Now I know there has to be a few Dopers that grew up on a ranch or farm and took a pee on an electric fence. So fess up, what happened? I grew up next to a guy that had an electric fence along the road to keep the cows from knocking his fence down. I remember touching it and the feeling being unpleasant, but can’t remember whizzing on it; I think we were just warned not to do it and was one of those times we actually listened to our elders.
We installed an electric line on a fence to keep my dog from climbing out. I did test run what that felt like - not pleasant.
I don’t think there was ever a time I would have thought, “Wow, that hurt, let’s see what happens if I pee on it.” I didn’t need someone to tell me not to - I would have had to have had someone hold me down to make me do it.
Boy, Cecil’s research standards were still a little shoddy back in the 70’s, apparently.
He based this answer on a single anecdote from a 10-year-old (at the time) book? (And got the author’s name wrong, BTW…)
I’m a bit skeptical that the stream could remain uninterrupted and in contact with the rail long enough to be fatal, but there’s so little in the way of facts or evidence in this article that it seems rather pointless to even argue it.
When I was a freshman in college, I was visiting at a frat party. One of the frat rats was drunk and obnoxious and somehow or another, we talked him into peeing on the spark plug of a running lawnmower.
The results were highly entertaining.
A boy at my high school died from urinating on a “downed power line,” although I don’t have more info (eg voltage) than that. He was drunk and went into a construction site to take a whiz, with tragic results.
obligatory.
[ ducks and runs]
See I know there are people out there that have done it. Probably going to be “some guy I knew” as I doubt anyone will admit it.
When I was in high school I used a mower that the throttle wouldn’t work so we had to use a plastic handled screwdriver to pop the lead off the spark plug to stop it. Well one day I wasn’t thinking and reached down and grabbed it with my hand. :smack: Holy mother of god did that hurt. Anyway, guess who went straight to the store for a new throttle?
:eek:
You bastard! That’s going to be stuck in my head for days now.
The mythbusters spent a lot of time on this story. They found that a urine stream is too broken up with droplets to make a good conductor. They tried a lot of scenarios trying to make it happen. They finally had the test dummy barefoot, standing in a puddle, and only inches away before he got shocked.
so then there is probably something more to fgasparini 's story regarding his high school acquaintance? Well if the Mythbusters debunked it, then I guess that settles it. For me anyway. I’m still sure there is at least one Doper who has peed on an electric fence.
There’s very little detail in fgasparini’s story in the first place. But as the Mythbusters showed both in the original experiment, and when they revisited it and Adam actually peed on a low voltage electric fence, you can get a connection through urine if the distance is short enough.
Too much wrong with this whole story-line.
First, the ‘stream’ breaks up into droplets starting a foot or less away from where it leaves the spigot (or penis, whatever) so conductivity is questionable. Then there is the circuit… the current, or some of it, flows up the urine stream, through the urethra and down through the legs, out the feet and into the ground. How would that stop a heart? No current would flow through the upper body at all.
Mythbusters does very shoddy science, designed primarily as entertainment. They are not a reliable source of information.
I would put this squarely in the realm of Urban Legend.
While Mythbusters is aimed first at entertainment, if you saw the episode in question you would see that they state exactly what you did.
They did confirm getting a connection - by having Adam pee from within 6 inches of the fence. Exactly for the reason you state - the flow breaks up into drops much farther than that.
What they demonstrated was the ability to complete a circuit, not that it would put any charge through the heart.
I’m afraid I can’t really supply any more detail, I didn’t know the boy personally and am not about to start digging for info. I’m happy to accept that what might actually have happened is that he went to take a whiz and stumbled across/into a live power line, rather than having been electrocuted through the stream.
Peeing on a fence from six inches makes sense. I’ve seen our mongrel dog hike his leg (only once) on our electric cattle wire.
Peeing on the third rail from six inches is nearly impossible. It’s on the ground and you’re standing up. Maybe an inebriated dwarf would be close enough. 
A college buddy recounted the story of visiting his cousins back in Holland when he was a kid. They apparently persuaded him to pee on the eectric fence in a field. They did it first without harm, and after their demo some co-conspirator down at he corner of the field turned the power back on so he got the full effect. Ah, youthful hijinks! I didn’t ask how far away he was, but cow fences are usually a single cable about waist high, so it’s possible he was within the required distance.
I stepped on an electric fence once while climbing over, and got a shock even through my rubber-soled sneaker. I didn’t repeat the perfonace to figure out why the laws of physics appeared to be violated… I wouldn’t want that full force on more sensitive parts.
What’s your complaint? The letter writer wanted to know if there were any cases of death-by-peeing, and I cited one. I also noted doubts had been expressed.
Thanks for the correction on Houts’s name, no doubt due to sloppy handwriting on Little Ed’s part. I’ve also had him amend the column to note Mythbusters’ contribution, as well as another electrocution.
Wait, what about Taylor Robert Eshoo? The Sun-Times described him as a 14-year-old boy whom the medical examiner ruled died of electrocution while urinating on the third rail near the Morse Avenue CTA station in 1991.I guess it’s possible that he merely stepped on the rail. Sadly, the news stories I found didn’t go into enough detail about where on his body the electrical contact occurred. But urination must be a key detail, for surely the Sun-Times would never include an irrelevant fact merely because it’s titillating.
And our civic institutions also let me down: the appellate decision in the inevitable court case merely stated, “He was killed when he came into contact with the ‘third’ rail,” without describing exactly how. The court cared more about boring things like trespassing and signage, rather than important stuff like burn marks.
But I bet Cecil’s crack team can dig up either the medical examiner’s report or the transcript of the original trial.
Not so much a “complaint,” per se; more an observation regarding just how far the Straight Dope has progressed over the years.
Were you to tackle this question today, you may have cited Houts’ work, but I have little doubt you’d also have conducted (no pun intended) your own research, contacting coroners and criminologists and so forth; and surely you would have designed and carried out (or more likely have your staff carry out) a series of experiments to get to the bottom of the matter.
I hope you’ll forgive the cranky tone of my post, probably more indicative of my mood that day than my actual opinion of the column. I still love the Dope, but the point remains that, on occasion, these old nuggets from the archives can leave a little bit to be desired by today’s standards. No offense intended.
(May I add what an honor it is to be addressed directly by the Master himself. I bow before thee.)
We’re making further inquiries.
The name is accurate now – Marshall Houts. Has it been corrected from a wrong name?