That was one of the most intense videos I've ever seen on You Tube. Even with the certain knowledge that you'd survived, I was feeling anxious as you turned up the current.
So that's what I got today. I have burned blisters on both hands... (junction box dangling from a ceiling that was SUPPOSED to be dead, I know, all the rules got broken by me, all my fault including hand to hand..) but that terrifying moment when it grabs you and you CAN'T let go...or talk... or breathe, or see... fuck that, fuck that feeling very much. I've been shocked many times before (as has everyone who's an electrician or even a tinkerer) but this bastard thing wanted to KILL me. :\
I didn't squirm; I discovered a fault in a television, when I received a shock, a very painful shock, and had to step away from my work bench to break the circuit. That happened 47 years ago, and the vivid memory of the event caused me to think that the event we just watched was posted by the executor of Big Clive's estate. Thank God, Clive has survived his foolishness.
I only found your channel by pure chance! I find it incredibly informative, my father did electrical engineering in 1938 then was a WO/AG in RAF at the start of WWII got medical discharge for nerve damage to one hand in' 41, went on to be involved in the building of the Black network of radio transmitters around Woburn Estate. He had a colleague who went to switch over the broadcasting transmitter at the end of his shift, the old man said don't forget the earth deadman's handle, when there was a bang and a rather charred deadman. I don't recall what the current was but the voltage was massive 1000's of volts. I also remember him in his his late 70's still repairing the old cathode-ray tube televisions with the live chassis, one day I went into his workshop and he was looking in the back of the TV checking various valves (all live) , he said "I don't know what the issue is" and "I said what that whistle?", he said "what whistle?" I pointed to a part of the TV and said "high pitch, coming for around about there." He stood up quickly with an exclamation of "Oh bugger!" Rubbing his Wrist. On asking what the problem was, I was told oh, nothing just brushed the chassis! So where's that whistle (he had bad tinnitus by then) and went merrily on. Another occasion I said, I'm getting a tingle of the kettle and the tap, he came over and looked, put his hand on it and told me I was imaging it, neither my bother or mam could feel it either. I said that I wasn't and I'd get his multimeter and show him. He told me to go and get it then and when tested there was a very small current of 240v A/C showing, it turned out to be an earth leakage from the supplier's side and had to call them out to sort it out. I have over the years toucher 240v A/C and always had a good belt from it, whereas the old man would test a wire by touching it and turning around to say you better take the fuse out, don't want to upset your mother. He died in 2019 aged 99 ½ years old!!
Sounds like a remarkable man. I had a friend tell me his grandad was an electricial engineer and he could touch a live wire and tell you how much current, voltage etc was going through. I’m talking the wires you get in the ceiling for the lights. I never believed him until I just read this. I thought how could a person touch live wires like that and be fine?!
This was probably the most intense and educational video I've seen. It would save lives If students was shown this in class. (in sharp contrast to the spectacular demonstration "how to heat hot-dogs by applying live mains to each end of them", like my teacher did)
Watching this makes me appreciate how luck I am. I was working on an industrial glass washer with a colleague when an 'isolated' faulty drain pump circuit went live. From the index finger on my right arm to my left elbow got full 230V as the pump was running. I was in between two machines so I couldn't fall away. I was live for around 45s. I was conscious throughout. I even remember thinking that I was dead. Couldn't move, couldn't breath. Somehow I managed to fall away but I had real muscle damage across my shoulders and back and my finger was smoking like the end of a cigarette. Easily my most unpleasant experience yet. I'm a very lucky boy indeed, though. I can't understand how I wasn't killed.
Catering equipment is a huge hazard to work on live because of the large amount of grounded metalwork and steamy environment. It probably wasn't as long as 45 seconds. Time stands still when you're getting a shock. Glad you survived.
40 years ago as a Power Electronics apprentice I was taught a phrase. "It's the Volts that jolts, it's the Mills that KILLS" - worth remembering, so I have for 40 years...
