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My shock story
well i think its suitable to recall my story of being shocked by a VERY large
cap.
several years ago, I constructed a 6 inch long flash tube out of quartz to
optically pump a liquid laser. to drive the vacuum air flashes, i used two
5.5
kv 33 ufd capacitors in series. (OUCH!!) I still have these puppies.
anyways,
one day i charge them all the way up (took about 5 minutes with my 30 uA
supply)
and discharged the flashlamp. i left for a few hours, and came back.
Stupid ol'
me forgot that the capacitors were still 70% charged. I observed that the
flash
tube was out of alignment in the optical cavity.... so what do i do, i
reach in
with BOTH hands and grab the flash tube on each end to tweak it. these
electrodes were connected directly to the caps' terminals. my vision went
blood
red as i saw my fingers exploding. kaboom, i fly across the room into the
closet and KO myself. when i come to, (who knows how long i lay there.) i
could not feel anything. i manage to drag myself to my feet, stumble across
the
room (completely numb, with vision wobbling and changing colors as if i just
took 100 drixoral tablets)....feeling started coming back to my chest, and my
sight cleared good enough to see the red streaks down my arms and bleeding
fingers. My heart hurt something fierce, but somehow did not stop. DC current
is alot different than AC, a completely different feeling. I ended up okay,
but as for capacitors, i'll never look at one the same. i keep those caps up
high and shorted. as for my new .16 ufd 45kv cap, uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....lets
charge it and see what happens if you tou-
--
Cabbott Sanders
Salem Oregon
Website: http://members.aol-dot-com/cabbotttt
Phone 503-390-8992
Cel 503-930-9173