The Wolf

I thought some people might enjoy these words of wisdom from a page in one of my old electrical books.

I wonder if the wolf had anything to do with the phrase, "Don't let yourself get bit!" when refering to an electrical shock possibility?

Every time I ever gotten an electrical shock, and there were plenty of them, it was because I wasn't taking enough "care" to avoid that little bit of unpleasantness. I knew better in each and every instance. That is, I had the "knowledge".

I just took little chances. Fortunately most of the shocks were from low current capable circuits in radio equipment. One time it was with a radio transmitters high voltage power supply. I woke up on the floor flat on my back wondering what I was doing down there and wondering how long had I been there.

I am a little older now and probably a little more wiser now, and I do like to turn off the power and discharge the power supply before sticking my fingers into little dark places with electrical wires exposed.

Its kind of funny how as the older you get, the more passionate you become about wanting to live on just a little while longer. Take care of yourself when around energised electrical circuits.

I am reminded about the young boy who managed to electrocute himself with a 1 1/2 volt flashlight battery. He was demonstrating the classic "Make the dead frogs legs twitch experiment" at the schools annual science fair. He had a couple straight pins with short leads soldered to the flashlight battery terminals. He would push the straight pins into the frog legs muscles and they would twitch. At some point he managed to end up with both pins held between his thumbs and fingers on both hands. Then he managed to prick his fingers on each hand at the same time with the energised pins.

With the pins now through the skin and into the moist tissues benieth the skin, he fell to the floor and laid there twitching himself. Everyone thought he was just playing around until he became still and did not respond to anyone. The boy died right there before any of the teachers and school mates could figure out what happened.

That story sobered me up on the liethal potential of even very low voltages. The 1 1/2 volts from the single dry cell, passing down through one arm across his chest and through his heart and out through the other arm electrocuted him. It is something to think about, isn't it? Be careful!

The wolf has been in my files for many years. Every time I get bit, I remember those words.