Re: NON-static shocks from unpowered secondary?

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

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

> >I live in Southern Ontario, and it gets very dry in the winter. With a
bit of
> >shuffling, I can pull 1"+ static sparks. In fact, I do this all the time on
> >purpose - I KNOW what static shocks feel like.
> >
> >
> Hi Patrick...
> 
> Many of us have also been nailed by the " unconnected" secondary and
> have our own war stories. Thinking back on the "attack" I had, (
> prompted by your email) just maybe , remotely possible, something to
> think about,  I wonder if the body acts as a capacitor in conjunction
> with the secondary for that brief instant we recieve the shock ( and
> thats why it is so intence? and kinda like an AC feeling)  is it
> possible that between us and the secondary combination we get an
> oscilation for that microsecond of contact???
> 
> Scot D

	I believe that the charge is stored in the dielectric coating (varnish
or whatever) on the outside of the secondary.  Reason is that when I
touch one end of a "charged" secondary with one hand, and move the other
along the coil I get repeated discharges, as the dielectric is
discharged locally.  It's surprising how sharp and uncomfortable the
jolts can be, even from a small coil.

Ed