+Stuart Hatto Also, "know your shit or don't touch it". Don't know if anyone else has said that but I have heard a few gas appliance technicians say something along those lines. Difference between gas and electricity is that, people have respect for gas, they don't for electricity. And you can't smell, see or hear electricity...until it's too late.
Damnit man. I never even thought about the danger of holding the door while checking a flipped breaker. So glad I binge watch your old videos. You may have prevented my accidental demise
When I was a teenager I was fixing a friend's television, which had a broken power switch, and after a few rounds of testing I got sloppy with the steps and didn't unplug it. That was of course the exact moment that I managed to fix the switch, and get a nice shock. Only 120V here, thankfully. Also luckily, I didn't have my fingers gripped around the switch, I was pressing it together with two hands so my fingers contracted away from the connection. For about an hour I had a mild whole-body tingling sensation and was sitting on the couch staring at white noise on the TV screen, saying, "Dude, that was so trippy!" My friend said, "Hey, was that fun?" "Yeah, totally man" "You gonna do it again?" "No, I think I feel pretty good already!"
Boy, that's dedication to bringing safety to the masses. Way to go Clive. I remember my first electrical shock at the age of 6 when I put my thumb up into an empty light socket, reaching it by climbing onto a bed then onto a window sill. Luckily I fell forward rather than backwards maybe through the bedroom window. The scar staid with me for years.
My first shock was age 3. I unscrewed a nightlight and stuck my finger in. I’ll NEVER forget it. It was 115V and no ground path but such a powerful and unexpected sensation I’ll always respect AC power.
@@technophant for me age 6. Same for me and i put my finger in a night light in my sister's room while on the bed, so no path to ground, 120 volts but it didn't hurt me it just felt like some ants in my finger and i actually let my finger in it for a full 2 or 3 seconds, i remember not wanting to try it again due to fear of dying but it somehow didn't hurt me
I gave myself an electric shock at age 6-8 or so because I wanted to know what the fuss was about, and I stuck two nails into an electrical outlet. I'm pretty sure I shocked myself from one hand tothe other too, but I only made a very short connection (because with the loose nails, any twitch would disconnect - I think I actually already knew that the real danger was in making a connection by grabbing on tightly, and then being unable to let go of the conductors). I'm not sure how it felt, it mostly put a little hole in my memory, and I found myself having jumped two steps away. I then got wooden sticks for insulation to lift the nails back out of the socket because I was scared. 😅
I was 4 or 5 with a shitty italian extension cord with no collar. Pinched my forefinger and the flap between thumb and forefinger in there. My father saw what had happened as I was flaiiling on the floor and janked that cord out from the wall socket. For long time there was kinda hard bit in the middle of that flap but it's gone now that I'm 62. The white mark on the forefinger though is still there. Finland had 220 then, now it's 230.
My man, as soon as you said "let's go again and see if I can get any further," I had to fast forward. Watching you turn that knob up initially was just sweat-inducing -- I was watching the voltage go down as the current was spread across a larger area, but then I look to the left and I see you're at almost 6 milliamps as the voltage was starting to rise and all I could think of was that you were about to struggle to let the thing go and do actual damage to the muscles in your peripheries. Or worse. Super scary. I appreciate _why_ you did this, and I honestly believe you've done some good for folks who are watching this and are unaware of exactly how little current it takes to cause major issues internally, but please, _please_ don't ever do anything like this again. You're a brilliant person, and I really enjoy watching your videos because it's rare that I don't _learn something_ while I'm laughing or smirking at how cleverly enjoyable they are. It'd be a major shame if we lost the guy we've all become fond of watching simply because he gave a shit about his viewers, and wanted to show them (for their sake) just how dangerous electricity can be. Even under controlled, educated circumstances, a calculated risk is still a risk. My best to you and yours, Clive. --Mitch, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
With all your talk of sensible electric safety, I keep thinking of the warehouse where I used to work. We had a big 1,000-liter mixing tank for liquid fertilizer. Water-based, of course. The water was probably fairly conductive. The salts in the fertilizer were certainly more so. Not long after I started working there, I noticed that, when I touched the fertilizer to check consistency (it was organic, so no worries there), I felt a peculiar nasty tingling in my fingers. I thought it was just my imagination. Then I realized that the mixing-tank was being agitated by a shitty mains-voltage immersion pump, connected to an *unfathomably* shitty power strip which was just cable-tied to the tank and was regularly splashed and soaked with conductive fertilizer. I all but forced my boss to let me drive to the hardware store and get a proper outdoor-rated power strip. It couldn't have been that much current, since I wasn't connected to ground (and since it didn't kill all three of us who were working with it), but even so, it's a *nasty* sensation. I take my hat off to you for enduring that tingly torture for educational purposes.
