"Norman D. Crow" writes:

I can remember being around 10 yr. old, walking along thefence with my
Uncle, me being barefoot, him in rubber boots, and all of a sudden he'd
grab
my hand with one of his, and the fence with his other hand. WOW! I do NOT
like electric shock. Of course, he would also check to see if the fence
was
working by grabbing the wire in one hand and digging the fingers of his
other hand into the grass or dirt. Not me!

Ah yes, the days of old.

Just to carry this a little further.

Knew some old time mechanics who would disconnect a spark plug wire from a
running engine, grab the end with one hand and the nearest unsuspecting
person with the other.

Didn't seem to bother them, but Boy Howdy that would get a reaction from the
one who was grabbed.

The other was in the industrial electrical area.

Way back when, factories were upgrading their electrical distribution
systems from 240V to 480V so it was common for both to exist during the
transition which might take a couple of years.

Quite common for a "sparkie" to back hand the bus bars of an open panel
board.

Based on how fast and how hard his hand closed and was kicked off the bus,
determined whether it was a 240V or a 480V panel.

I know, should have used a "wiggie", but that took all the fun out of it.G

I had a young co-op student who took a 120V light bulb screwed into a socket
with a pair of wire leads connected and touched the bus bars of a 480V panel
board.

The lamp exploded sending glass into his arms and face, cutting him rather
severely.

Spent his 3 month co-op period in the hospital as I remember.

Lew