# Do you remember your 1st electric shock?



## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

I was about eight years old & messing about with an old radio. I wasn't allowed to plug it in, but had simply taken it to pieces. I was fiddling with the mains transformer & a battery & managed to connect the battery across the 6.3 Volt winding whilst my other had was across the 240V winding. Received an enormous "belt." My dad told me I couldn't possibly have had a shock from a 4.5 volt battery & I must have *****ed my finger on a wire. I demostrated it to him & he was convinced. Years later at Wray Castle as a junior radio cadet, I was telling the story & was told it was a load of rubbish -transformers would only work on AC. A transformer & battery was obtained from the practical room & I proceeded to deal out a few "belts" to the unbelievers who quickly became believers. Never forgot my first one though!
Bob


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## Fieldsy (Nov 3, 2008)

Working within the bowels of a machine when an apprentice. Very little space and I'd had to squirm past lots of equipment. My chin touched a loose wire and my head shot upwards, colliding with the metal casing. Rebounded back onto the wire and my head shot up again - managed to avoid rebounding onto the wire and broke the sequence, or I might still be there.

When doing my fire-fighting training I recounted, to the trainer, an experience I'd had. He didn't quite call me a liar, but it was close.

I was trying to put out a fire on ship and was actually using the wrong extinguisher, though I was actually successful. The fire was due to a fuel leak on a paxton generator. I was abover the generator on a walkway leading to the main panel. There was a CO2 extinguisher to hand so I used it and leant out over the fire in oredr to be able to aim at the seat of it (high enough above to be safe from being burnt). I was holding onto a handrail, because I was leaning out, and holding the extinguisher in the other hand. While discharging the extinguisher I got a series of belts - I can only assume it was static being built up by the gas discharge and as I was soaking wet (sweat) and holding onto a metal rail I was earthing myself.

It really happened but I got some strange looks from the fire officer. I've spoken to other fire officers since then, and none had heard of such an occurence before.


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## ROBERT HENDERSON (Apr 11, 2008)

Mine was not so much an electric shock as a sore a**e.
During the war my parents kept a public house, my father was in the National Fire Service so my mother was left a lot of the time looking after the pub and four children on her own. Having a lot of service people at Harwich at that time the pub was always busy.
At school physics lesson we had just learnt something regarding why light bulbs glow. Being the genius that I am I thought how I could save my parents from buying light bulbs ever again. So I got a piece of wire, put each end into a power socket covered same with a jam jar and hey presto one light bulb, switched on the power, there was one almighty bang and all the lights in the pub went out.
When my father came home he did not appreciate my genius, what happened next is described above.

Regards Robert


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## BobClay (Dec 14, 2007)

You may remember those old valve household radios that every home had after the war. Makers like Pye and Cambridge and so on. They had a huge usually semi-circular tuning dial with magical names on them like 'Third Program', 'Droitwich', 'Radio Luxembourg' and so on.

As a kid I found one on the dump, but the case was shattered. I took it home and took it out of the case, and put it on a table next to my bed. The speaker was laying on the floor, and all the gubbins (including a big mains transformer) exposed. I was made up to find it still worked, and apart from the rattley speaker and some mains hum, bought in a load of stations with a wire attached to the window frame. (Council house, steel frames).

Then one day I was leaning out over it from the bed when the underside of my chin touched the top of the transformer. I gotta tell ya, that bought water to my eyes, and several other parts of my body too.

Bloody thing went back on the dump. (EEK)


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## John Rogers (May 11, 2004)

Plug in???what does that mean?,we didn't have one on our oil lamps. My families wireless/radio used a car battery which we had to take to a garage every couple of weeks to get charged. It wasn't until 1934 when we moved into a house with electric.

John.


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## Ian (Mar 27, 2004)

Shipbuilder said:


> Years later at Wray Castle as a junior radio cadet, I was telling the story & was told it was a load of rubbish -transformers would only work on AC. A transformer & battery was obtained from the practical room & I proceeded to deal out a few "belts" to the unbelievers who quickly became believers.
> 
> Bob


You've got a long memory, Bob, but so have I. I was one of those unbelievers but quickly became a convert when I was on the receiving end of a tremendous belt!! (Or so it seemed at the time, but certainly enough to grab my attention). It was a lesson well learnt and kept filed away in the memory banks for later years! Stood me in good stead on more than one occasion..


