Story Time! How bad have you been shocked?

When I was 12 I decided that it would be cool to make a light bulb element using those 0.5mm pencil lead. Rather than connecting two leads to a piece of pencil lead, I decided to just stick pencil lead directly into a 120V wall socket. Then after doing that, I put a piece of pencil lead between the two already sticking out of the socket. The lead lit up bright orange and made sparks in the air. Surprised, I tried to pull the lead out of the socket with both hands (I don't know why) and needless to say, I got shocked. Fortunately the pencil lead broke easily and I only had electricity through me for about 1 second.

When I was about eleven or twelve YO we lived in a big old house and I had my own bathroom attached to my bedroom. One morning as I was washing up I reached up to pull the metal pull chain that was the on/off switch for the light over my sink. At the same time I grabbed a faucet to turn on the water. I "heard" this buzzing and felt that buzzing going through my arms. That was a real "wake-up" moment for me. No one else was around at the time so I don't know if the buzzing was audible to anyone else, probably not, but it sure seemed audible to me.

Another time in the mid 1950s I was about 14 or 15 and was working for my dad at his construction company. One winter morning I started up one of the bulldozers to warm it up for one of the operators. This dozer was an older model and to start it you first had to release compression on the diesel engine and then use a pull rope to start a small gasoline starter engine which was attached to the diesel. When the gas engine was running you'd then pull a clutch lever to start the diesel spinning. After a minute or so the oil in the diesel would be circulating and warming a little so you could switch on the glow plugs and throw the compression lever to start the diesel. After 10 or 15 seconds the diesel would start and you'd release the clutch and turn off the gas engine.

Well, the little metal tab that you'd normally push against the spark plug to short it out to the engine was missing so I called out, "How do you shut off the starter?" One of the crew who was standing around watching called out, "Just yank the wire off the spark plug." I should have noticed his big grin when he said that, but I didn't. Those little magnetos really do pack a wallop. After that I learned to use an insulated-handle screwdriver to short a plug or flip a plug wire off.

I sure provided a lot of amusement for those guys when I was learning to run heavy equipment.

Ed

Here is an interesting thread that hasn't been updated in a while.

I have never been shocked life-threateningly, but this one time I was working on an old gas engine, a Stover DV-2 twin-cylinder engine that ran a cream separator. I'm pretty sure this engine was built in the mid-1930's. I was adjusting the carburetor fuel valve, and it happens that this is very close to the distributor and whatnot. Unlike a modern engine, there aren't any 'boots' covering up the connections.

I managed to make contact with the magneto output line, right where it connects to the distributor cap. I only made contact for a second or two, but the engine was running about 1200 RPM at the time (and it's a twin) so I got at least a couple dozen high-voltage shocks in that short time frame. The magneto was a Wico A, which can throw some nice 1/2" sparks if you want it to. Getting shocked by this sort of mag, just once, isn't comfortable. Getting shocked 20 to 40 times is less so.

When I was 8 in Europe(250v 16a) I unplugged a fan from the wall and saw a big blue spark! So I kept plugging and unplugging it for the Sparks then decided to grab the prong as it went in. Got shocked nicely and I now respect electricity more than myself. A lot of other 100v low amperage shocks from pranks pulled on me and a lot of 7a 7.4 v shocks from lasers.

Haha, these stories are all so funny!
Times when we tell ourselves, "I ain't doing that again."

I am lucky I have never had anything real bad shocks happen to me like that.

I can't remember it but when I was around two, I put my fingers behind a night light plugged in a standard house outlet touching the two prongs.

My parents said I started making a very weird scream in a constant up and down pattern and decided to go check on me, and there I was! Being electrocuted and was perfectly still.... or rather, frozen.

upaa27 said:

..a lot of 7a 7.4 v shocks from lasers.

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Unless you put the leads in your mouth, you're a liar.

Cyparagon said:

Unless you put the leads in your mouth, you're a liar.

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Dual diode builds while connecting 2 negatives to the same source can jump on to you from accidental shorts.

Was working on a 100 watt power amplifier which ran off of 120 VAC, got my finger across a 2500 volt rectified DC terminal, spark went through my finger and I still have a mark from it 20 years later. My whole arm was numb for over 30 minutes and the lights dimmed in the house as my wife heard me screaming from down stairs.

upaa27 said:

Dual diode builds while connecting 2 negatives to the same source can jump on to you from accidental shorts.

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You're missing the part where it's 7 volts.

I can touch 50VDC and barely feel a tingle. There's no way in hell you're getting electrocuted from 7V.

Highest voltage I've ever been shocked with was 5000 volts when taking apart a plasma ball that I wasn't aware of being battery powered. Hurt like hell but thankfully low amperage so not dangerous.

Most painful was when I was moving a fan and my hand brushed the cord and there was a nick in it. I felt the electricity go up my arm and down my leg into the floor. Very glad it didn't hit my heart.

Most scary time with electricity where I didn't get shocked was a week ago when one of my lizards heat lamps stopped working, and not known by me at the time, the insulation on the wires inside the socket had melted (even though it was rated for a 150 watt bulb and I only had a 100 in it) so when I picked up the light fixture the wires touched and I got a lovely bang and burst of sparks about 6 inches from my face. It was like gettinng flashbanged.

A guy I know, a ham radio operator, when in his early 20's saw one of those big batteries for florescent camping lights on a store shelf which had two flat terminals on it and put it on his tongue to see if it was good.... he had a numb tongue for a long time

He didn't realize it was like 90 volts DC, if I remember right.

You can also get a little zing doing that with a 9V battery to see if they are dead or not, I do it.... he was thinking the same thing but didn't look to see the voltage, LOL.

You mean these things? They're 69V. Yeah, don't lick it.

Never seen a battery like that before, pretty cool.

The worst shock I've ever had was from playing around with a dc 12v wall power supply, you know, strip the wires and short it for some fun. One time I had a transformer from an old speaker system, being stupid at the time I thought I could get a zillion volts by connecting my 12vdc supply to it. When playing around wondering why I didn't have a HV death machine I didn't notice a wire from the supply that had penetrated my skin, I then touched the other wire with my sweaty hand and received an INSANE shock from my foot to my hand, felt my whole body contract.

Surprised it was just 12v, I've had shocks from 240vac light fixtures that were not as bad as that.

3Pig said:

Never seen a battery like that before, pretty cool.

The worst shock I've ever had was from playing around with a dc 12v wall power supply, you know, strip the wires and short it for some fun. One time I had a transformer from an old speaker system, being stupid at the time I thought I could get a zillion volts by connecting my 12vdc supply to it. When playing around wondering why I didn't have a HV death machine I didn't notice a wire from the supply that had penetrated my skin, I then touched the other wire with my sweaty hand and received an INSANE shock from my foot to my hand, felt my whole body contract.

Surprised it was just 12v, I've had shocks from 240vac light fixtures that were not as bad as that.

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It's more likely that you charged up the transformer as an inductor by applying the DC, and when you disconnected it you received a shock from the inductive kickback, which is a HV pulse.

When I was a kid (7?) my dad took me into a bar and whilst we were standing at the bar I placed my finger into a fluorescent light fitting under the bar surface (which was missing a bulb) - I remember being thrown a few feet. I presume in the UK at that time we had 240v 13A.

Hand brushed the side of a MOT .... it woke me up , A lot .

230V twice