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UK diy (uk.d-i-y) For the discussion of all topics related to diy (do-it-yourself) in the UK. All levels of experience and proficency are welcome to join in to ask questions or offer solutions. |
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#1
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Many have had a 'belt' from domestic 240Volt wiring through bad luck,
bad judgment or plain stupidity . 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. |
#2
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soup wrote
Many have had a 'belt' from domestic 240Volt wiring through bad luck, bad judgment or plain stupidity . Whilst a shock from 240V CAN kill how often does that actually happen Not very often at all, essentially because you really need the current to go from one hand across the chest to the other to kill you most of the time. and how many just get thrown across the room into a foetal position Never. whimpering and crying until the arm unknots Never knots. and the tingling feeling goes away. |
#3
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On Tue, 30 Mar 2021 09:44:21 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again: Not LOL Never. LOL Never LOL Sick idiot! -- Kerr-Mudd,John addressing the auto-contradicting senile cretin: "Auto-contradictor Rod is back! (in the KF)" MID: |
#4
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On Mon, 29 Mar 2021 23:32:04 +0100, soup wrote:
Many have had a 'belt' from domestic 240Volt wiring through bad luck, bad judgment or plain stupidity . 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. I was sitting on a quarry tiled kitchen floor connecting up a cooker. My understanding was the the supply was isolated, that quickly got revised when I tried to strip off the insulation of a live 10mm2 feed with uninsulated side cutters. |
#5
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Yes that would certainly do it. I am very sensitive to that electrostatic
buzz you get when you touch double insulated gear that is still live, so am very wary. Luckily these days I do not attempt to wire up mains gear as I cannot see the colours of wires any more. As an aside there are a couple of forms of shock you do not want, unless you have masochistic tendencies.1. On some navel ships the supply is 440 volts at 300Hz. No matter where you catch that kind of shock it bleedin well hurts and often you seemingly cannot let go. To be avoided at all costs. 2 RF burning. When I was still young I got a burn across my palm from a ham radio aerial in my garden. . It first started to feel like an itch then pure pain, I let go very quick but not fast enough to stop a burn that took some weeks to heal properly. So effectively microwaving your palm is not advisable! People get shocks all the time of course, but mostly its what we call static, caused by the imbalance of ions plus and negative that can occur merely with friction between materials, whether they be clothing carpets seating or for air rushing down a vacuum cleaner pipe. I did when I was younger 'borrow' a high impedance voltage probe and some people could get charged up with over 20,000 volts in just a few seconds. Luckily its got no current behind it on discharge so the worst you get is a crack a spark, and a tiny pin point burn on your finger. Talking of real life sad cases though, the daughter of an MP had just had a new kitchen fitted and was trying to get something out of a cupboard and touched a securing screw with one hand while steadying herself on the washing machine with the other. She was killed instantly and the kitchen fitter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. He had basically joined a number of wires up inside a wall cavity, and not filled in the hole merely screwed the cabinet over the top, One of the screws in the back had just caught a live wire and was thus live and the washing machine was earthed. The report did not go into too many details, but apparently she was alone her heart stopped and she fell off her kickstep and hit her head on some appliance. Brian -- This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from... The Sofa of Brian Gaff... Blind user, so no pictures please Note this Signature is meaningless.! "jon" wrote in message ... On Mon, 29 Mar 2021 23:32:04 +0100, soup wrote: Many have had a 'belt' from domestic 240Volt wiring through bad luck, bad judgment or plain stupidity . 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. I was sitting on a quarry tiled kitchen floor connecting up a cooker. My understanding was the the supply was isolated, that quickly got revised when I tried to strip off the insulation of a live 10mm2 feed with uninsulated side cutters. |
#6
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On Tue, 30 Mar 2021 08:39:22 +0100, Brian Gaff \(Sofa\) wrote:
Yes that would certainly do it. I am very sensitive to that electrostatic buzz you get when you touch double insulated gear that is still live, so am very wary. Luckily these days I do not attempt to wire up mains gear as I cannot see the colours of wires any more. As an aside there are a couple of forms of shock you do not want, unless you have masochistic tendencies.1. On some navel ships the supply is 440 volts at 300Hz. No matter where you catch that kind of shock it bleedin well hurts and often you seemingly cannot let go. To be avoided at all costs. 2 RF burning. When I was still young I got a burn across my palm from a ham radio aerial in my garden. . It first started to feel like an itch then pure pain, I let go very quick but not fast enough to stop a burn that took some weeks to heal properly. So effectively microwaving your palm is not advisable! People get shocks all the time of course, but mostly its what we call static, caused by the imbalance of ions plus and negative that can occur merely with friction between materials, whether they be clothing carpets seating or for air rushing down a vacuum cleaner pipe. I did when I was younger 'borrow' a high impedance voltage probe and some people could get charged up with over 20,000 volts in just a few seconds. Luckily its got no current behind it on discharge so the worst you get is a crack a spark, and a tiny pin point burn on your finger. Talking of real life sad cases though, the daughter of an MP had just had a new kitchen fitted and was trying to get something out of a cupboard and touched a securing screw with one hand while steadying herself on the washing machine with the other. She was killed instantly and the kitchen fitter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. He had basically joined a number of wires up inside a wall cavity, and not filled in the hole merely screwed the cabinet over the top, One of the screws in the back had just caught a live wire and was thus live and the washing machine was earthed. The report did not go into too many details, but apparently she was alone her heart stopped and she fell off her kickstep and hit her head on some appliance. Brian At International Aeradio Ltd., there was a guy who had hundreds of RF burns to his head where he had gone into transmitting cages to adjust something over the years. |
