So who's given themself an electrick shock?

Are the phone lines still rated at that now.

It's just sometimes a phone cable can be hanging out by the PC and in at the wall. The conductors on the plug are exposed and what happens if my toddler puts the ned in her mouth?

Surely this stuff is safe now.

Just the other day a good workmate of mine went to replace the extractor fan in the toilet.

Being the alpha-male that he is he left the supply on. Needless to say he got zapped.

He was ok afterwards though.

I have had a fair few bangs.

The first I can remember was when when we were shown at school how to make a circuit switch. Using wire, an aa battery, and a paper clip.

Quite interested by the concept I decided to try this with my electric lamp at home.

Suffice to say that hurt.

Also the old classic with an electric toaster and a knife to fetch the stuck toat. Yes I found out the glowing bits are actually pure electric. funnily enough I managed to stop the CEO of a company I used to work for doing the same thing when an errant current bun went missing in the toaster. I called him a tosser in the ensuing excitement haha.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave996:
Are the phone lines still rated at that now.

It's just sometimes a phone cable can be hanging out by the PC and in at the wall. The conductors on the plug are exposed and what happens if my toddler puts the ned in her mouth?

Surely this stuff is safe now.

Still 50V, but the current is much lower for a single household than it is at the exchange, so somewhat safer, putting it in her mouth is still likely to be an unpleasant experience for your toddler should she do it. It would probably be sensible to unplug from the wall to be on the safe side, as it is with any cable. A loose IEC plug is far easier to stick a fork prong into than a shuttered socket!

I was talking about the other end of the cable that sometimes hangs free while still connected to the socket. There is no protection at that end, the conductors are right on top of the plug.

Are you saying that it still carries 50V at that end?

If so why have shuttered sockets at the other end?

quote:

Originally posted by JWM:
As a child I levered-out a very tight mains plug from its socket using a little screwdriver. Mistake...

(The flathead ended up looking like a phillips in profile!)

James

Hey, me too - except I used a small knife !

quote:

Originally posted by Dave996:
I was talking about the other end of the cable that sometimes hangs free while still connected to the socket. There is no protection at that end, the conductors are right on top of the plug.

Are you saying that it still carries 50V at that end?

If so why have shuttered sockets at the other end?

Yes it does. Phones used to have captive cords so there would never have been any danger originally, but then modem manufacturers decided to use the smaller American telephone plug.

quote:

Originally posted by Adam Meredith:

quote:

machine because kept earthing through the back of my neck onto the metal edge of the top and getting thrown back in. Thought I was gonner.

What was your score?

I've just read this again tonight, admittedly after a shared bottle of wine, and I just started laughing out loud. I don't know what it is, old age, wine or just my mood, but it was very funny.

quote:

Originally posted by count.d:

quote:

Originally posted by Adam Meredith:

quote:

machine because kept earthing through the back of my neck onto the metal edge of the top and getting thrown back in. Thought I was gonner.

What was your score?

I've just read this again tonight, admittedly after a shared bottle of wine, and I just started laughing out loud. I don't know what it is, old age, wine or just my mood, but it was very funny.

So you basically LOLed?

quote:

Originally posted by Dave996:

quote:

Originally posted by count.d:

quote:

Originally posted by Adam Meredith:

quote:

machine because kept earthing through the back of my neck onto the metal edge of the top and getting thrown back in. Thought I was gonner.

What was your score?

I've just read this again tonight, admittedly after a shared bottle of wine, and I just started laughing out loud. I don't know what it is, old age, wine or just my mood, but it was very funny.

So you basically LOLed?

Yes, but delayed. That was the sad thing.

I`ve had many...the most recent was when I was setting up a demonstration to show students the concept of power loss in cables. Pweredfro a Low Voltage supply (which is probably why I was careless) I used a 30:1 step - up and step down transformer (to show that high voltage/low current incurs lower losses). The wires were bare, and I inadvertantly brushed my hand against them....360 V RMS which is arguably worse than the mains..........it made me leap out of my chair..not recommended!!!)

laurie

When I was 10 we lived in a small thatched cottage in Savernake forrest. My bedroom was previously a walk-in larder so there were no windows and absolute darkness.

In the middle of the night on my way for a pee I used my usual method to find the light switch ( remember the round bacolite ones with a big toggle switch?) which was to slide my hand along the wall until I found it......

There was a piece broken off and my little finger went in, I got a hell of a belt and a nasty burn on my finger. Can't recall if I still needed the pee!

