"Andy Wade" wrote in message
...
robgraham wrote:

The reason they don't light is that the user is ignorant of the why
they light up and is standing on a rubber mat wearing rubber soled
boots. If I've got any doubt I usually find some way of earthing my
other hand to give a definite earth path.

That may help a little but you don't really need a conductive path to
earth. The stray capacitance of the body to earth (~150 - 1000 pF) is
enough to complete the circuit.

I've never heard of one failing - has anyone?

There are plenty of recorded cases of shock injuries resulting from neon
screwdrivers. The are potentially dangerous because:

where are these cases recorded? I only ask as it is a well known usenet
fault to say such a thing without any evidence to support a case! I have
certainly never heard of one.


--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)