#8
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"Brian Gaff (Sofa)" wrote in message
... Yes that would certainly do it. I am very sensitive to that electrostatic Talking of real life sad cases though, the daughter of an MP had just had a new kitchen fitted and was trying to get something out of a cupboard and touched a securing screw with one hand while steadying herself on the washing machine with the other. She was killed instantly and the kitchen fitter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. He had basically joined a number of wires up inside a wall cavity, and not filled in the hole merely screwed the cabinet over the top, One of the screws in the back had just caught a live wire and was thus live and the washing machine was earthed. The report did not go into too many details, but apparently she was alone her heart stopped and she fell off her kickstep and hit her head on some appliance. That's nasty. And such a stupid mistake for the electrician to make. Earthed appliances can be more trouble that they are worth if you happen to touch an appliance that is live. I got a nasty jolt when I unplugged a TV aerial cable from a USB DVB tuner connected to my PC. I had the metal aerial plug in one hand and was holding the earthed case of the PC with the other hand. As soon as the plug was no longer in contact with the earthed PC, I got about 100 V across me. Probably very low current, but it was enough to hurt for a few minutes afterwards. Another leg of the TV aerial was plugged into my TV (which was off but plugged in) and from there audio and SCART cables went to a VCR, an OnDigital box and my hifi. One of those was evidently to blame. Having disconnected everything in turn, with a voltmeter across the aerial plug and mains earth, I narrowed it down to the TV. It was putting out about 300 V as measured with a high-resistance voltmeter which went down to about 100 V when I put a human-sized resistor (I measured my across-the-chest resistance as about 200 K ohms) in parallel to simulate me touching aerial and earth. So there was a large internal resistance, but not large enough to prevent a noticeable jolt. After that I rigged up a wire from mains earth to the aerial amplifier's screen connection, to make sure everything was earthed. All it needed was one earthed appliance (the PC) and everything was OK, which is why I'd never noticed the problem before, but as soon as that earthed connection was removed, everything was "semi-live". Sod's Law: everything else was double-insulated and so not earthed. Probably to avoid hum loops as much as to avoid needing a three-pin mains lead. I've only had a "proper" mains shock twice in my life. Once when I made the elementary mistake of working on a tape recorder that was turned off (so everything downstream of the mains switch was safe), forgetting that the input terminals to the switch were live... This was in the old days of a fuse box that only contained (wire) fuses, with no earth-leakage RCD. I still have two marks on my finger where it touched the soldered switch pins for the live and neutral feed: it looks like a snake bite ;-) The second time was equally silly. I was changing a lot of GU10 light fittings which had Philips Hue bulbs in them - the type of bulb is important, because these can be turned off with the mains still live (there is a switch inside the bulb which is controlled by a phone app). Each time I did a few more fittings, I turned off the wall switch and also the circuit breaker for the lighting circuit. Except for one set, when I made the stupid mistake of thinking that the bulbs were not lit, therefore the power was off at least at the wall switch. Wrong! On that occasion the house was protected with an RCD, which did its job and tripped very quickly: I know that because it also killed the table lamp that I was using for illumination while the ceiling lights were supposedly off. The second shock was much less sever that the first one, probably because of the RCD, so I didn't have to pull my hand away. |
#9
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Yes well, the bodger who fitted the kitchen was not an electrician, it
turned out just a kitchen fitter trying to save time and extra money in that out of sight out of mind way some people have. The older TVs of course had the chassis at half mains voltage and the aerial socket was supposed to contain isolating capacitors, but even those can get charged up to high voltages and also you can get leaky capacitors after some time and this practice luckily has now almost stopped, in favour of the switch mode psu which is then supposedly isolated by its much smaller transformer working at the higher frequencies. Having said that I have seen cheap Chinese wall warts actually come apart when you try to pull them out of a socket leaving live ends of the mains pins bare inside. Not a good design. Brian -- This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from... The Sofa of Brian Gaff... Blind user, so no pictures please Note this Signature is meaningless.! "NY" wrote in message ... "Brian Gaff (Sofa)" wrote in message ... Yes that would certainly do it. I am very sensitive to that electrostatic Talking of real life sad cases though, the daughter of an MP had just had a new kitchen fitted and was trying to get something out of a cupboard and touched a securing screw with one hand while steadying herself on the washing machine with the other. She was killed instantly and the kitchen fitter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. He had basically joined a number of wires