@@looksirdroids9134 No. Anything can be liquid at the right temperature and pressure. Lava is liquid rock, Mercury is a metal that is liquid at room temperature, etc..
There was a rich businessman here in Australia called Kerry Packer. He had a heart attack and the only reason he survived was because the ambulance that responded to him, happened to have a defibrillator onboard, as not many ambulances did at the time. After this, he paid to have every ambulance in his state fitted with them. They're now also called a "packer whacker"
when i was given nerve conduction test to check for carpal tunnel syndrome , they fire 57 mA between elbow and fingeertips.most people are ok, except electricians, we just can't sit still when we feel current tingling like that, the automatic reaction is to pull away. Another automatic reaction, is when poking around in a live board with the right hand, the left hand automatically goes behind your back, to avoid dangerous current flow
When I was given nerve conduction tests for the same reason, the doc said I should see somebody as I reacted so much to the sensation. I told him that is fucking unpleasant which is why it is used as a torture method.
This reminds me of an electrician who an old landlord sent to fix our sink boiler in 2007 or so. He was a cheerful chap from New Zealand who started unwiring a big red switch on the wall when I asked if he'd wait for me to turn off the mains. His response was "nah, no bother mate". When I pointed out that it was less than a 5 second walk away, he said he'd been shocked before and wasn't worried... which worried me, so I switched it off anyway. Mad bastard.
My old physics teacher at school used to say "It's volts what jolts, but it's mills what kills". 50 years later, I still remember that, but have unfortunately forgotten most of the rest that excellent teacher told me.
Jammit Timmaj no. you need something that activates when you step off of it. perhaps a switch on the table that you hold down with the back of your hand. if you loose control of yourself youll fall and let go of the switch and not die.
We have a small 6DOF robot in a lab that has a dead man switch that has two stages. You must hold it in the middle stage; if you let to or squeeze harder, it stops the robot
Many years ago in the early 1970's I was a play-leader ( glorified helper ) in a council sponsored Playcentre for kids, to help them to stay off the streets. Basically we had events which the kids took part in while us 'play-leaders' would help with the organising etc. To cut a long story short, we had organised a fashion show with a beauty pageant. I was the guy in charge of the microphone and record player ( with a real turntable ). After one particular girl had walked on to the music and was done introducing herself with the microphone I had the microphone ( steel outer body ) and was changing the record on the turntable, I accidentally touched the centre spindle on the record player with my left hand while gripping the microphone in my right hand. The record player apparently came up with my hand and the microphone would not let my hand let go. It was over in a flash, quite literally as the record player fell to the floor closely followed by the microphone, both were mains powered from separate 220/240 volt sockets. I was dazed ( and shocked, too cliched ! and as with all things British, I had a cup of tea handed to me with about 5 teaspoons of sugar. After the mandatory trip to the hospital where they made me strip down to my underpants (clean) and was checked over. the blisters on my hands were quite bad but what surprised me were the blisters, on my skin, going down my spine. I don't recall any other injuries that day. some months later the play-leaders all over 16, were chopping wood for the OAP's in the district when I came close to losing the top of my thumb. It was held on by about two to three millimetres of skin. It was stitched back on by the same nurse that had been involved with the shock episode. She suggested that I get a season ticket for the hospital ! As for the Playcentre, I really loved my time there helping the locals.The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
as an electrical technician i enjoyed the "introductory" bit. we're trained to keep a hand behind our back if working on particularly dangerous equipment because of the very reason of risk of shock through your chest. we've even had someone die because an electrical fan in the door touched their lower back and went up through their arm. only a few years back and something a normal tech would never even think about. its crazy how easy it is to die in industry especially when youre working on things that arent operating properly. definitely made a subscriber out of me even though this is four years old yesterday. cheers
put the back of your hand on the copper pipe, that way if your muscles contract beyond your control you pull away from the pipe, always touch anything that might be live with the back of your hand first
+james hallas Back of a finger is even better - if you get a shock it'll curl your finger automatically disconnecting you from the source. I'd use a non-contact pen first though, just in case. But that trick's useful in case your pen gave a false-negative.
