Ok, I may as well add my TC "shock" experience to this thread. I was running my original pig powered coil
"Medusa" in my (single car) garage at deminished power levels (4 to 5 ft. discharges) and intentionally walking
around in front of it, "thinking" that I was staying OUTSIDE of its strike range (yea, I know - not too smart).
Well, as fate would have it, I got a little too careless while turning my back to it and and of course that's when it
"reached out and touched me". Needless to say, it quickly and in no uncertain terms got my attention! The best
way that I can describe the pain is to imagine someone taking an ice pick and stabbing you in the back several
hundred times within the second or two that it takes you to get away from it! However, once the initial pain was
over, I don't recall experiencing any lasting effects afterwards. Also, on another day, my wife made the mistake
of grabbing the outside door knob of the door to that same single car garage while I was firing the same coil at
more elevated power levels on the inside for the 8 to 10 footers that pretty much filled that little garage (she likely
grabbed the exterior side of the door knob at the same time that a streamer connected to the interior side of it).
She received a nasty shock that hurt like the dickens and "made her feel funny", but she also didn't seem to suffer
any lasting effects from that incident. Now, suffice it to say, these incidents occurred some 12 to 14 years ago but
neither of us have any intentions of allowing ourselves to repeat either of these experiences at any time in the near
or distant future, either ;^)
David Rieben
From: Carl <cn8@xxxxxxx>
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 8:16 AM
Subject: Re: [TCML] Joint pains with Tesla contact ?Myth
I have been the recipient of the whole secondary current from my 2kw TC (4 foot + sparks) on three occasions when Eye-gor accidentally turned it on before I was clear. All three entered around the shoulder area and exited through the feet. It felt like being kicked by a mule, but I had no lingering pain or other effects. It does cause involuntary emission of a long string of extremely bad words. My MicroCap simulator says I should have received pulse currents of about 1-2 amps. Average current was a few mA, and RMS was something like 10-20mA. In my opinion, the absence of lingering effects is not an adequate reason to experience this again.
---Carl
-----Original Message----- From: lightningfor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2014 10:52 PM
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
Subject: Re: [TCML] Joint pains with Tesla contact ?Myth
While playing with small to medium coils holding an ungrounded metal rod
to draw the arcs, I have always found the pain to be in my wrist (not
necessarily the joint).
I assumed this to be to the increased current density due to the smaller
cross section of conductor...?
I have had one nasty shock with a large coil drawing 7kw and producing
6-8 foot arcs.
It was at one on my early shows over ten years ago, and I was wearing a
home made suit...
One of the metal mesh boots I was wearing almost slipped completely off
as I took an arc to a sword I was holding. I dropped to the ground
(partly with the pain, and partly because the muscle in my leg stopped
working...) and rolled away from the machine while it continued to
strike me on the ground. The audience loved it of course and never knew
I was in real danger!
The pain was in the calf muscle in my lower leg (most likely due to the
fact it was where the bad connection was in the suit), and it ached for
about 3 days...
Needless to say I made sure that could never happen again!
Carlos
On 2014-02-18 18:11, Jim Lux wrote:
> On 2/17/14 6:18 PM, Peter Terren wrote:
>> A quote from Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz in a recent post in regard to
>> contact with Tesla coil sparks.
>>
>> "A common effect is pain at the joints, because there the resistance is
>> higher and most damage occurs."
>>
>
> Joint pain (wrists and ankles) observed after exposure to high Rf
> fields, notably in VHF range, surmised to be for the reasons Antonio
> describes.
>
> It's a whole body exposure, notoriously from ground crew ear airplanes
> on carrier decks.
>
>
>
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