🚀 go-pugleaf

>>From: pmb@swituc.UUCP (Pat Berry) Message-ID: <192@swituc.UUCP>

>In article <427@edai.ed.ac.uk>, cam@edai.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.edai   031 667 1011 x2550) writes:
> very lightly brushing the surface. That's all just my guess. I've used
> the effect for 30 years to detect live mains by touch. It works best on
> shiny surfaces, stroked slowly with a very light touch. It is not a
> Not recommended unless you don't mind the occasional jolt from the
> mains, which probably means your skin ought to be on the dry side. I'm
> talking about 250V mains, by the way. 120 is less lethal.
> -- 
> Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.edai   031 667 1011 x2550
> Department of Artificial Intelligence, Edinburgh University
> 5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK		

>>Like they say, don't try this at home!!!  What Chris does not mention is
>>that it only takes 100 ma (read that one tenth of an amp) to kill you!
>>At that current flow, your heart fribilates (shakes itself apart).  Above
>>that current flow, the heart plain stops.  Why risk your life when you
>>can buy a small voltmeter for under $15.00 in most hardware stores?

>>Please do not ever touch a wire to see if it is hot.  Such advice is not
>>only dangerous, it is criminal.  You risk dying on the off chance your
>>skin resistance is high enough to prevent the flow of a lethal amount of
>>current through your body.  120 volts will kill you just as fast as 240
>>volts.  If your body presents as much as 1100 ohms of AC resistance to
>>the 110 volt circuit, you will pass the lethal 100ma of current!

Not to pick on you Pat as I've seen a lot of postings to this effect but
give this guy a break for cryin out loud. He mentions that it is not
recommended so how in the **** could this be criminal? He has been doing
this for 30 YEARS!!! A lot of people these days are pretty lucky to live
that long for drugs crime and alchohol. As far as getting the prescribed
100 mA through the heart, I know for a fact that there is NOT a thin wire
connected from my forefinger to one edge of my heart and likewise to my
other forefinger or foot or whatever part of my body decides to be ground
when I get shocked. The 100 mA is going to be distributed greatly through
other parts of the body (probably mostly through the skin, its the skin
effect :-) I have worked around high voltages for at least 10 years and
have been shocked but GOOD several times. The only shocks that have ever
scared me are the ones that I couldn't get away from i.e. a loose wire
that followed me as I tried to escape the evil electrons. A short shock
like the one that Chris is talking about is probably to a person working
around a lot of exposed LIVE connections a good thing so as to KNOW how
well grounded you are at the moment. I always test hot wires with my 
hand if I'm fairly sure that I'm well insulated from ground. As far as
testing to see if they are live by purposefully shocking myself, No 
*I* wouldn't do it but I am not Chris. I think that anyone working 
around HV live wires should get at least one jolt (110VAC) to gain a 
little respect for the stuff. :-(

>>Come on guys, lets not kill off the readers with poorly thought out
>>postings.

Do you really think that people are going to run out and shock the shit
out of themselves JUST because they read it here. Why don't we just stop
printing newspapers if this is the case, after all these people might just
go out and plant terrorist bombs in your local grocery store or start a war
with a neighboring state. This is obviously an intelligant crowd here who
can differiantiate between something that is potentially harmful and 
something that isn't. o o
                       ^
We aren't your children !! :-)


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