I used to just pinch a long blade of green grass between my thumb and pointer finger and touch it to electric fences to see if they were on or off.. When on, you could just feel a weak pulsation I dont know if something like this would work for other things or not.?
THE DEATH GRIP... I have been shocked in the past so bad, that my HANDS LOCKED UP ONTO THE WIRE at 120 volts. Luckily, I thought fast. I intentionaly fell off a low ladder. The fall forced the wire from my hand. I think that saved my life that day.
bigclivedotcom Or push ot even further. Different frequencies or even waveforms. Get an amplifier, connect it to your phone with a frequency/function generator installed and touch the output. even a shitty 12v ebay amp will work. You can get extremely high muscle contractions and even nerve stimulation. I've done it at a similar way back in school when I've talked about electricity and it's effects to the human body. It's quite interesting to see that higher frequencies "penetrate" extremely deep without high voltage and current.
@@WELLINGTON20 You saw how I said "penetrated"? This has a reason. Our body is most sensitive in a frequency range of about 50-100Hz. If you grab a conductor at 30DC you most likely feel fuckall, change it to AC 50Hz at the same voltage (30DC becomes 30AC peak to peak) and you feel the current much, much stronger.
Now that was very interesting and informative, well done I wouldn't try it myself, But hay it is something we should all think about, electricity kills Thank you that was fantastic
It is so nice to watch video's from someone who researches and knows his trade. I've learned alot from this video. I went to first aid training but your explanation covered much more subjects about the AED, even decided to buy one myself. Keep up the video's, they're awesome and informative.
I must admit over the years i've had a few wallops from electricity and i find it quite refreshing actually, there's a bit of a buzz afterwards which is quite exhilarating.
I find it more nerve-wracking as the slightest sense of dizziness or palpitations and I'm convinced my heart is fibrillating and I have to take a seat and wait to see if I die or it goes away.
Once I got shocked by 110 AC. My hand clamped shut and i felt the 60 Hz, current travelling up my arm (or the muscles contracting further and further up my arm) as I attempted a sort of scream (lol). I was lucky enough to lean back and fall away to break the connection! Whew! I'd never intentionally shock myself like you though bigclive! Thanks for being a little crazy! :)
Video title says: "Avoiding electrocution". Big Clive proceeds to electrocute himself (in a controlled manner of course). Glad you know what you're doing, big fella.
The shortage of old, bold, electrical engineers springs to mind. Surgeons can sew tiny arteries together whilst wearing gloves - so there is really no excuse not to slip on a pair whilst working on live equipment. *In* addition to all the other steps to avoid electrocution that Clive talks about. Plus safety glasses when there is a lot of stored, or potential, electrical energy about. Those little "harmless" spark that fly around from time to time may look pretty and innocent - but have a blob of white hot liquid metal in their core. If they land on glass, they will melt their way in and be there for ever. If they land on your eye...
