Re: DON'T get killed!! - Re: Somewhat off topic. Neon gas tubes..

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: William Beaty <billb@xxxxxxxxxx>

On Thu, 6 Oct 2005, Tesla list wrote:

> Unfortunately, it's often not the people with the smart-A** attitude
> that end up as casualties, It's the newbies that think that their
> attitude is "cool" that end up getting burned.

Exactly!  I survived as a newbie because I adopted the proper attitude:
sheer terror!  If I was supposed to put one hand in pocket and work with
insulated tools while keeping elbows well in, then I did this even when I
was totally certain that everything was unplugged.  And I always hid
behind something when plugging in power on new devices for the first time
(since I wasn't totally sure there'd be no flying shrapnel.)  Looking
back, I see that a great fear of unknown electrical dangers will force
newbies to develop all the right habits.  And going the other way: anyone
who thinks that "it can't happen to me" will never develop any safety
habits, and is almost guaranteed to meet disaster.

Only now, after thirty years and working on HV high power stuff, am I
finally starting to lose my fear of 120V.  (I suspect that this is not a
good thing.)


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William J. Beaty                            SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb at amasci com                         http://amasci.com
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