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## tunatownshipwreck (Nov 9, 2005)

Mine came from the remnants of an old crank telephone.


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

BA204259
And it is now almost 50 years ago - what a memory!
Bob


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## benjidog (Oct 27, 2005)

First one - when I was about three. Our house didn't have any mains sockets - just bayonet lamp fittings. Anything electical was plugged into there using a very dodgy lead with a plug and socket. Stuck my finger in the socket - there was a bang, pain an nasty burning smell. 

After that managed to stay clear of shocks except one time when an electrician rewiring a house I cut through some 60 amp cables that my partner was supposed to have disconnected. I didn't realise that pliers could melt - wasn't so much an electric shock as a burn from the molten metal.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Here's a copy of a post I made on this subject some time ago:

"On Anna von Bargen, rolling gently along in the Mediterranean, my main transmitter (Debeg) suddenly wouldn't work. It seemed there was no aerial connection so I switched the equipment off and pulled out the top unit, a large heavy steel box. Resting the unit on my chest, I looked inside and saw that the connection - a cheap nasty flexible coil of wire with a large jack plug had fallen out of the aerial connector section. I reached inside, got hold of the jack and plugged it into its hole then ZAPPO! A line of sparks arced between the top of the Final Stage valves and my forearm! I sprang back and the unit dropped to the deck missing my big toe by a millimeter and gouging an inch deep scar into the composition deck. The commotion brought the Mate into the radio room. He observed the situation calmly and pointed to a small sign at the base of the transmitter: "HOCHSPANNUNG," he said slowly as if to an idiot. After my hair had stopped standing on end I would have given the witty rejoinder: "Get f****d", but the moment was gone. The scars of this experience can still be seen if I get a suntan, a permanent reminder to always "Read the Manual".

On another occasion, on a large tanker, I was soldering inside the power unit of a Decca radar. The power unit was in the gyro room behind the bridge and everything was going well until the 2nd Mate decided to switch the radar on - KAPOW!!! I hit the back of the gyro room with a crash then went out and spoke sternly to the 2nd Mate. I was being a bit unfair because, although I'd told him I was working on it, I should have tagged and disabled the display, and he was from Fleetwood, so it was my own fault. Fortunately these days, I never touch anything more lethal than a 1.5v battery."

However, the first electric shock I remember happened when I took the cover off the front of a street light, using one of those all metal sheath knives that kids used to love and which would get you an ABO (Antisocial Behaviour Order?) these days. Having removed the cover, the knife was hovering over a terminal block while I decided which screw to unfasten. The screws turned out to be magnetic and KLUNK, the decision was taken out of my hands. Unfortunately the knife wasn't taken from my hand and I was flung about 6 feet away from the lamp-post.

Phew, that was a big one! I didn't need a clip round the ear from the local Bobby to teach me not to do that again. In fairness to myself, I was only 27 at the time.

John T.


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## makko (Jul 20, 2006)

We recently had a case where some "bright sparks" (well they were eventually!) decided to hook up their house their for free to some transmission cables, where they went from aerial to underground - The only problem was that they were 400 kV!! The funniest part was that there were no apparent victims, just a pair of shoes by the crater!!

Dave


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## surfaceblow (Jan 16, 2008)

In Baltimore the Power Company was experiencing a large number of their transformers being damaged. As a result the company began to charge for the replacement of their equipment if they could prove where the fault originated. 
The Power Company determined the fault originated from the home of the Electrical Course Instructor at the school I was attending at the time. His son had a very shocking experience from peeing into a wall outlet. The power company selected not to charge for the transformer.


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## Gareth Jones (Jul 13, 2007)

Had many in the course of my working life, here's one that stands out !
In the wheelhouse of a tanker, the radar had completely failed - the first easy step was to check if it was transmitting - easily done by using a screwdriver to draw a long spark off the modulator valve anode cap - (also impressive to bystanders). I was standing on a rubber mat and using my right hand so what could go wrong ?
Unfortunately the insulated blade of the screw driver had a little hole in it -zap - next thing I knew I went crashing backwards across the bridge into the window. 
My arm had flung the screwdriver across the bridge and it buried itself into the wall next to the 2nd mates head (who was sitting in the captain's chair).
The belt had reset my brain and I wasnt fully aware of what had happened, but the mate was! They had to take him down to his cabin and the old man stood the remainder of his watch. 
Oh, and the radar - water in the bloody waveguides again !!!!