up inside a wall cavity, and not filled in the hole merely screwed the cabinet over the top, One of the screws in the back had just caught a live wire and was thus live and the washing machine was earthed. The report did not go into too many details, but apparently she was alone her heart stopped and she fell off her kickstep and hit her head on some appliance. That's nasty. And such a stupid mistake for the electrician to make. Earthed appliances can be more trouble that they are worth if you happen to touch an appliance that is live. I got a nasty jolt when I unplugged a TV aerial cable from a USB DVB tuner connected to my PC. I had the metal aerial plug in one hand and was holding the earthed case of the PC with the other hand. As soon as the plug was no longer in contact with the earthed PC, I got about 100 V across me. Probably very low current, but it was enough to hurt for a few minutes afterwards. Another leg of the TV aerial was plugged into my TV (which was off but plugged in) and from there audio and SCART cables went to a VCR, an OnDigital box and my hifi. One of those was evidently to blame. Having disconnected everything in turn, with a voltmeter across the aerial plug and mains earth, I narrowed it down to the TV. It was putting out about 300 V as measured with a high-resistance voltmeter which went down to about 100 V when I put a human-sized resistor (I measured my across-the-chest resistance as about 200 K ohms) in parallel to simulate me touching aerial and earth. So there was a large internal resistance, but not large enough to prevent a noticeable jolt. After that I rigged up a wire from mains earth to the aerial amplifier's screen connection, to make sure everything was earthed. All it needed was one earthed appliance (the PC) and everything was OK, which is why I'd never noticed the problem before, but as soon as that earthed connection was removed, everything was "semi-live". Sod's Law: everything else was double-insulated and so not earthed. Probably to avoid hum loops as much as to avoid needing a three-pin mains lead. I've only had a "proper" mains shock twice in my life. Once when I made the elementary mistake of working on a tape recorder that was turned off (so everything downstream of the mains switch was safe), forgetting that the input terminals to the switch were live... This was in the old days of a fuse box that only contained (wire) fuses, with no earth-leakage RCD. I still have two marks on my finger where it touched the soldered switch pins for the live and neutral feed: it looks like a snake bite ;-) The second time was equally silly. I was changing a lot of GU10 light fittings which had Philips Hue bulbs in them - the type of bulb is important, because these can be turned off with the mains still live (there is a switch inside the bulb which is controlled by a phone app). Each time I did a few more fittings, I turned off the wall switch and also the circuit breaker for the lighting circuit. Except for one set, when I made the stupid mistake of thinking that the bulbs were not lit, therefore the power was off at least at the wall switch. Wrong! On that occasion the house was protected with an RCD, which did its job and tripped very quickly: I know that because it also killed the table lamp that I was using for illumination while the ceiling lights were supposedly off. The second shock was much less sever that the first one, probably because of the RCD, so I didn't have to pull my hand away. |
#10
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"Brian Gaff (Sofa)" wrote in message
... The older TVs of course had the chassis at half mains voltage and the aerial socket was supposed to contain isolating capacitors, but even those can get charged up to high voltages and also you can get leaky capacitors after some time and this practice luckily has now almost stopped, in favour of the switch mode psu which is then supposedly isolated by its much smaller transformer working at the higher frequencies. This was a Panasonic CRT TV, bought in 2000. It was widescreen, so probably a fairly recent model as digital TV was only just about to be introduced. I suppose the presence of live chassis in very old televisions was the reason for the insulated aerial plugs that you used to see on TV aerial leads. ;-) |
#11
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On 30/03/2021 05:18, jon wrote:
On Mon, 29 Mar 2021 23:32:04 +0100, soup wrote: Many have had a 'belt' from domestic 240Volt wiring through bad luck, bad judgment or plain stupidity . 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. I was sitting on a quarry tiled kitchen floor connecting up a cooker. My understanding was the the supply was isolated, that quickly got revised when I tried to strip off the insulation of a live 10mm2 feed with uninsulated side cutters. Last time it happened to me I was sitting on te floor trying to work out why a brand new desk lamp didn't work. I had been through several cycles of 'switch off at the wall, take apart, change rebuild, switch on at the wall, test. and at one point I must have forgotten the 'switch off at wall' I think it was hand to hand but one wasn't grasping anything just touching -- "And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch". Gospel of St. Mathew 15:14 |
#12
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One popular one is the ceiling rose syndrome. There is no point in turning
off the light if you discover you need either a new block in the ceiling or a new bit of pendant wire as we all know there is an unswitched live up there in that rose and a screwdriver in the wrong hole while up a ladder can be a very unpleasant surprise, I always after my first encounter with this situation tripped the cut out on the circuit first. Brian -- This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from... The Sofa of Brian Gaff... Blind user, so no pictures please Note this Signature is meaningless.! "The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message ... On 30/03/2021 05:18, jon wrote: On Mon, 29 Mar 2021 23:32:04 +0100, soup wrote: Many have had a 'belt' from domestic 240Volt wiring through bad luck, bad judgment or plain stupidity . 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. I was sitting on a quarry tiled kitchen floor connecting up a cooker. My understanding was the the supply was isolated, that quickly got revised when I tried to strip off the insulation of a live 10mm2 feed with uninsulated side cutters. Last time it happened to me I was sitting on te floor trying to work out why a brand new desk lamp didn't work. I had been through several cycles of 'switch off at the wall, take apart, change rebuild, switch on at the wall, test. and at one point I must have forgotten the 'switch off at wall' I think it was hand to hand but one wasn't grasping anything just touching -- "And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch". Gospel of St. Mathew 15:14 |
