Thread: Electrocution
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Brian Gaff \(Sofa\) Brian Gaff \(Sofa\) is offline
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Default Electrocution

I've always found dc shocks worse than ac ones which do often send you off,
I guess it very much depends on which muscles and in what mode they operate.
Brian

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"Martin Brown" wrote in message
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On 29/03/2021 23:32, soup wrote:
Many have had a 'belt' from domestic 240Volt wiring through bad luck, bad
judgment or plain stupidity .


One of my friends at university was unlucky enough to grab onto a Jesus
lead in the lab with a plug at each end. He was holding a live plug. Third
degree burns in the time it took someone to knock off the mains.

A previous (and terminally stupid) research student had made it - too lazy
to open up the four way strip and wire it up properly.

I have lost count of the number of hedge trimmer and lawn mower Jesus
leads I have reconfigured after noticing neighbours with it the wrong way
around. Usually just after they have cut through the cable again.

Whilst a shock from 240V CAN kill how often does that actually happen
and how many just get thrown across the room into a foetal position
whimpering and crying until the arm unknots and the tingling feeling goes
away.


The funniest one for me was a US service engineer training on our kit in
the UK. They have a tendency to lick fingers and touch live to see if its
hot which on US 100v mains you can get away with. UK mains threw him hard
against a wall and he turned ashen grey. First aid was administering warm
sweet tea and a stern warning never to do that again.

When you do fire training in smoke you are taught to walk with your arms
in front, elbows out and palms facing inwards to your chest. That way if
you do touch a live wire muscle reflex pulls your hand away from it.

The tendency is for anyone untrained to flail their hands about in the
smoke feeling for things palms open and outwards. Do that and touch live
and the contracting muscles will grab onto it for you. Not good!

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Regards,
Martin Brown