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## MARINEJOCKY (Nov 25, 2007)

Trying to put a welding rod into the holder while standing on a ladder inside a Foster Wheeler boiler repairing the baffle plate will tend to launch you off the ladder onto the fire bricks rendering you senseless until the old chief is bending over you in a string vest about to give you the "kiss of life" that brings you back to life immediately. Unfortunately this was repeated a number of times. 

The lesson learnt was never brag to people that you can weld when you first join a ship.


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

Nowhere near as "glamourous" as some on here, but an old Dansette valve record player on which the on-off/volume control knob was missing. I went to switch it on, it wasn't earthed in those days or double insulated!! Yeow!!(EEK)

Also, whilst not a shock, was certainly a shocking experiance. When I first started working in a Nightclub, one of the 8 head helicopter lights had gone down. The transformer which gave the 48v for lamps had given up the ghost. The only replacement I could get was a toroidal one. (hate them with a vengeance!!) I fitted it, but because the old one wasn't a toroidal, I fitted into place with a wire sling!! Nope!! Not a good idea! Switched it on......................what's that burning smell!!!(EEK)


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

First Electric Shock.

.My first shock, in more ways than one was when our Physics teacher dwelt on “electricity and magnetism” and explained and demonstrated the principles of an electric bell.
I was so intrigued with the lesson that I went home, got into Dad’s workshop and made up my own version of a bell using a wooden board, an old moving coil loud speaker as my electromagnet, a hacksaw blade as the striker arm some strategically placed nails as make and break contacts and an old cake tin as the gong. After carefully checking my circuitry I gingerly connected up to the 250 volt power point and bingo the hacksaw blade vibrated back and forth striking the tin and after a couple of adjustments I was all set to give Dad a demo of my ingenuity.
He came out to the shed that evening and before he could react to the Heath Robinson set up and stop me in my tracks I switched on but as there was no reaction I flicked the hacksaw blade with my finger to be jolted out of my skin while the bell then clanged noisily for a few brief seconds followed by an enormous flash and the lights went out. Not just our lights but several other houses as the short had been bad enough to blow the street pole fuses. 
Luckily a friend of Dad’s, was the duty fault man for the local Power Board and the power was restored without too much fuss or enquiry.
Needless to say I was chastened in more ways than one.

Another electrical related “misdemeanor” was after a lesson from the same teacher all about anodes and cathodes, how a battery works and how electro-plating is done.
Again anxious to show my new knowledge I set up one of Mum’s earthenware bowls filled with a solution of nickel sulphate from a jar of green crystals that Dad used for the garden? Used an EPNS spoon as the sacrificial anode and then used a big gold bangle of my older sister’s that was showing signs of dullness as the ideal item to be nickel plated.
Connecting the two across a six volt battery saw the solution bubble and fizz and after half an hour we had one un- plated spoon and a very black looking bangle. A quick polish up with ‘silvo’ helped it to shine a bit but the end result was a very unimpressed sister and mother.


Bob


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

You've GOT to try these things though, haven't you?

A friend of mine had noticed that the lights in the School hall were dimmed using a 10k pot. So, he decided to come around to my place and try one for himself! He duly connected this pot up to a disco lightbox of mine and switched on. It WORKED!! For about five seconds then it too went flash bang and I had to get the fusewire!!


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## BOB GARROCH (Oct 10, 2008)

One day a large international truck from Malawi rolled into the workshops to have a HF radio installed. The driver stayed in the workshops while the radio was being installed. When the installation was complete, I asked the installer to press the PTT, when he saw me walking into the workshop. I picked up a two meter Flouresent tube and walked towards the truck, waving it like Star Wars. In an instant the tube lit up. The driver received the shock of his life he stared at me speechless. I put the tube into my mouth and moved closer to the driver. The driver bolted out of the workshops and down the road. He would not come back while I was there. He thought I was a bad sangoma. (Witchdoctor)

Anyone been bitten by the Klystron??


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

BOB GARROCH said:


> One day a large international truck from Malawi rolled into the workshops to have a HF radio installed. The driver stayed in the workshops while the radio was being installed. When the installation was complete, I asked the installer to press the PTT, when he saw me walking into the workshop. I picked up a two meter Flouresent tube and walked towards the truck, waving it like Star Wars. In an instant the tube lit up. The driver received the shock of his life he stared at me speechless. I put the tube into my mouth and moved closer to the driver. The driver bolted out of the workshops and down the road. He would not come back while I was there. He thought I was a bad sangoma. (Witchdoctor)
> 
> Anyone been bitten by the Klystron??



