Inexperience was RE: Mad experiment or Re: PDT

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

Original poster: "Ken's Mail by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <bluewaterdiver-at-earthlink-dot-net>

I have been following the thread of both the Mad Experiment and the
concern about New Coilers with PDT's, and just had some experiences to
relate.

The concerns posted here are extremely valid and justified. Not only
here with TC's, but they apply to many different fields of both
Recreation and Work.

I have been a Commercial Diver by profession and have been a SCUBA diver
for nearly 16 years. I have watched many inexperienced divers buying
equipment far beyond their level in the hopes of becoming the next
Jacques Cousteau, all the while I'm wondering when his first visit to
the Hyperbaric Chamber for a case of the Bends. 

Case and point to this, I was present on the recovery of a newbie diver
that wanted to race his buddy to 150ft and back. A bounce dive is not
unheard of, but it was their 3rd dive of the day. He got "narc'd" and
instead of coming up, he went horizontal. New divers, Inexperienced,
attempting things they had no idea the dangers of. 

Another example of the cavalier attitude about the danger of high
potentials is prevalent is my current profession. I work in Commercial
Kitchen Equip. Repair. I commonly work with voltages of 240 and 480 with
supplies of up to 200A or greater! There isn't one time that I open a
panel of 480/150A that I don't pause for the cause, but I watch techs
poke and prod around live circuits like it's all made of 120/10A! I
watched one trainee check a circuit with a Fluke voltage probe (the
little ones that glow if voltage is present) find no indication and then
promptly grab the lines and shock the smile right off his face!! He did
not know that if you test with the Tester, putting it in certain places
(i.e. directly between two lines) you'll get false readings. His
inexperience cost him a couple of burns and a bruised ego. He was lucky!

One of my best friends, who was working on a 480/200A unit was killed.
He was following every safety precaution known. He was killed when the
sweat from his hand found a tiny hole in the gloves he had on and his
sweating forehead came too close to a grounded case. He followed all the
rules and was still killed. Even the best can have the worst happen.

You can teach them, tell them, warn them, and scold them till your blue
in the face, but there is no replacement for common sense and
experience, the emphasis being on common sense, and above all Safety!

I am new to TC's. I have access to parts and funds to build a coil that
I'm sure would rival the greatest ever built, but somewhere in my head
common sense tells me that I need to start smaller and learn what works.
Yes, I aspire to shoot 14' arcs, but 3' will do till I learn what
works!! KISS, right?

It's the same everywhere you go. In this society of instant
gratification and special effects, which often make the dangerous seem
mundane, the need to have it all now can and does often blind newcomers
to the dangers inherent in some of the endeavors that they chose to
pursue.

In closing, I hope that some take pause, and honestly take a look at
what their doing and take a little extra care when around dangers, as
you never know when and where they can come from.

Think and be safe,

Ken