Today, I electrocuted myself.

[SteeleDragon78]

Not ducking when doing a CB check on the 10th aircraft on the line & knocking yourself out on the VHF blade aerial? Been there, done that (9th Jan, 1984, for the date-afflicted).
I woke up with my oppo telling me to "Stop messing about", THEN he saw the blood & promptly got the Chief Tech & the ambulance involved.

Fun times, eh?

sounds like as much fun as walking into the trailing edge of a Cessna aileron, leaves a distinct pattern on your forehead, kind of like this ---<>----<>----<>---- . also pitot tubes do not give when backed into.. just sayin

[lineswine]

i've learned alot about electricity. some through trial and error, some from books. the most important things ive learned is this. 110v @60hz hurts, 220v @60hz hurts alot, 440v @60hz will leave you asking where the truck is that hit you. that knowledge was great for working on normal installations like houses etc. then i got bit by aircraft power, not the dc stuff lineswine hit, but the APU power 110v @400hz that makes you speak in tounges and what ever touched it doesnt move for 30-45 min.

Heh, I'm pretty familiar with the ouptput of Houchins, Pollouste, etc.
115 volts, 400Hz, 3 phase can knock you into next week, no problem.
The good thing is that aircraft attachments tend to be very safe, if they're not abused.
As for APU stuff, we rarely got close to it - although small (less than a metre), 110,000 RPM is a quick, one way trip to the mortuary - a place I've no intention of visiting.

Not ducking when doing a CB check on the 10th aircraft on the line & knocking yourself out on the VHF blade aerial? Been there, done that (9th Jan, 1984, for the date-afflicted).
I woke up with my oppo telling me to "Stop messing about", THEN he saw the blood & promptly got the Chief Tech & the ambulance involved.

Fun times, eh?

[tech_monkey]

My only experience with electricity was 11th grade Physics, simple thing really. Teacher turns off the main in the classroom, we go to the lab stations and the others in the group grab the Multimeter and check the voltage and resistance, noting them on the lab report. My turn comes around and i follow the instructions the same as the rest of the group and somehow end up with an arc between the probes. I promptly yank my hands back pulling the probes out of the outlet. The teacher comes over to see how that could have happened, he tests the outlet, all seems fine to him, i test and get another arc. *shrugs* Fiance was an electrician before she went to school for radiology tech. Before her Steele did the electrical work for me, i watched though.

[SteeleDragon78]

i've learned alot about electricity. some through trial and error, some from books. the most important things ive learned is this. 110v @60hz hurts, 220v @60hz hurts alot, 440v @60hz will leave you asking where the truck is that hit you. that knowledge was great for working on normal installations like houses etc. then i got bit by aircraft power, not the dc stuff lineswine hit, but the APU power 110v @400hz that makes you speak in tounges and what ever touched it doesnt move for 30-45 min.

[lineswine]

Many, many years ago I was working a a tech in the Air Communications bay at our friendly neighbourhood Royal Air Force base.
I was working on some kit of circa 1950's vintage (ARC 52/PTR 175 anyone?) that had a rotary transformer, that provided high tension to the valves (tubes) in this design - about 415 volts D.C.
I was wearing a ring on my little finger of twisted silver wire - I went down to measure a voltage at a test point, overdid it a bit annnnd....woke up on the Decca Navigator bench behind me, with the tech saying "Are you alright mate?"
You see, D.C. is a little different from mains A.C. in the fact that it makes you hang on or shoot off, depending on it's polarity with respect to earth (ground). If it had been the other way round, I'd have ended up hanging on to the thing.
We live & learn (hopefully...)

[wolfie]

I get zapped all the time at work when dealing with the analogue phones and lines. Does not take much to be the ground if the previous people didn't do their job correctly.

Fun Fact - A regular phone line always has -48 volts DC on it. Enough to get your attention.
But it rings at 96 volts. Not enough current to do any damage, but dang! It'll wake you up on a Monday morning. BerZZEEERRRTTT!

B

Don't recall where, but I've read about a woman whose dog would start barking every time the phone rang - except he'd bark and THEN the phone would ring.

Turns out the ground rod wasn't making proper electrical contact with the soil, and the dog's chain was attached to the rod. When the phone rang, the voltage would give the dog a shock (hence the barking), he'd lose bladder control, and with the added moisture the ground was improved enough to allow the phone to ring.

Must have been the only documented case where pissing and moaning solved a problem.

[Pagan]

Sam's buggies have the same problem as Walmart's. What was explained to me was that it was something about the way the wheels run the floor. It builds up a charge and *zark*

But that's the weird thing. The only place I've ever had that problem is Sam's. And not all the time. Was just in there earlier this week, no problem. I used to think it had to do with how dry we get, but there were a couple of times this past summer when we were at (I swear) negative humidity, not one zap.

