Electrocution

[Fredxx]

I wonder how many kids of nowadays test PP3 batteries that way?

[charles]

In the analogue days we sometimes got hum on our pictures. Only after it has been raining, I eventually traced the fault, The 120v on the VCR's aerial connector found its way to my mast head preamp and then found a path to ground down the wet wall of the house. This created a 2v drop between the output and input connections. I earthed the coax outer at the bottom and the problem went away. The VCR could only provide about 30uA.

[Steve Walker]

No, definitely not.

One lead (from the aerial) from the back of the house straight to the splitter. Cut off at the wall, as I was building a conservatory and it was in the way. No need to replace it as I was using satellite by then.

As they were not in use, I cut off two of the the three cables from the splitter to the sockets, at the socket end, so that I could use the back-boxes for satellite connections.

The third cable went to an aerial socket for the PC and was again not used, but left connected to the socket.

All this was under the same through-room and while lying (it's too low to sit) at the splitter, you could see the entire run of all three cables.

I can only think that one of the cables was coupling to one or more parallel mains cables and giving enough volts, but with negligible current, to give you a jolt if you touched the splitter.

Definitely nothing to do with static either, as once you'd touched it, touching again immediately would give you another jolt.

[NY]

"Flammable" is the official word used in Health and Safety briefings

and the Fire Brigade It will take longer for "inflammable" to disappear from "folk vocabulary".

As long as no-one equates "inflammable" with "non-flammable", it's fine. But anyone who thinks they are safe with a product that is (wrongly) labelled "inflammable" is in for a nasty surprise. There was a big campaign about "inflammable" as part of product labelling a few years ago.

It's like when you're in Germany and need an emergency exit, you have to tell yourself that "Notausgang" does *not* mean "this is *not* an emergency exit - find another way out" but instead means "this is the emergency exit", because "Not" is German for "emergency". The same is true in either Norway or Denmark (I forget which), except it's "nod" rather than "not" followed by their word for "exit". Strange the things you notice on coach trips - because I always have a quick look when I get on a coach or a train to see where the emergency exits are. Not that I'm obsessed, but I have a quick glance as I'm walking down the aisle.

[NY]

I knew a woman at university who could feel very low voltages with her bare fingers (no need for tongues!). She could tell instantly whether an AA battery was fully charged or almost flat. She always touched a door handle or a car door with her elbow through her clothes to discharge most of the static charge that she may have acquired walking across a carpet or from the tyres rolling on the road.

[NY]

Thank you, Bill. *That's* the word the English language needs ;-) Nice one!

[Steve Walker]

One of the things we a instructed to do at work is assess anywhere we go, other companies, sites, hotels, etc. for exit routes and risks as soon as we arrive.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Teh most famous German I never heard of is Herr Eingang - they named thousands of streets after him...

[Jethro_uk]

SWMBO used to (interesting it's no longer the case) be able to sense electric storms long before they happened.

My theory was it something to do with the f***ed nerves of MS being more sensitive to electrickery.

[Max Demian]

Zapping is when you change channels with the TV remote. Don't you Aussies have a word ending with "o" for it?

[Andrew]

Presumably they now have Le Plug, and La Socket :-)

[Andrew]

Ex IT colleague went to work for London underground. He got the chance to go into the tunnels one night and to test that the power was off they had an ancient bit of wood with a number of bayonet-fitting bulbs fitted along it, connecting the power rail to the running rail.

[Andy Burns]

As featured on Blue Peter ...

[Custos Custodum]

They only swear when it slips out.

[NY]

There could well be a lot of truth to this. The woman I knew had "hypermobile joints" (she could bend her hands a long way backwards at the wrists etc) and later in life developed a strange syndrome which meant that if she was ever injured (or had surgery) she would feel the pain for a long time after the wound had healed - which was bad news as she needed an operation for something and decided that the normally short-term pain of an incision would go on for so long afterwards that she couldn't face the operation.

[NY]

They should tell him to slip it back in again ;-)

[Max Demian]

Actually the Underground has two power rails (centre and side). The running rails are somewhere in between in potential.

[NY]

Although presumably testing either the positive or the negative rail wrt ground would indicate that the line was still electrified. I wonder if the strip of bulbs would work with either rail (they are different voltages wrt ground), without blowing the bulbs (in one case) or failing to light sufficiently to see (in the other case).

I know that the four-rail system is used to try to lessen electrolytic corrosion in the tunnel linings and underground pipes, but I've always wondered why the two rails are not symmetrical about 0V - ie +315 V and -315 V rather than +420 V and - 210 V.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No. the underground can run on either side rail *or* centre rail which are both 'live' The running rails are earthed

[The Natural Philosopher]

They are both at 630VDC