@@rogerborg i agree, i hate art... 2 or 3 years ago my art teacher wrote some kind of appeal to my main class teacher that i was cursing in class. i haven't said anything that bad, just in what we call "home/farm language " i said something like "i shitted it"(ik it sounds weird, it's not direct translate but closest word i know) and my parents took all of my electronics away for 1 week because they thought i was cursing with F words multiple times.... she left her job like 4 months later xD
WOW, I never knew that about defibrillators, that's really interesting that it won't shock a health heart. I always thought they just chucked out the same charge and jumped-started them. This is obviously why they now have them available for emergency use in small villages.
+Higgypop That's true for AEDs (Automated External Defibrillators) that are made for use by untrained civilians. That's why they have voice instructions and pictures on every possible part of the device & ECG monitoring with computer algorithm checking if there's v-fib, so it's perfectly safe for use for everyone. Things made for trained professionals (ER guy or doctor) like for example LifePak (defibrillator & cardiomonitor in handy case) will deliver anything you want, but they assume you know what you're doing.
I recently had the mains supply cables to my house replaced by the distribution guys working for my power supplier. I have to say they were great, really chatty regarding what they do and showed me what equipment they used for working on what they referred to as low voltage ie 240v UK mains. I wish I'd remembered to ask if UK linesmen carry defibrillators. The head guy, Rob, showed me a RUclips video of a transformer on a pole he'd been working on. He felt instinctively there was a problem when he closed the fuse and legged it. Seconds later the internal short caused to transformer to explode in a most impressive and spectacular manner. He said, if he'd lashed himself to the ladders in the h&s manner he'd be fried. Sometimes common sense is the best h&s. Transformer Explosion Mid Wales.
@@bigclivedotcom Even Mr Electroboom would be impressed 😁 They were really nice guys. I asked Rob if they had any jobs but it takes 3 years to train and I'm too old 😔
30mA RCD while a potential life saver must deliver an unmerciful shock. great video and should be shown to all maintenance workers as you say, always sickened when live panels are opened and left open with a bunch of lockout tags sitting inside a tool box never used.
Lockout Tagout isn't so much to save you from a shock, it's to save you from getting crushed, sliced, blended, battered, or otherwise mechanically fucked up.
Exactly, I wasn't even aware LOTO disconnected power to a piece of equipment, I just thought it disengaged the controls and held any moving parts in place.
Big Clive I love your demo. I also like your Fluke 23 Meter as I also have one. I am a electrician who has been shocked a few times and not enjoyed the experience at all. It is always interesting to see how very little current and voltage it takes to kill you and yet some do not RESPECT THE POWER. Thanks for taking the time to make the video.
I'll give you props for having the balls to do this. Maybe I would try at 120V, but I've been shocked quite bad from 240V twice now. Even touching live 120V without a path to ground you can still feel a strong shock due to the body's natural capacitance. I cant tell you how many times i've worked on live circuits in homes in order to figure out how the previous guy did it, and gotten quite a shock in just one hand directly to the mains. Thankfully I never made the mistake of being earthed through one hand and live at the other or I might not be here. 50Hz is slightly less painful in the twitching aspect, but that 240V must be killer on your rig. I've only hand cross body shock a few times, and it knocked me off my ass, thankfully I never died, I consider myself lucky. I dont have the balls to grab that thing and take a shock arm to arm.
That was definitely taking one for the team! I'd always thought defibrillators just stopped the heart, nice to know they're selective about which hearts they stop:)
If you think a 9V battery is to strong on the tongue. You can lick your finger and put the battery against that and then your tongue just close to it :)
Joni Larsen-Haikarainen It's not about my weakness to the 9v, it's about his bollocks to the jolt he sustained! I want to give him a bear hug and I have a dimmer I want to send him too.