#13
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Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small
current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Lots of us have had shocks, mine were usually thru the fingers of the same hand when delving inside a working piece of valve gear that had series fed heaters across the mains. Yes you get some expletives but not much else. The buzzing bruised feeling soon passes. Remember in the past some dodgy practitioners thought shocks were actually therapeutic, How they did not manage to kill most of their patients is amazing. I'm also sure as kids we all made electric shock machines All you needed was a small mains transformer a battery and something like a mechanical buzzer. You wired the buzzer and secondary in series with the battery and a switch, and asked your victim to hold the ends of the primary. I guess current was quite low, but when bridge rectifiers and small high voltage capacitors came along you could end up with something really dangerous. What we used to do was charge up a capacitor and leave it on a young ladies seat and watch what happened when she picked it up, Ahem, Well it was fun at the time... Brian -- This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from... The Sofa of Brian Gaff... Blind user, so no pictures please Note this Signature is meaningless.! "soup" wrote in message ... Many have had a 'belt' from domestic 240Volt wiring through bad luck, bad judgment or plain stupidity . 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. |
#14
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On Tue, 30 Mar 2021 08:04:22 +0100, Brian Gaff \(Sofa\) wrote:
Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Lots of us have had shocks, mine were usually thru the fingers of the same hand when delving inside a working piece of valve gear that had series fed heaters across the mains. Yes you get some expletives but not much else. The buzzing bruised feeling soon passes. Remember in the past some dodgy practitioners thought shocks were actually therapeutic, How they did not manage to kill most of their patients is amazing. I'm also sure as kids we all made electric shock machines All you needed was a small mains transformer a battery and something like a mechanical buzzer. You wired the buzzer and secondary in series with the battery and a switch, and asked your victim to hold the ends of the primary. I guess current was quite low, but when bridge rectifiers and small high voltage capacitors came along you could end up with something really dangerous. What we used to do was charge up a capacitor and leave it on a young ladies seat and watch what happened when she picked it up, Ahem, Well it was fun at the time... Brian The radio room at Lyons where I did my apprenticeship had two door handles that had to be operated simultaneously to gain entry. |
#15
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Erm well are you suggesting bridging them with a charged up hv capacitor?
Not nice, and probably dangerous, at least the ladies only picked them up in one hand then very quickly dropped them and swore. Brian -- This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from... The Sofa of Brian Gaff... Blind user, so no pictures please Note this Signature is meaningless.! "jon" wrote in message ... On Tue, 30 Mar 2021 08:04:22 +0100, Brian Gaff \(Sofa\) wrote: Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Lots of us have had shocks, mine were usually thru the fingers of the same hand when delving inside a working piece of valve gear that had series fed heaters across the mains. Yes you get some expletives but not much else. The buzzing bruised feeling soon passes. Remember in the past some dodgy practitioners thought shocks were actually therapeutic, How they did not manage to kill most of their patients is amazing. I'm also sure as kids we all made electric shock machines All you needed was a small mains transformer a battery and something like a mechanical buzzer. You wired the buzzer and secondary in series with the battery and a switch, and asked your victim to hold the ends of the primary. I guess current was quite low, but when bridge rectifiers and small high voltage capacitors came along you could end up with something really dangerous. What we used to do was charge up a capacitor and leave it on a young ladies seat and watch what happened when she picked it up, Ahem, Well it was fun at the time... Brian The radio room at Lyons where I did my apprenticeship had two door handles that had to be operated simultaneously to gain entry. |
#16
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Brian Gaff (Sofa) wrote
Erm well are you suggesting bridging them with a charged up hv capacitor? Not nice, and probably dangerous, at least the ladies only picked them up in one hand then very quickly dropped them and swore. Real ladies never swear. If they do they get de tiared, rather like being defrocked. "jon" wrote in message ... On Tue, 30 Mar 2021 08:04:22 +0100, Brian Gaff \(Sofa\) wrote: Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Lots of us have had shocks, mine were usually thru the fingers of the same hand when delving inside a working piece of valve gear that had series fed heaters across the mains. Yes you get some expletives but not much else. The buzzing bruised feeling soon passes. Remember in the past some dodgy practitioners thought shocks were actually therapeutic, How they did not manage to kill most of their patients is amazing. I'm also sure as kids we all made electric shock machines All you needed was a small mains transformer a battery and something like a mechanical buzzer. You wired the buzzer and secondary in series with the battery and a switch, and asked your victim to hold the ends of the primary. I guess current was quite low, but when bridge rectifiers and small high voltage capacitors came along you could end up with something really dangerous. What we used to do was charge up a capacitor and leave it on a young ladies seat and watch what happened when she picked it up, Ahem, Well it was fun at the time... Brian The radio room at Lyons where I did my apprenticeship had two door handles that had to be operated simultaneously to gain entry. |