I'm amazed at how many of these tales refer to lighting.

I'll be more careful in future. lol.

We were on a Caravan weekend break in a field on a farm in Kent....

Had a pee into some long grass just before bedtime...didn't notice the electric fence running through the grass (it was dark)...the electricity travelled up the stream of pee, and up my willy Not nice.

Graeme

My old sheep dog did that as a puppy once! Not twice I hasten to add! He ran aimlessly for a good quarter of a mile howling! It did not effect his libido though [unfortunately!].

George

quote:

once! Not twice I hasten to add!

Nor me George!!

I did however get a high voltage shock off a transistorised ignition I had just fitted to my Norton Commando. I can still remember the impact as I hit the wall of the garage

Graeme

I did that with my previous old Volvo, which had electronic ignition! There was a lead loose on one of the plugs and it was an odd one, not the genuine "bougicord" though the others were. The looseness was detected due missing under heavy throttle on a country lane so I hauled up and tried to push it back on with the engine running!

I smacked my head on the bonnet from the shocks!

Electric fence: about 4000 to 6000 volts [very low amperage], electronic ingnition: 17,000 plus volts!

Funny looking back though! George

Interesting to see some different experiences. Anyone get a shock of a Burndy? lol.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave996:

quote:

Originally posted by domfjbrown:
he'd not unplugged the phone jack and it was a nice ~50amp whack!

Wow, I didn't realise a phone cable could get you. The plugs have no protection.

Are you sure it is 50 amps?

I'm SURE that's what I read once (could be wrong), but it's VERY low voltage...

EDIT: should have read whole posts before replying back! 50v sounds about right

As for the peeing/electric fence thing - sorry, but had to admit I LOLed at that one! Reminds me of the current series of Shameless where Frank relieves himself against a running genny ...it's also the cause of death of many "derelicts" on the Subway in NYC - many times maintenance crews'll find corpses with carbonised units...

quote:

Are you sure it is 50 amps?

ABSOLUTELY NOT that would kill an Elephant, it's 50 VOLTs DC with extremely low currents pico AMPERES.

Well maybe not. 50 amps alone will not do it. I once found myself crossing the terminals on my car battery with my bare forearm. That's 70 amps, but only 12 volts DC. I didn't feel a thing. I even had to try it again to be sure.

Basic electrics here guys. Everybody is bandying numbers about.
Volts are the pressure in a pipe
Amperes are the flow in that pipe
Resistance is the diameter of that pipe.
Re the battery it's 70 ampere/hours the battery can supply much more than 70 amps. just not through your arm as it has very high resistance(very very small hole in the pipe) and there fore cannot draw any current. Try connecting a length of steel across the terminals(on second thoughts don't) the steel will probably evaporate in a large spark (a splash in the trade).
In Ohms law V=IR so with our 50 volt telephone line with a relatively high resistance (R)the current (I) will be very small.
In the battery case 12 volt very low resistance metal wire = very high current.
Electronic ignitions High voltage,finger in the way high resistance,low current but a nice zap, try it when you are wet and see the difference.

Volts jolt,amps cramp and sometimes kill.

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
I did that with my previous old Volvo, which had electronic ignition! There was a lead loose on one of the plugs and it was an odd one, not the genuine "bougicord" though the others were. The looseness was detected due missing under heavy throttle on a country lane so I hauled up and tried to push it back on with the engine running!

I smacked my head on the bonnet from the shocks!

Electric fence: about 4000 to 6000 volts [very low amperage], electronic ingnition: 17,000 plus volts!

Funny looking back though! George

FYI, SMALL electric fence units are 5000 volts (enough for up to 20 acres), medium circa 12,000V with the bigger ones throwing 25,000 or more.
These do hurt like buggery when you make contact...

quote:

Originally posted by PJT:
FYI, SMALL electric fence units are 5000 volts (enough for up to 20 acres)

No wonder that fence made me jump in 1987 then >..but not as much as it made my mate jump when I shook hands with him and then made contact. Muhwahwahwahwah!!!!

In the days when the spark plug lead connectors were exposed ie no plastic cover my father used to stop running petrol engines by using his hands across the plug tops to short the spark to the engine block.

One of his stories was that when someone using a metal watering can to top up the radiator with the engine running, he touched the can with one hand and with the other touched one of the spark plugs - the story goes that the watering can and water was spilt rather dramatically over the engine.

Children - do not try these tricks at home.

I can remember him doing the first trick when I was about 4 or 5 years old, and I used to play amongst the lorries.