Heh. When I was a a kid, I'd take apart old CRT monitors and TVs to re-focus and tweak the colour. This has to be done live so that you can see the effect. I could usually give them a slightly longer lease on life, though I did have one actually blow while I was tweaking it. I've only zapped myself once on a CRT, and it was when the thing was off. I had it apart to replace a broken button on the front panel, but nobody had yet taught me to bleed the capacitors. I did have access to some high current resistors that I could have used to bleed it safely, but I didn't know at the time that this was something that you could actually do. Best time to learn is when you're a kid. The lessons hard learned stick around.
Great video mate. Ironically I was watching it while running tests on an amplifier with 750 VDC, Absolutely agree that those of us trained in such things can safely work on live circuits but that being said, you reminded me to take just that extra bit of care.
One of the biggest surprise always is induction. You've killed the place you work but some live wire goes nearby and bam! It's not full mains but when mains is 230V it can be deadly.
At school we were given a tingle from a Van de Graf generator. That was enough for me. Some played with trying to light the gas taps from the static and the multiplying effect of joining hands, with the last person in the chain touching the door handle waiting for an unsuspecting visitor to come in ! Since then I've had a healthy respect for the invisible stuff.
I got questioned once why I keep one hand in my pocket when I'm in a sub station. If I do anciently touch something the current should go down my leg and not go directly across my heart.
Re the defib. Even if someone goes into cardiac arrest and you do not have a defib, 100% start proper chest compressions and keep it up until paramedics/emts arrive. I always encourage everyone take a CPR course every so often as this can help pump the blood around and prolong irreversible damage. This includes flat line, if caught as close to immediately as possible. Mouth to mouth is no longer deemed necessary, even in choking victims etc, so long as help is on the way. Also, if there are multiple people standing around, be sure to rotate whos performing CPR every two minutes or when you get tired. If you've never done it properly, you don't realize just how tiring it is and if there is 1 person who knows how to do it correctly, you can easily teach someone on the spot to take over. excellent video Clive, That was uh electrifying, actually had me a bit worried there.
The biggest shock I've got to date was the capacitor in the back of my old Philips CRT TV (ironic that you showed a picture of a Philips defib too!!), the plastic round the flyback had degraded and allowed electricity to arc out of it, and as you descried, I was poking about in it idly, hand on an earthed device and bang, that discharge went up my right arm, across my chest and out my left arm via my old laptop (metal cased Toshiba Portégé M300, which does feel like it's negative rail is referenced to mains!! Always getting tingles and buzzes of that thing), and I was crapping myself afterwards thinking my heart may have gone into fibrillation, but thankfully it hadn't, and that was the last CRT TV I ever owned, considering it owned me!!! :S
Ahh yes, the wonders of the Electricians morning pick me up. Works better than a cup of coffee on a brisk fall morning. Nothing like being in a ceiling space tracing cabling, brush up against some conduit, get the zing of the day and realize that there is a short somewhere and the entire metal ceiling grid you are on could very well be energized. Now that makes for an interesting time. :)
Just one thing to note, a defibrillator doesn't start the heart, it actually STOPS it and allows the heart to restart itself, which is why it doesn't always 'fix' the heart on the first attempt.
Don't know how universal this is but in Finland I've worked in three different electric workshop and eachs had a wooden oar with words "newbie extractor" written on them. Of course not in english but in finnish with the same meaning. Although I've never seen a newbie to test if wire is live by hand they've always been veterans. Taught me how to do it, even though I've never done it. Use back of your hand.