#17
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On Wed, 31 Mar 2021 06:01:39 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again: FLUSH the trolling senile asshole's latest troll**** unread -- Marland revealing the senile sociopath's pathology: "You have mentioned Alexa in a couple of threads recently, it is not a real woman you know even if it is the only thing with a female name that stays around around while you talk it to it. Poor sad git who has to resort to Usenet and electronic devices for any interaction as all real people run a mile to get away from you boring them to death." MID: |
#18
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On Wed, 31 Mar 2021 06:01:39 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote: Brian Gaff (Sofa) wrote Erm well are you suggesting bridging them with a charged up hv capacitor? Not nice, and probably dangerous, at least the ladies only picked them up in one hand then very quickly dropped them and swore. Real ladies never swear. They only swear when it slips out. If they do they get de tiared, rather like being defrocked. |
#19
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Brian Gaff (Sofa) laid this down on his screen :
Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Across the chest is the worst possible type of shock, almost as bad is from the hand and down through the body to the wet feet. They do still use a type of electric shock machine. They sometimes call them 'TENS' commonly available with a type sold on TV ads. (Think cricketer). Idea is the controlled electric shocks, trigger local muscles, which also helps stimulate circulation and maybe use up fat in the body. |
#20
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On 30/03/2021 09:47, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Brian Gaff (Sofa) laid this down on his screen : Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Across the chest is the worst possible type of shock, almost as bad is from the hand and down through the body to the wet feet. They do still use a type of electric shock machine. They sometimes call them 'TENS' commonly available with a type sold on TV ads. (Think cricketer). Idea is the controlled electric shocks, trigger local muscles, which also helps stimulate circulation and maybe use up fat in the body. I think that is on the low frequency setting (around 3 Hz, but variable on many) - pulses that cause the muscles to contract. On the high frequency setting (150Hz), the muscles don't have time to react, but the nerves become numbed, relieving pain. |
#21
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On Tue, 30 Mar 2021 09:47:36 +0100, Harry Bloomfield, Esq. wrote:
They do still use a type of electric shock machine. They sometimes call them 'TENS' commonly available with a type sold on TV ads. (Think cricketer). Idea is the controlled electric shocks, trigger local muscles, which also helps stimulate circulation and maybe use up fat in the body. TENS was really produced for blocking nerves with a high freqenecy signal. However, mine is adjustable to very low frequencies, and I use mine at fairly high intensity, at 2Hz, to cause a tight muscle to flex repeatedly. I was put on it by a nurse at the pain clinic, and it's pretty well fixed the problem after doctors gave up (following X-ray and MRI...) -- My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message. Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org *lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor |
#22
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Another thing which strangely seem to help is the good old tesla coil,
often sold as the violet wand etc, though I'm not sure if all that ozone is good for you, it does if stroked across ones skin seem to reduce pain, but its all a bit over the top and showy, and probably could be done much easier with a more targeted approach and les in your face pomp so to speak. Brian -- This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from... The Sofa of Brian Gaff... Blind user, so no pictures please Note this Signature is meaningless.! "Bob Eager" wrote in message ... On Tue, 30 Mar 2021 09:47:36 +0100, Harry Bloomfield, Esq. wrote: They do still use a type of electric shock machine. They sometimes call them 'TENS' commonly available with a type sold on TV ads. (Think cricketer). Idea is the controlled electric shocks, trigger local muscles, which also helps stimulate circulation and maybe use up fat in the body. TENS was really produced for blocking nerves with a high freqenecy signal. However, mine is adjustable to very low frequencies, and I use mine at fairly high intensity, at 2Hz, to cause a tight muscle to flex repeatedly. I was put on it by a nurse at the pain clinic, and it's pretty well fixed the problem after doctors gave up (following X-ray and MRI...) -- My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message. Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org *lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor |
#23
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Yes I know about those but they are very strictly current limited.
Brian -- This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from... The Sofa of Brian Gaff... Blind user, so no pictures please Note this Signature is meaningless.! Harry Bloomfield; "Esq." wrote in message ... Brian Gaff (Sofa) laid this down on his screen : Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Across the chest is the worst possible type of shock, almost as bad is from the hand and down through the body to the wet feet. They do still use a type of electric shock machine. They sometimes call them 'TENS' commonly available with a type sold on TV ads. (Think cricketer). Idea is the controlled electric shocks, trigger local muscles, which also helps stimulate circulation and maybe use up fat in the body. |
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I don't hink you would be working on cars in bare feet though would you?
Brian -- This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from... The Sofa of Brian Gaff... Blind user, so no pictures please Note this Signature is meaningless.! "Jethro_uk" wrote in message ... On Tue, 30 Mar 2021 09:47:36 +0100, Harry Bloomfield, Esq. wrote: Brian Gaff (Sofa) laid this down on his screen : Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Across the chest is the worst possible type of shock, almost as bad is from the hand and down through the body to the wet feet. Which is almost impossible to avoid in cars ... one hand on the chassis, the other poking around near the HT leads ... |
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Brian Gaff (Sofa) wrote
I don't hink you would be working on cars in bare feet though would you? Lots of us do in summer. "Jethro_uk" wrote in message ... On Tue, 30 Mar 2021 09:47:36 +0100, Harry Bloomfield, Esq. wrote: Brian Gaff (Sofa) laid this down on his screen : Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Across the chest is the worst possible type of shock, almost as bad is from the hand and down through the body to the wet feet. Which is almost impossible to avoid in cars ... one hand on the chassis, the other poking around near the HT leads ... |
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On Wed, 31 Mar 2021 06:03:39 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again: FLUSH the trolling senile asshole's latest troll**** unread 06:03 already? Do you know no shame AT ALL, you disgusting senile troll? -- Marland answering senile Rodent's statement, "I don't leak": "That¢s because so much **** and ****e emanates from your gob that there is nothing left to exit normally, your arsehole has clammed shut through disuse and the end of prick is only clear because you are such a ******." Message-ID: |
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Electrocution isn't always a dodgy therapy. The NHS still use
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for severe depression if there's no other practicable option. On 30/03/2021 08:04, Brian Gaff (Sofa) wrote: Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Lots of us have had shocks, mine were usually thru the fingers of the same hand when delving inside a working piece of valve gear that had series fed heaters across the mains. Yes you get some expletives but not much else. The buzzing bruised feeling soon passes. Remember in the past some dodgy practitioners thought shocks were actually therapeutic, How they did not manage to kill most of their patients is amazing. I'm also sure as kids we all made electric shock machines All you needed was a small mains transformer a battery and something like a mechanical buzzer. You wired the buzzer and secondary in series with the battery and a switch, and asked your victim to hold the ends of the primary. I guess current was quite low, but when bridge rectifiers and small high voltage capacitors came along you could end up with something really dangerous. What we used to do was charge up a capacitor and leave it on a young ladies seat and watch what happened when she picked it up, Ahem, Well it was fun at the time... Brian -- Robin reply-to address is (intended to be) valid |
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Yes they do, but its only at the discretion of the person as its by no means
pain free. Not that I've tried it, but know somebody who had it once.. Brian -- This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from... The Sofa of Brian Gaff... Blind user, so no pictures please Note this Signature is meaningless.! "Robin" wrote in message ... Electrocution isn't always a dodgy therapy. The NHS still use electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for severe depression if there's no other practicable option. On 30/03/2021 08:04, Brian Gaff (Sofa) wrote: Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Lots of us have had shocks, mine were usually thru the fingers of the same hand when delving inside a working piece of valve gear that had series fed heaters across the mains. Yes you get some expletives but not much else. The buzzing bruised feeling soon passes. Remember in the past some dodgy practitioners thought shocks were actually therapeutic, How they did not manage to kill most of their patients is amazing. I'm also sure as kids we all made electric shock machines All you needed was a small mains transformer a battery and something like a mechanical buzzer. You wired the buzzer and secondary in series with the battery and a switch, and asked your victim to hold the ends of the primary. I guess current was quite low, but when bridge rectifiers and small high voltage capacitors came along you could end up with something really dangerous. What we used to do was charge up a capacitor and leave it on a young ladies seat and watch what happened when she picked it up, Ahem, Well it was fun at the time... Brian -- Robin reply-to address is (intended to be) valid |
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Robin wrote
Electrocution isn't always a dodgy therapy. The NHS still use electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for severe depression if there's no other practicable option. And some of the yanks still use the electric chair as a very effective therapy for the worst murderers. They never do another. Brian Gaff (Sofa) wrote Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Lots of us have had shocks, mine were usually thru the fingers of the same hand when delving inside a working piece of valve gear that had series fed heaters across the mains. Yes you get some expletives but not much else. The buzzing bruised feeling soon passes. Remember in the past some dodgy practitioners thought shocks were actually therapeutic, How they did not manage to kill most of their patients is amazing. I'm also sure as kids we all made electric shock machines All you needed was a small mains transformer a battery and something like a mechanical buzzer. You wired the buzzer and secondary in series with the battery and a switch, and asked your victim to hold the ends of the primary. I guess current was quite low, but when bridge rectifiers and small high voltage capacitors came along you could end up with something really dangerous. What we used to do was charge up a capacitor and leave it on a young ladies seat and watch what happened when she picked it up, Ahem, Well it was fun at the time... Brian -- Robin reply-to address is (intended to be) valid |
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On Wed, 31 Mar 2021 04:11:53 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again: FLUSH the trolling senile asshole's latest troll**** unread -- "Who or What is Rod Speed? Rod Speed is an entirely modern phenomenon. Essentially, Rod Speed is an insecure and worthless individual who has discovered he can enhance his own self-esteem in his own eyes by playing "the big, hard man" on the InterNet." https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/r...d-faq.2973853/ |
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"Brian Gaff (Sofa)" wrote in message
... Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Lots of us have had shocks, mine were usually thru the fingers of the same hand when delving inside a working piece of valve gear that had series fed heaters across the mains. Ah, the perils of series-fed Christmas tree lights or valve heaters. When all are working, you get the regulation 6 V across each one, but if one fails and you remove it, there is near-enough the full mains voltage at the socket (since the body resistance is so much greater than the filament resistances). Yes you get some expletives but not much else. The buzzing bruised feeling soon passes. With my two mains shocks it took about 48 hours before the residual tingling had gone. |
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On 30/03/2021 13:00, NY wrote:
"Brian Gaff (Sofa)" wrote in message ... Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Lots of us have had shocks, mine were* usually thru the fingers of the same hand when delving inside a working piece of valve gear that had series fed heaters across the mains. Ah, the perils of series-fed Christmas tree lights or valve heaters. When all are working, you get the regulation 6 V across each one, but if one fails and you remove it, there is near-enough the full mains voltage at the socket (since the body resistance is so much greater than the filament resistances). There used to be a toy museum in Cockermouth. In one cabinet was an early, electric, model railway. That had a controller that plugged into a light fitting, with the removed bulb plugged into the top of the controller, which had a rheostat. As soon as the train derailed, the tracks would have no load and go to 240V! Yes you get some expletives but not much else. The buzzing bruised feeling soon passes. With my two mains shocks it took about 48 hours before the residual tingling had gone. I too got one off a tape recorder - my fault, I did not expect them to use 240V directly to power the erase head! I've had a couple from accidentally contacting something that needed to stay live, while working on something else in the same enclosure. Only the tape recorder one was a proper belt, leaving me with a painful, but numb and unresponsive arm, but only for a few minutes. These days I've obviously improved, so none for quite a few years - except for my boiler supply/switching, which floats at about 90V when I disconnect both live and neutral at the supply end of the cable. There are no other connections to either cable and boiler, so it must be an induced voltage from parallel cabling. Now we also have RCBOs on the non-lighting circuits and will be adding them to the lighting soon. |
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I'm always wary of so called safety devices that rely on electronics. That
is why I used to pull out the breaker on that circuit completely. OK some bodger might have routed a live from a different ring, but very unlikely. Brian -- This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from... The Sofa of Brian Gaff... Blind user, so no pictures please Note this Signature is meaningless.! "Steve Walker" wrote in message ... On 30/03/2021 13:00, NY wrote: "Brian Gaff (Sofa)" wrote in message ... Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Lots of us have had shocks, mine were usually thru the fingers of the same hand when delving inside a working piece of valve gear that had series fed heaters across the mains. Ah, the perils of series-fed Christmas tree lights or valve heaters. When all are working, you get the regulation 6 V across each one, but if one fails and you remove it, there is near-enough the full mains voltage at the socket (since the body resistance is so much greater than the filament resistances). There used to be a toy museum in Cockermouth. In one cabinet was an early, electric, model railway. That had a controller that plugged into a light fitting, with the removed bulb plugged into the top of the controller, which had a rheostat. As soon as the train derailed, the tracks would have no load and go to 240V! Yes you get some expletives but not much else. The buzzing bruised feeling soon passes. With my two mains shocks it took about 48 hours before the residual tingling had gone. I too got one off a tape recorder - my fault, I did not expect them to use 240V directly to power the erase head! I've had a couple from accidentally contacting something that needed to stay live, while working on something else in the same enclosure. Only the tape recorder one was a proper belt, leaving me with a painful, but numb and unresponsive arm, but only for a few minutes. These days I've obviously improved, so none for quite a few years - except for my boiler supply/switching, which floats at about 90V when I disconnect both live and neutral at the supply end of the cable. There are no other connections to either cable and boiler, so it must be an induced voltage from parallel cabling. Now we also have RCBOs on the non-lighting circuits and will be adding them to the lighting soon. |
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In article , Brian Gaff \(Sofa\)
wrote: I'm always wary of so called safety devices that rely on electronics. That is why I used to pull out the breaker on that circuit completely. OK some bodger might have routed a live from a different ring, but very unlikely. Brian we had a teacher at school whose hair was completely white. He'd been working on a circuit from which he'd removed the fuse. Someone passing saw the fuse on the side and re-inserted it. Moral - put the fuse in your pocket. -- from KT24 in Surrey, England "I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle |
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"Jethro_uk" wrote in message
... On Tue, 30 Mar 2021 16:34:17 +0100, Brian Gaff \(Sofa\) wrote: I'm always wary of so called safety devices that rely on electronics. That is why I used to pull out the breaker on that circuit completely. OK some bodger might have routed a live from a different ring, but very unlikely. Electrician we had in to *quickly* do a fix in order to allow me to decorate made a point of taking the fuse out of the fusebox and putting it in his pocket. He was in his 50s and said as an apprentice, someone he worked with removed a fuse to work on a circuit in a factory or warehouse. Sadly someone came along, saw the open fusebox and removed fuse and put it back and closed it. My mum had a friend who had a son a few years younger than me. When Mark was about three, he happened to be passing the fuse box in the under-stairs cupboard and "helpfully" turned on the main switch that the electrician had turned off while he was working on a circuit. The electrician (who lived at the house which backed onto ours) survived unscathed, but he was not best pleased! As an aside, mum's friend used to complain that if I was left alone at her house when I was little, I'd get up to mischief - pouring salt into the sugar bowl, screwing up (literally!) the tension on her sewing machine, spilling her perfume on the dressing table taking the varnish off the wood, etc. Then when her son got to the age I'd been, *he* started with pranks - I know he put a stick in her twin-tub washing machine, jammed the paddle and therefore the motor and caused smoke to come out of the machine; and there were many other things. So she had to admit that it was not just me but "all" boys who got into mischief at that age. The one that took longest to diagnose and fix was probably a genuine accident: he was playing in their car and accidentally dislodged a wire under the dashboard with his foot (though no-one knew that at the time), causing half the electrics to fail - not irreparably, but until the wire was found where a plug and socket had been pulled apart. Now tell me that girls *never* do that, ever ;-) |
