Scylla accurately describes mild electrocution. I, too, have experienced this on more than one occassion (so, obviously no fatal encounters). The first time was when I was about 17 working at an Arcade repairing a Pinball Machine. One of the flipper contacts wasn’t sticking, so I was trying to bend the contacts to make it stick. I’d shut off the machine, bend, turn on the machine, then test. This method quickly became tedious, so with the machine on, I held the contact down with one hand, and pressed the flipper button with the other hand. I was in a sort of squatting position, and the force of the shock completely laid me out. It was like being slammed down on the ground by a giant, invisible, malevolent hand.
Then there was the notorious touching the Bug Light incident that involved ingesting copious amounts of beer, then (you guessed it): touching the Bug Light. Repeatedly. All the while laughing and cursing the pain. :eek: :rolleyes:
I was like 7 or 8 and was waiting at my friend’s front door while he was getting dressed to come and play. There was this pair of wires for a light fixture that were just hanging out unshielded. I never gave it any thought and started to idly twist them together until suddenly, WHAM! I ended up on my ass but for a second or two… it was like someone grabed me by the arm and shook my body with all their might… from the inside.
Also a couple of times while replacing a light switch without shutting off the power to the room. I figured as long as my tools are sheilded and I am careful, it’s not so bad. Even when you get a bit of a current pass through you, it’s not as bad as you’d think. Uncomfortable, but not deadly.
Once, when I was about 9 years old, I tried heating a metal knife on the element of an old fashioned bar heater. BBBZZZZZZZZZZPOW! No damage done.
A couple of years ago I was puting a tent up in a thunderstorm and got a jolt from a bolt of lightening that struck ground somewhere near by. I got in the car and waited the storm out afterwards :).
I was a little kid and was plugging in my electric race track. For some reason I was holding the AC adaptor in my hand like a baseball my fingers were touching both prongs. when it went in the outlet, I had a moment where I was frozen in place while my whole body BUZZED. Luckily, it didn’t make me keep my grip in place or I’d have been a Hypno-fritter.
Well. as one who works in the electrical industry… there is no thing as mild electrocution. It’s called getting a shock. Electrocution means killed by electricity.
I’ve been zapped by 110 volts. That hurt. I was installing a ceiling fan for a friend and the box had two separate circuits running through it. I had the old light circuit powered off but not the other circuit and I uncapped the wrong wire and zap and off the step ladder I went.
As I child I shorted 9 Volt batteries multiple times with my tongue.
As a Navy Electrician I got zapped by stray 1000V 400 MHz from a fuse panel in the back of the 400 MHz Control Panel. I got a mild burn and never went near a 400 MHz panel again without 10,000 Volt Rubber gloves. Apparently 400 MHz acts a little abnormal. The Chief was nice enough to tell me after I got the shock.
I got zapped in a pump room working on a pump controller with 450V, 30amps. Thankfully 450V current has a tendency to blow you back on your ass. It did so. About 5 minutes later {or maybe 15 minutes} I climbed up the ladder and got checked out at sickbay. I also then had to be lectured about safety. Deservingly so.
I also had a few very minor control circuit zaps. Usually very low amp and 12/24VDC.
Two pretty good ones. The first, when I was about 3 years old. I stuck a metal shishkabob fork into the wall socket. Knocked me back and into the wall. Scared my poor mother to death.
The second when I was about 14 and tried to slip through a fence. An electrified fence. Turns out my legs weren’t as long as I thought they were. Guess where I got zapped?
I got a nasty shock when I was 3 - Mom and I had put the Christmas tree up when Dad was at work, and he came home and I wanted to show him. I’d been told in no uncertain terms that I was not to touch the tree by myself, but I ran in there and plugged it in anyway and I suppose there was something wrong with the plug or something, because I went flying. Got knocked down and the wind knocked out of me. Didn’t touch a plug for years.
At the age of 7 or 8…the standard age for investigating truths about electricity, I guess…we were playing “hide the key” with our older cousins. Damned if I didn’t try to pull that key out of the electrical outlet. Knocked me clear across the room!
I know a guy who climbed a pole and got zapped within a smidgeon of death. He lost half an arm in the ordeal.
I’ve zapped myself a number of times with 110-volt house current. Damn carelessness. Of course, I’ve seen my electrician test to see if a wire is live by brushing it with his finger. My impression is, unless you’re in the bathtub or a rainstorm or holding a faucet with your other hand, 110 is not generally going to kill you, or even hurt much. I also zapped myself once with 220 in Africa, where the wiring in our building was somewhat below code, shall we say.
I was using one of those kits to make a floor lamp once when I was fifteen. I guess I didn’t have all of the wiring quite right the first time I plugged it in because I got a bit of a shock. I don’t remember it as being too horrible though. It didn’t knock me on my butt or anything. It was, however, enough of a shock to convince me that plugging my lamp into a surge protector with a switch, then plugging the turned off surge protector into the wall, and then turning on the surge protector would be a better idea for testing to see if my lamp worked. For those wondering, I did eventually get it to work and it looked really cool.
I’ve had the odd kick from spark plugs (it wouldn’t be wise to repeat the experiment in these days of electronic ignition), electric fences, and once when I was foolishly poking around with my train set’s transformer, but I’ve also managed a sizeable jolt from a D-size 1.5v cell in physics class. It had a bit of a helping hand from a big inductor coil, mind you.
I well remember touching an electric fence and thinking it wasn’t ONNNNN… massive jolt as if kicked in the ass
When I was about twelve, I was shocked by an electric fence that was about five feet away. I was visiting an uncle who lived on the Gulf Coast, and both the temperature and the humidity were well into the 90s. I finished drinking a coke and wondered if the fence would spark if I threw the can onto it. It didn’t, but I got a jolt when the can hit the fence. My guess is that my throwing the can disturbed the air enough to make that area more conductive.
What were you doing? Trying to get a 1920s Style Death Ray to worK?
There was a season when it had been raining for days and days, and the whole place (due to this or some other reasons) was charged with static electricity. I touch the metal casing of my CPU and got a shock. I switched on a perfectly insulated light switch and got a shock.
Also, some friends of mine generate static charges whenever I happen to touch them. I still remember a time I jumped back when I recieve a jolt when my arm accidentally brushed against my friend’s.
Once on my Mustang I was having problems with it cutting in and out. I thought it might have been one of the plug wires as some of them had some crap on them. Well to test it out I turned the car on grabbed one of them. That in and of itself is ok. However, when you pull on it the fun starts. I know what knock you on your ass really means now.
I’ve also grabbed an elextric fence once. It was one of the ones that send a spike out ever couple of seconds. I grabbed between spikes and held on. Did the same thing with an invisable fence, I figured since the dog had to do it I needed to know as well. That wasn’t so bad.
I’ve posted the story a couple of times before, but here’s the short version.
Electric guitar in right hand, picked up amp with left hand, which grabbed hold of the live connectors on the back of the mains switch. If you want to get shocked this is exactly the worst way to do it, 240 volts acros the chest (where your heart lives). This threw me across the room but I was still gripping with both hands. I managed to kick the amp away somehow.
I very nearly died, I still have a scar on my left index finger where the switch contacts burned through the skin.
