Re: Safety Considerations

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "acmdq" <acmdq@xxxxxxxxxx>

> Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> "Regarding touching the sparks.  I'd suggest not touching them
> on a higher powered coil such as you are building.  The skin
> effect in humans is a myth.  The current goes though you it's
> simply that the frequency is too fast for the nerves to sense.
> So you can be cooking internally and not know it.
>
> Cheers,
> John"
>
> 	The skin effect (in humans) is a myth but RF burns are not.  Even
> circuits with a few watts can give you a nasty burn if the voltage is
> high enough.

I tried to touch sparks of a Tesla coil twice. The first by accident. 
I tried to draw sparks with a screwdriver, holding it by the end of 
the plastic handle. The arc jumped over the handle and made a nice 
black spot in my hand, that I only felt by the heat... In the second 
time I tried to draw an arc to a metal ball, with care to not be 
directly hit. I then found that I could not flex the fingers that 
were holding the ball without pain for several weeks...

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz