Electrocution

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 ;-)

Reply to
NY
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Similar ambiguity when it is said that someone has been "shot".

Reply to
Max Demian

The worst safety device is one that cannot be relied on. I bought a proximity detector (induction) "pen" from B&Q for tracing live wires in plaster to determine where it is safe to drill or hammer in picture hooks. I quickly realised that it was worse that useless because it seemed to detect some wires are great distance (making it vey difficult to determine the maximum point where the wire lies) or else it failed to detect "known-live" things like putting it close to a mains socket or a trailing appliance lead.

That went in the bin. It said "test it every time on a known live item before using for tracing" - but if it fails to detect that known live, it's useless. Especially if the known live *does* get detected (so you know the device is working) but it fails to detect a live that you are testing.

A neon, for an exposed wire/terminal, is much more reliable, though you still need an induction device for finding buried wires.

Should induction devices be able to detect wires which are live but have no current flowing through them?

Reply to
NY

Yes I've heard it said that DC is worse that AC of the same RMS or even peak voltage, because AC pulses which a) is easier to feel quickly, and b) tends to allow the muscles to un-spasm briefly. I wonder if there's any truth in the supposition that opposite cycles may make your muscles clench and unclench? or do both positive and negative cycles make the muscles clench in the same direction rather than relaxing?

I've never had the experience of being "thrown across the room". The worst was a nasty gash on my hand as I pulled my hand away when I got a shock, and caught it on a (non-live) bit of metal casing of something.

Reply to
NY

Ambiguous, yes. But I wouldn't say that "shot" (non-fatally) was wrong usage, just that "shot" *is* ambiguous and I would always clarify "shot dead" or "shot but survived".

"Electrocution" is different. That really needs a different word for "shocked but survived". We need to invent such a word ;-)

Reply to
NY

Electrified?

Reply to
Tim Lamb

A couple of years ago (which seems like only yesterday to me...) BigClive posted up a video on this.

Can I let go of 10mA mains (240V 50Hz) current? (Do NOT try this!)

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Reply to
Adrian Caspersz

How about "hanged"?

Reply to
Steve Walker

I think that is at least adjacent to Canute-like as major dictionaries (including the OED) have already recognised that in practice use it to cover death and [serious] injury. But I also think you have a perfect right to lobby for a body similar to the Académie Française with whatever statutory backing you think fit. Eg. fines for misusing "screw" and "bolt" :)

Reply to
Robin

IIRC, that's 415 V.

I suppose you could get a fault in an appliance to do something like that.

Well, that could get up to 330 V (if it's completely out of phase).

Well, that's weird.

Reply to
Adam Funk

Yeah, 415 I could understand (in unusual inter-house situations).

Reply to
Adam Funk

Better testing devices are now available (but I'm told my grandfather used to use that kind of technique to check whether wiring was on or off).

Reply to
Adam Funk

ICBW, but ISTR that potential variations in the actual Earth caused one of the big blackouts in the USA or Canada decades ago. However, that's a voltage over a much larger distance than from a house's cable entry to the kitchen.

Reply to
Adam Funk

Or "plug", "socket" and (the ultimate abomination) "plug socket" ;-)

Language evolves. France has solved the problem with the Académie Française which tries to fossilise the language and which wants people to use a French word rather than one borrowed from English if possible (eg "ordinateur" versus "computer" or "PC"; "mégaoctet" rather than "megabyte" etc). At least they allow "le weekend" rather than "le fin de la semaine" ;-) German is a bit easier in that you just string nouns together to create a new meaning, without all the "of the" superfluity.

We solve the problem by (for most of the population) just not caring - giving words new meanings that they didn't have before. Trying telling people that "cheap at half the price" and "I could care less" don't make logical sense and that it should be "cheap at twice the price" and "I couldn't care less".

Hopefully "inflammable" will be expunged from the English language one day (prefer "flammable" and its opposite "NON-flammable") because too many people thought the "in" meant "not" and therefore interpreted "inflammable" as "non-flammable". That's where a little knowledge really can be dangerous!

Reply to
NY

So did my grandfather. Unfortunately for other people, he seemed to be electricity proof and what he could touch without a problem would give others a hell of a belt.

Reply to
Steve Walker

"Don't do this!"

Reply to
Adam Funk

We were told similar by our physics master, except I don't think the advice was to regularly use the back of your hand instead of a neon tester, just that if ever you were in a situation where you *had* to find out whether something was live or not, and you had no alternative, then use the back of your hand rather than pinching it between fingers, or sticking your tongue on it!

Reply to
Andy Burns

I can remember reading a French electronic equipment manual " Un amplificateur du type bootstrap"

Reply to
charles

In 55 years as an aerial installer I never came across such a thing. Sounds like there actually was a connection to the mains hidden away somewhere.

Bill

Reply to
williamwright

Electrifried?

Bill

Reply to
williamwright

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