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Well, I'd become used to them by the age of 16, after all I had a father in
the tv business, and none of our tvs had a back. Obviously, I was protected when I knew no better but following the rules then I feel you do become immune to some extent over time. Brian -- This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from... The Sofa of Brian Gaff... Blind user, so no pictures please Note this Signature is meaningless.! "NY" wrote in message ... "Brian Gaff (Sofa)" wrote in message ... Well the key is where you take the shock. It only takes a surprisingly small current across the chest to kill you merely by stopping your heart, that is why the one hand in your pocket advice is so useful. Lots of us have had shocks, mine were usually thru the fingers of the same hand when delving inside a working piece of valve gear that had series fed heaters across the mains. Ah, the perils of series-fed Christmas tree lights or valve heaters. When all are working, you get the regulation 6 V across each one, but if one fails and you remove it, there is near-enough the full mains voltage at the socket (since the body resistance is so much greater than the filament resistances). Yes you get some expletives but not much else. The buzzing bruised feeling soon passes. With my two mains shocks it took about 48 hours before the residual tingling had gone. |
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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 . Â* 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. Been there done that - once! When I was about 8 years old I had a crystal set and thought I needed a longer aerial on it to get better reception. Had seen pylons with wires on them supplying electricity so thought that would be a lovely aerial!. Went to mains socket in bedroom with metal meccano screwdiver in one hand, bare wire to plug into socket in other. Pushed down the earth shutter with screwdriver and inserted bare wire into now open shuttered pin. I now know the difference between live and neutral! Seriously thought I was going to die. Been extreemly cautious ever since and never had another belt from the mains! |
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I do hope the Spanish have improved their plugs and sockets as I got a belt
from a bedside light in the Canary Isles in a chalet. There were two errors. The 2 pin connectors into the wall used a kind of poke in a hole and screw the pin in over the wire connection system leaving strands of wire poking out round the dodgy, and the not long enough cable from the light had been twisted together to another cable to reach the plug and wrapped in insulating tape. So I follow the wire down, first get a tingle from the wire sticking through the tape and then get to the plug and get a belt from the bits of bare wire round the not very well fitting pin of the plug. I had quite a few words with the building manager and wondered if the intention was to kill his residents off. He said guests were not supposed to touch wiring, Well, like what kind of excuse is that. I also remember a lift in an apartment building where we went to collect some photos having a broken emergency cut switch which had been wedged on with a bit of old plastic tubing and some duct tape, so goodness knows how you were supposed to stop the lift if it went wrong! Brian -- This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from... The Sofa of Brian Gaff... Blind user, so no pictures please Note this Signature is meaningless.! "Andy Bennet" wrote in message o.uk... 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 . 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. Been there done that - once! When I was about 8 years old I had a crystal set and thought I needed a longer aerial on it to get better reception. Had seen pylons with wires on them supplying electricity so thought that would be a lovely aerial!. Went to mains socket in bedroom with metal meccano screwdiver in one hand, bare wire to plug into socket in other. Pushed down the earth shutter with screwdriver and inserted bare wire into now open shuttered pin. I now know the difference between live and neutral! Seriously thought I was going to die. Been extreemly cautious ever since and never had another belt from the mains! |
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On Tuesday, 30 March 2021 at 09:02:48 UTC+1, Andy Bennet wrote:
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 . 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. Been there done that - once! When I was about 8 years old I had a crystal set and thought I needed a longer aerial on it to get better reception. Had seen pylons with wires on them supplying electricity so thought that would be a lovely aerial!. Went to mains socket in bedroom with metal meccano screwdiver in one hand, bare wire to plug into socket in other. Pushed down the earth shutter with screwdriver and inserted bare wire into now open shuttered pin. I now know the difference between live and neutral! Seriously thought I was going to die. Been extreemly cautious ever since and never had another belt from the mains! And I thought it was just me. At a similar age - maybe 10 - I decided to make an electric car. I knew motors had windings. That was all I knew. I wound a wire around the metal axle of a lego car, and attached both ends to a battery. Strangely, nothing happened. OBVIOUSLY I needed more oomph. I opened up a plug. Observing that there were three terminals, I decided to splice the wire into all three to see what would happen. I then made the only good decision I made that day. Instead of plugging in to the switched on socket, I elected to switch it off, plug in, and THEN switch on. Just as well, it blew the thing off the wall and blew the fuse at the board. I saw a flash but avoided any shock, which was more than could be said for my parents. I also remember that when the electrician came round to fix it, I ended up with a double in my room where I had previously had a single. So that was a win. |
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