(Jester) (Jester) You tight bu**er!!!(Jester) (Jester)


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## billyboy (Jul 6, 2005)

Not my first shock but the first out here. needed to wire up an outside light. switched everything off including the mains. You got it!...hell of a belt off the bared wires. its the old 2 wire system out here with no earth. had to get an electrician in to rewire the house (well a guy who owns a screwdriver) house rewired and safe. But come downstairs when its its dark and see the flourescent tubes glowing! ...when the lights are switched OFF


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## BOB GARROCH (Oct 10, 2008)

My first lightning strike, was on the "George Peacock" tanker. 
Lightning hit the VHF antenna travelled through the VHF equipment, then ran across my desk, in front of my face , and found earth on the copper HF parasitic earthing points. 

The second at Bukom Island Singapore. I was walking across the wooden swing bridge cast between the berthing pontoons. According to the second mate, the lightning struck me and I disapeared for a moment and then kept walking as if nothing had happened. 

The third. I had been dropped onto a 300 meter radio mast by a helicopter to perform some progation tests. All of a sudden an African storm arrived and I was in the middle of the most fantastic display. The mast was hit a couple of times. I sat tight in the middle of the mast until the storm had receeded and waited for the helicopter to come back for me. I think this is why I have never been ill, my body has been polorised .


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## K urgess (Aug 14, 2006)

Always take your Seiko watch with the metal strap off before putting your hand inside a live radar cabinet. (Ouch)

Try to avoid grabbing the handles on the main transmitter as the vessel rolls while you have your hand inside the power supply of the main transmitter. (Ouch)

Don't be tempted to hold the spark plug against the engine block while checking for a spark. (Ouch)

Never remove the leakage resistors across large capacitors while repairing powers supply units. (Ouch)


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## BOB GARROCH (Oct 10, 2008)

Marconi Sahib said:


> Always take your Seiko watch with the metal strap off before putting your hand inside a live radar cabinet. (Ouch)
> 
> Try to avoid grabbing the handles on the main transmitter as the vessel rolls while you have your hand inside the power supply of the main transmitter. (Ouch)
> 
> ...


and never lean over equipment with a small screwdriver in your top pocket.
48 hours later you might be able to finish repair of the damage you have caused.


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## BobClay (Dec 14, 2007)

If a piece of electrical equipment is giving you a hard time ... resist the urge to pee on it.


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## BOB GARROCH (Oct 10, 2008)

But by all means, throw it off the top of a mountain. It stopped working as it is full of grass and need's to be replaced.


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

BobClay said:


> If a piece of electrical equipment is giving you a hard time ... resist the urge to pee on it.



Oh, come on. You HAVE to give it the "soak test"!!(==D)


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## andysk (Jun 16, 2005)

Some of you guys are lucky to have survived !

I never had a serious belt, just a few tingles, but do remember three occasions as an 'observer'.

First, a schoolmate who stuck a pair of scissors into a 13 amp socket 'to see what happened' - he ended up in casualty.

Then at Norwood Tech, three students standing close together in the cabin, one on the Span 7, one on the Atalanta and one on the Lifeguard, touching shoulders when someone also touched an HT rail somewhere - the 3 dancers ended up in a heap on the deck.

Also at Norwood Tech, one of the lecturers, Alan Hinch I think was his name, told of repairing TV's in his spare time, usually connected, like Benjidog, to a ceiling bayonet light fitting. He picked up the chassis with both hands, got a belt and couldn't let go, the only way of disconnecting the mains was to barge out of the door and fall down the stairs, ripping the fitting out of the ceiling. He stopped repairing TV's after that !

The wiring at Wray Castle was a bit hit & miss in the late 1970's as well, one of the lecturers, Joe ..... (black beard?) was seen in welly boots, on a rubber mat, with his heavy duty marigolds on doing some repairs near the back bathrooms. Nobody could find out where to turn the power off to that circuit.


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

Have also had a few "R.F." burns in my time too! I remember the first one. Didn't know what the h*ll had hit me!


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## de paor (Apr 14, 2008)

repairing a VHF transmitter on a BP tanker.Had the unit on the desk and plugged in and made the usual mistake of putting my hand into the power circuit while still holding the chassis with the other one. Touched a live contact and couldnt let go,eventually fell back and in doing so pulled the unit on to the deck and by so doing unplugged it. Ended up with a hole burned through to the bone on my small finger and a badly damaged VHF unit.


