Re: Safe parameters for stupid human Tesla coil stunts

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz" <acmdq@xxxxxxxxxx>

Tesla list wrote:
>
> Original poster: "Harold Weiss" <hweiss@xxxxxxxxxx>

> I tried something like that with one of my older coils, only that I was
> touching the grounded point of my "gator stick" so that the point was
> presented first.  When I started seeing corona on the tip I stopped, as I
> could feel every time the spark gap broke and the varying power of each
> bang, and it felt like being ungrounded and touching a hot AC line.  The
> fact that it felt like 60 Hz should send up warning flags.

The most dangerous may be what you don't feel. When I made my first
coil, I tried to see if I could pull an arc to a screwdriver, holding
it by the end of the plastic handle. Should work, due to the high
frequency. And really it worked, an arc jumped to the screwdriver,
across the handle, and carved a little black hole in my hand...
Ok. Let's then avoid contact with the arc... I picked a metal ball
and again tried to pull an arc to the ball while holding it. Worked,
surely. And I barely could flex my fingers for the next six months
due to the internal burns in all the joints...

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz