Re: WOAH ,tesla coils KILL?

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

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>

Hi Ed,

I think everyone has been killed from the primary circuit arcing over to
them.  The high voltage arc provides a low resistance path.  Once the
primary arcs to the secondary, the current of a high powered system will
blow the thin secondary wire.  So just having to low end grounded is no
insurance as the secondary is blowing apart at the same time.

Cheers,

	Terry


At 04:28 PM 1/31/2001 -0800, you wrote:
>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
>