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

I was a twelve year old bare foot country kid playing in a farm paddock with mates on a hot dry summer's day when we came across an electric fence for controlling the cattle grazing.
After a dare or two we each plucked up the courage to touch the fence to find, after the initial one, that the belt was not too bad and in fact we had a contest to see who could hold on the longest.

The game over we went on to other things but returned months later after autumn rains and one mate nonchalantly grabbed the wire again to get a shock that rocked him rigid.
We were too young and silly to realise that the warm dry weather and soil had provided a good deal of insulation while the wet season had allowed the fence to have full effect.

Bob


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## freddythefrog (Dec 15, 2007)

As an 8 year old playing with Hornby double O train sets, I had been around to my mates to see his train set--also Hornby and his was a lot faster than mine, his ran off the mains to a transformer controller mine ran off a battery!. I says I will sort this and get it going faster---I will make mine work off the mains ( did not know what i was doing). Anyway we had a small mains lamp in the front room and i thought if i cut this wire and connect the 2 wires from the mains to the battery it surely must go faster.Musn't it!!
So got mums best metal scissors out, chopped the cable from the lamp in half(still plugged in) as you do!! and BANG I flew across the room and the house plunged into darkness, nasty belt it was. Mum said what ever has happened--suprised. Needless to say my train still went a lot slower than my mates. Did not dare go near electricity for a long time. LOL ftf


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## Norm (Jun 21, 2006)

As a 1st year apprentice in the electrical shop in the steelworks where I served my time, the older apprentices thought I was getting too lippy, and wired me up to a megger via my thumbs clamped in 2 conduit saddles screwed to the bench . A sign on the megger handle read. "turn handle to see apprentice dance" It made me dance allright. Later on one of the electricians took pity on me and set me free.


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## Norm (Jun 21, 2006)

I've had electrical shock from both AC and DC current - I'm now universally shocked! Ha-ha. With the DC shock I couldnt let go the wire, it seemed to be pulling me in. I think the muscles contract. With the only AC shock I was "thumped" away. Needless to say I have been very careful for many years before working on wiring to ensure its dead.
The flash of elecricity arcing across copper contactors is green. I wonder if thats where Sparks and Leccies got the green backing to their braid.?


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## eldersuk (Oct 24, 2005)

Just promoted to 3/Eng and attempting to do the lecky's job. I had a fan starter opened up and pushed in a contact with a Benson & Hedges packet which I immediately discovered was not an insulator!

Derek


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## NoR (Mar 24, 2008)

My first electric shock was at age 4 when I stuck my fingers into a live light socket. I can feel it now.


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## R58484956 (Apr 19, 2004)

As a 13 year old putting two blades of the scissors into the two holes on the socket. What a way to learn.


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## BobClay (Dec 14, 2007)

Were the scissors allright ?


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## Peter Fielding (Jul 20, 2005)

R58484956 said:


> As a 13 year old putting two blades of the scissors into the two holes on the socket. What a way to learn.


Damn!! You did that too! I thought I was the only one to have discovered that trick.


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## Kelpie (Sep 9, 2008)

In the good old days of jumble sales I bought a radio for two pennies. Got it home and fitted a two pin plug top to it,the type, if you remember that had two brass split pins that were supposed to be held in tight by the cover. Trouble was this one had no cover and I no sense.I pushed it into the socket to get an almighty whack on my finger and not long after two wart like protrusions the exact distance apart of the split pins. In my defense I was only six and even today can still see the white spots sixty years on.
Retired electrician and never did learn, had dozens of shocks since.
Crawford.


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## mikeg (Aug 24, 2006)

At a very young age I poked a dandelion stalk onto the bar of an electric heater, didn't do it again (EEK) and learnt to respect for electricity at the same time (K)


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## Kelpie (Sep 9, 2008)

Now you have started the memory going ! Worked on DC and AC in my time .
DC was a common supply on farms and big houses in the fifties and woe betide any one catching a live wire, there was no "pulse" to let go on.
The biggest shock I received was while welding. I was standing on the work piece and the rod stuck and would not break off so I grabbed the earth terminal and lifted it off. Don't try this at home folks! Similar to a car coil the windings collapsed and I was the spark plug with the points around the third rib left and third rib right.Thought I had blown a fuse in the ticker that day.Everybdy makes the odd mistake, I seem to have made them all, or is that boasting?
Crawford.


