Henry L Transtrom - Electrocuted while working on a stage and using a large
> Tesla coil. He inadvertently allowed a power arc to go from his body to
> some metal framing that was part of the stage backdrop. He authored the
> following book: "ELECTRICITY AT HIGH PRESSURES AND FREQUENCIES" Henry L.
> Transtrom, originally published: 1913, second edition 1921, Joseph G.
> Branch Publishing, Chicago; Reprinted 1990, ISBN 1-55918-054-4, Lindsay
> Publications, Bradley, Illinois, 60915. Paperback, 247pp, Lindsay # 20544.
> 
> 1992 - Graduate student intern working at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis. A
> Tesla coil was being used to test aircraft parts against the effects of
> lightening. The person got too close to the tank circuit and either bushed
> up against it or a spark left the circuit and struck him. He never regained
> a heartbeat despite excellent CPR and paramedic responses.
> 
> 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.
> 
> A master, a bystander, and a small child have been killed by Tesla coils.
> It is always a number one priority to keep that list from growing...
> 
> Terry

Terry:

	To your knowledge, has anyone actually been killed from contact with a
HF discharge from a GROUNDED secondary?  In other words, was it not
contact with the line power part (pig) of the primary?  Thought it was
the latter.  I can see getting very badly burned from the secondary, but
anything else??

Ed