Never had that problem in Wal-Mart. Maybe something to do with the floors? Linoleum at Wal-Mart, concrete at Sam's.

[raudf]

I have the same problem, but it's at Sam's. Doesn't matter what I'm wearing or what time of year it is and it doesn't happen all the time. When it does, I just make damn sure I keep my hands firmly on the plastic part of the cart handle!

Sam's buggies have the same problem as Walmart's. What was explained to me was that it was something about the way the wheels run the floor. It builds up a charge and *zark*

When the walmart I worked at became a supercenter, the buggies weren't just doing little zarks. The jolts were strong enough that it caused several of our pacemakered oldsters to panic. The stock associates refused to haul more than 5 at a time into the store for ANY reason. Next thing I knew, the buggies were sporting the little wires.

I admit it does wonders for people's budgets, however. You go to reach for that impulse buy and *zark!* My child used to grab things off the shelf until I accidentally got a hold of a wireless buggy. Every time that little hand would slip towards the shelf *zap* and down went the hand. Only once with that buggy and he never again tried that trick.

Now we walk through the store and try to zark each other. So if you see a mother and son tapping each other and giggling.. well, that'd likely be us.

[Andara Bledin]

When it does, I just make damn sure I keep my hands firmly on the plastic part of the cart handle!

I keep a pair of very thin gloves in my coat pocket that I'll pull on at times like this.

Actually, most of the time, the boyfriend steers the cart. He almost never gets zapped, so it's safer for everybody.

^-.-^

[Pagan]

I do not know if it is the boots or my cold weather gear, but I get zapped every time I go shopping.

Well, if you figure out what it is, please let me know, cause I'm the same way. Some times are worse than others, and I don't wear boots or heavy winter gear, usually just plain shoes, jeans & a shirt.

I have the same problem, but it's at Sam's. Doesn't matter what I'm wearing or what time of year it is and it doesn't happen all the time. When it does, I just make damn sure I keep my hands firmly on the plastic part of the cart handle!

[taurinejunkie]

I got shocked pretty badly (I think) the time I tried to unplug my video camera from the wall, my hand slipped and I grabbed the metal prongs while trying to grab the plug again. As I remember, my hand was twitching occasionally for a few hours afterwards.

[TheCheerfulTreeRat]

Maybe rubber gloves should be mandatory?

The first time I was doing electrical work on a ship I sat looking glumly at some sparking cables.
"I thought the power was off in this section?"
"Yep, the ETO said it was"
"You might want to get hold of him and see if he's sure enough to lick these cables"
<pulls on plastic gloves followed by leather ones>

[Kristev]

Maybe rubber gloves should be mandatory?

[Merriweather]

I do not know if it is the boots or my cold weather gear, but I get zapped every time I go shopping.

Well, if you figure out what it is, please let me know, cause I'm the same way. Some times are worse than others, and I don't wear boots or heavy winter gear, usually just plain shoes, jeans & a shirt. There have been times when after taking a few items off the shelves and getting shocked every time, I just point & let hubby put things into the trolly. Grocery stores are the worst, but not the only place. I recently got new slippers, and when I wear them, I get shocked by one of our light switches (never when I don't wear them, though).

As for major shocks, hubby has me beat on that one. I wanted something up on the wall in the kitchen once, and at the time the only drill we had was a big heavy one, which is too heavy for my small hands to hold steady, so all drilling went to hubby til we got a lighter one. Anyway, he checked for all switches & outlets, then figured out where wires should be running, based on standard American practices. However, we were living in Wales at the time , and he found out the hard way that things are done differently in the UK. Knocked him off the stepstool he was on, but didn't quite lose consciousness. He was lucky, cause of course, not only is UK wiring done differently from the US, it's also packs twice the punch.

[Luna Baby]

At least this time my whole arm did not hurt, just my finger. I have GOT to remember to wear rubber gloves while shopping!!!

This reminded me. Our town got a new "Super Wally World" about 5 years ago. This one didn't have the standard VC tile on the floor. This particular store had what appeared to be a dark red concrete, poured in gian 4 x 8 foot sections. For about a year, I'd go shopping and all through the store, I'd continue to get shocked in my hands no matter what time of the year it was or what I was doing. It dawned on me one day when I paid closer attention that it was coming through the carts. I finally spoke to a MOD and explained that something had to be done. I was a relatively healthy person, but what about the babies sitting in the carts and the older folks with pacemakers, etc......? It was only after I had this same discussion multiple times, that I noticed that they attached 2 pieces to the bottom fronts of all the carts. One is a black rubber strip and the other is a short piece of chain. Both have to touch the floor. Apparently, it has some grounding effect. My kids laugh at me when I go to grab a cart now and I'm standing on my head trying to see how far back in the row of carts I'm having to dig to get one with both attachments! If one or the other is missing, you are sure to have one heck of a shocking experience shopping that trip!