Re: The dowel of death

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "David Sharpe by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <sccr4us-at-erols-dot-com>

Terry, ALL

This reminds me of a discussion with a Ham operator at Richmond, VA Frostfest
in January.  An operator met an untimely demise.  How?  He had a carbon track
in a fiberglas hot stick, and his TR relay stuck on in his final.  He taps
it to release it
(just as he had done numerous times in the past no less). BURRRRAPPPPPTTT!

Think about it... A LOT!

Regards
Dave Sharpe, TCBOR
Chesterfield, VA. USA

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Oxandale, Terry by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Toxandale-at-SPP-dot-org>
>
> Many years ago the electric utility I used to work for replaced their wood
> handled switchsticks to fiberglass. Even with a good keln drying, and a coat
> of varnish, these old wood switchsticks still needed a lot of attention in
> keeping them "dry" and performing to their required voltage capability.
>
> A schedule 40 PVC pipe with the coax in the middle would be a better way to
> do this, but I would not advocate this practice in the first place.
>
> (un)Terry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
> Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 9:11 AM
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Re: The dowel of death
>
> Original poster: "Michael Rhodes by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
> <rhodes-at-fnrf.science.cmu.ac.th>
>
> Since the dowel rod is made of wood and a good absorber
> of moisture, my guess is the charge is finding it's way to
> you via the internal moisture?
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 11:26 AM
> Subject: The dowel of death
>
> > Original poster: "Garry Freemyer by way of Terry Fritz
> <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <garry-at-ndfc-dot-com>
> >
> > Well, Long time ago, I made a rod to draw off sparks from my TC using a
> > wooden dowel with a brass doorknob attached to the end, and coaxial cable
> to
> > ground the knob. Now with such an arrangement, you would think it would be
> > relatively safe, but nope.
> >
> > I was operating the coil from a good distance and I got several good zaps
> > off the wooden dowel, even when I wasn't drawing sparks to it.
> >
> > I turned on the coil and got several good zaps off the rod, before the
> > freeze from astonishment at the shocks off the wooden dowel prompted me to
> > drop the rod with a shuddering shake of the hand.
> >
> > My only guess was the coaxial cable was just the right length, to act as a
> > kind of coil of it's own and instead of going down into the ground which
> was
> > a huge metal water pipe under ground, it decided to travel down the dowel
> > and into me, or maybe there is a carbon track inside the dowel.
> >
> > This rod was used very little.
> >
> > Either way, it's a case for choosing plastic over a wooden dowel for a
> > "Jesus Stick"
> >
> >
> >