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## BobClay (Dec 14, 2007)

I sailed on a ship once with 110v AC mains. We were having an argument about electrocution in the bar .. (as yer do) .. when I stated (clearly fired up with Tennents Lager) that 110v was nothing, quite easily taken. So we all lined up and stuck two darts into the plug sockets (american style) and I flicked the finger of my right hand on one, and the finger of my left hand on the other. Fact is it isn't that much of a shock with full body resistance. 

However then everybody wanted to do it, so they were all dutifully queued up to be electrocuted. Then came the deck cadet. He decided to grip the darts with one hand, and was suitably rewarded with a teeth rattling shock. (Low resistance path using just one hand ...).

I miss those nights in the ships bar ......(EEK)


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## Unireefer (Apr 25, 2008)

I can only remember one significant belt. On a ship and was told the PA system hadn't worked since the previous Sparks had played with it. I duly pulled the power unit out of the rack for a look-see and was somewhat surprised when a live mains cable fell onto my hand. It smarted somewhat and I still don't know what the previous guy thought he was doing by leaving a bare cable booby-trap. 

I've seen quite a few people get shocks over the years and each was accompanied by a high pitched squeal - quite funny really but not for the shockee. I still get a shiver thinking about the time I was working with the Lecky in a deck crane as a JRO - we'd been working on a live starter circuit for quite a while and he must have had brain fade as he tried to grab a 415V cable. I kicked his arm away just before he touched it, not sure if you'd survive a shock like that.


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## Norm (Jun 21, 2006)

Nowadays its deemed to be very unhealthy to get any kind of electrical shock, although most of us seem to have survived regardless. Its a trauma on the heart and should be avoided at all costs...unless its a heart starter!

On the Nigerian National ship I was on the Nigerian purser came into the saloon holding a wire coat hanger and announced that "coat hanger him bite me" On subsequent investigation we found that he had hammered a nail into the wood veneer panel wall of his cabin, and pierced an electric cable. When he placed the hanger on to the nail....bingo! Do it again we said. ha-ha cruel lot.


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## BobClay (Dec 14, 2007)

"Volts jolts
But Mils Kills."


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## Barber Hector (Jan 13, 2008)

Marconi Sahib's comments about removing leakage resistors across large condensers in power supply units reminds me of a nasty belt doing just that.
On a Redifon main transmitter the power supply C charges up to 2KV, and when the power supply switched off it quickly leaks away. Unknown to me this particular resistor had a crack right across it and was useless. Changing the associated fuse was an easy enough job then bang. 2KV in my left hand which was paralysed for some 10 minutes and kicked half way across the radio room.
The previous R/O, with whom I worked back to back on that ship, knew of the problem and had indented for a new resistor. Never thought of telling me in the handover or putting a sign on the equipment.
His excuse was 'Oh well we are the B team'. Any BBS guys reading will know exactly what I mean.


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

When I was eleven we moved into a house that had electricity (novel experience), and my parents hauled out a pre-war Pye mains radio to use instead of the Ecko battery powered one. I saw this as an opportunity to progress on from my crystal set which had already been dismantled to it's component parts many times. My first experiment was to connect up a war-time surplus microphone to see if I could talk through the radio. Using the aerial/earth screws didn't work so I split the mains lead, cut one side and pushed each end into the little 2-pin plug on the mic. (At least it was in series, not parallel!) So far so good, the radio played but my voice didn't come out. I haven't mentioned yet that the only easily accessible mains socket was adjacent to the electric stove, on which I had placed the chassis of the radio. (No fun doing it with the thing still in it's case!) When I touched the stove whilst still holding the microphone........oh dear!


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## non descript (Nov 18, 2005)

Looking at Dave's *# 11*, I guess that whilst there will be many who can remember their FIRST electric shock, there will inevitably be those who cannot remember their LAST… (EEK)


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## jaydeeare (Feb 5, 2008)

Tonga said:


> Looking at Dave's *# 11*, I guess that whilst there will be many who can remember their FIRST electric shock, there will inevitably be those who cannot remember their LAST… (EEK)


I can remember my last electric shock.

I find the internet to be a very good Medium (A)


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## Peter Fielding (Jul 20, 2005)

I get one every three months - it's called an Electricity Bill!


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