Telephone Wiring

Not True. Electric Chairs use AC.... not DC and the voltages have varied depending on the state and locality. Sing Sing Prison was known for its higher voltage chair, in particular.

Boy has this thread taken a weird twist. From telephones to electrocuting elephants. Who'd have thunk it.

Back then, they electrocuted elephants to prove they could. Now, they can't test shampoo on a rat. How the world has changed....

Edison labs were used for research on the electric chair, electrocuting various animals. This was part of Edison's attempt to show that AC was dangerous. The first use of an electric chair (which used AC) was horribly botched; the first attempt didn't work and the second was gruesome. IIRC using "westinghouse" to be the same as "electrocute" was part of Edison's PR campaign against AC.

There is an interesting recent book on the Edison - Westinghouse/Tesla war (the name of which I don't remember).

bud--

I remember reading a story about a near future, where they tested new products on people because they didn't have "animal rights".

I suppose I haven't seen that book, that's just a single chapter in the one I have. That book has stories about different inventions (including Telephone and Microwave Oven).

According to Beachcomber :

Remember that 20ma is potentially lethal under some circumstances, however, getting hit by that much is _extremely_ unlikely (given voltages and normal circumstances during handling of the wire).

Well, you sit in shorts on my concrete garage floor and touch the wiring. ;-)

It's not likely to have been dangerous in terms of harm, but it was certainly enough of a tingle to make it impossible to make the wiring connections I wanted to do.