Lew Hodgett writes:

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.


Ah, takes me back to Avionics shop days at Kaneohe Bay. We had a unit called a
bomb tester, for spark plugs on the helicopters. Why the spark plug tester was
in the electronics shop is the kind of military reasoning that helped me make a
decision not to reenlist, but that thing cranked out something like 10,000
volts (low amps). You didn't have to actually touch the guy near you to shock
him. The bank-zap of a spark traveling something like 3" was something else.
I've got a friend whose electrical training said to never give electricity a
heart path--no 2 hand stuff--and he's right. But back then, we were mostly
19-20, had gotten out of Parris Island within a year, and were invulnerable.

Along about the third or fourth public zap no one came with arm's reach plus a
yard of anyone with the tester.

Charlie Self
"Bore, n.: A person who talks when you wish him to listen." Ambrose Bierce, The
Devil's Dictionary