Re: Terrified Parents

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net> 

The hazards involved in tesla coiling are real, but, I would put them in the
same category as using electrical power tools (i.e. like a circular saw or
drill press).
In both cases, the equipment has the potential to seriously injure you, but,
if you're careful, and follow good safety precautions, you'll never have a
problem.

One way to approach this is to show, by writing it out, that you have a real
plan (step by step procedure) for building and testing, and that the plan
includes the safety precautions.

The other thing is to make sure that your parents are involved in the
process of building the coil.  If they participate with you, then they'll
get first hand knowledge that you're taking the safety precautions, etc.
You'll need someone to help with winding the secondary, for instance (it's a
lot easier to have one person turn the form, and the other lay the wire on).
Likewise, having a second pair of hands is helpful when laying out the
primary coil, building the structure, and wiring things up.

Now that I am a parent, I can sympathize with parents who freak out (not
that my parents would have, at least not about this) because of a fear of
the unknown.  And, it's not that they don't trust you to actually follow the
instructions, it's that you ARE young, and there's a certain amount of
wisdom, discretion, and patience that comes with age (usually the wisdom is
acquired by a series of "oops, better not do that again, got lucky that
time" events!).  Yes, most accidents don't result in serious injury or
death, but, as a parent, you have that fear of "what if my kid is the one".

These fears are totally irrational, so appeals to statistics, rational basis
for decisions, etc. will not generally be successful.  Hey, I'll bet a lot
more kids have been killed/maimed/injured riding bikes, skateboards, horses
(particularly the latter), on a percentage basis than for HV gear.  There
have been what, 3 reported deaths in a tesla coiling situation, and none of
them were kids.

No matter the real safety... you've got to address the emotional issue, and
to many, many people, electricity is a black magic to be feared.

Another thing to do is to put your parents in contact with some adult who is
doing tesla coiling locally.  Where are you in Australia?  Maybe one of the
coilers on the list lives near you?  A personal or phone contact with
someone who doesn't come across as a raving maniac can do a world of good.

Parents are justly afraid of the "I found it on the internet", because
there's no independent arbiter of what's good bad or indifferent.  In days
of yore, parents were justly afraid of "The Anarchist Cookbook" and "Steal
this Book", because the fact that they were printed books lended an air of
authority, yet the chemical recipes found in there were outright dangerous,
hazardous, and stupid. (aside from whether the philosophies espoused or the
product being manufactured (i.e. nitroglycerin) was actually appropriate for
kids to be making in the first place).  Anybody can publish anything on the
internet, and it takes a lot of work and time to sort the wheat from the
chaff from the rat poison (and "listening" to long back and forth
discussions on lists like this one as that sorting gets done).






----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2003 8:22 AM
Subject: Terrified Parents


 > Original poster: "margaret louise" <tullera-at-optusnet-dot-com.au>
 >
 > Hi all,
 >
 > I am 15, and am in the process of building my first TC, from a 12/30 nst.
 > However as my largish 12/30 NST arrived in the mail today, my mother has
 > gone on a major freak/stress/ you are going to kill yourself ramapage. I
 > tried telling her i had read the sftey doc on the pipman site and numerous
 > other but to relatively no avail.  is there anyone out there who can say
 > anything to help put her mind at ease?
 >
 > thaks, Ruben
 >
 >
 >