I have a LifePak 15. This is a machine used by ambulance and in hospitals. It is a very sophisticated life monitor and a defibrillator in one unit. To use this thing you need proper training. It is semi automatic but you can override it. It also has to be tested weekly. To test you turn it on and in the menu select the self test option. It will test the sensitivity and then charge the caps a few times and dump it across a beast of a power resistor and a low value power resistor used as a shunt. It then gives you a extensive report of the test. Also you replace the caps every year, they are in their own module so it is very easy. I had the capacitor bank apart and it uses giant EATON caps. The higher value has huge Panasonic electrolytic caps
im an electrician and was working on a device which is relatively safe ( 240into a power module and +-15v out, after an hour of calibrating said device i went to unplug it, WHACK, i got the 50hz shake the person that had done the plug had run the screw through the live making the screw live, as i lent over to unplug it placing one hand on the devices grounded chassis and the other on the electrified screw.... man did it give me a kick. Being a electronic lab i was protected by a local RCD which tripped, now thinking of an isolation transformer. lesson learned hand in pocket rule hopefully my thick rubber boots would help.
phillrullzXBL wow... you were lucky! i just bought a 500VA isolation transformer a few days ago just because of this and it's also quite useful if you hook up a grounded oscilloscope.
im not an electrician an in my INFINITE WISDOM i didnt get a sparky to help replace a RCBO an i was of course holding the lid open an i grabed something an i could feel the 60hz go through my body an then i blacked out apparently i was dead for abit an then i woke up in hospital so yea i is lucky
I know it’s an old video but to make this a tad safer could you add a timer to the system that only allows for say 10 seconds of on time before killing the circuit? Something like the twist knobs on some building lights but set much lower? Seems like an excellent device to impress upon people how little current is necessary to effect the human body.
I remember as a kid, 14 years old. I was playing with my light collection and had an unfortunate run in with a lamp holder. straight 120v to the hand. Ran up my arm. Left me immobile on my bed for 30 minutes. I recovered, never told my mom. 27 now, never been bit since, and i tend to keep it that way. please be mindful of mains. It is not fun to be a resistor.
No offense, but I really wish I hadn't made this video. Now I'm extremely paranoid of electricity. But I'm glad for the warning. It's a very good think that you made this video, you might have saved a lot of lives because of this.
You shouldn't be paranoid about electricity. Just treat it with respect and know how to reduce the risk of an accident greatly by avoiding scenarios where the current can flow through you.
bigclivedotcom Would a ground strap on my wrists help prevent electrocution? I'm not exactly an electrician, but I do know my fair share about electronics, especially with some substantial help from your channel.
A grounding strap as used in electronics to avoid static discharge is a hazard in its own right unless fitted with a suitable current limiting resistor. Most are fitted with 1 Megohm resistors in series to limit current in case of accidental contact. The concept of trying to prevent current flowing through the body by bonding the wrists and ankles is flawed, because there are a multitude of resistances involved between the inner core of your bady and any external contact. So significant current could still flow through your body.
I shocked myself once on 230 volts. Luckily, i was careful so the current only went through one finger. Still it did hurt like hell. Can't really recommend it to anybody. Another time i hot shocked from the worst camera in history. I tried to repair a small digital canon camera with stuck optics for a friend. I unscrewed all the screws, and the moment i pressed onto the case to open it up, i got zapped by a giant motherfucking capacitor. The battery was not switch able, it was soldered in. And they had no way to discharge that capacitor inside, except for the flash itself.
Yes, that's how I got my first uncontrolled shock too. By messing about with instant/ flash cameras, trying to create a ring flash by joining them. It was rated at 330V and had a 1000uF capacity.
We once did an experiment in physics when learning about capacitance and capacitors where we charged up the class (standing on plastic trays) in a line of 10 people with linked arms using a van der graf generator, and then discharged the line from one end through another person touching an earthed tap. We were all expecting a small shock but it was strong enough to cause strong spasms in our arms. Fun stuff xD
+Debated Nothing We used to do something similar in computer class. A line of people would lift their feet off the ground and touch the staticy CRT monitor with one hand, and the next person in the chain with the other. Person at the end of the chain got touched on the ear, and a nice static shock. VDG generator's would be way more powerful but we never got to play with them :(
I remember my friend getting electrocuted using 6 C cells and a huge coil, when the circuit was turned off a huge >90V was shot down the line via Faraday thingy. He had to keep his eyebrows down. He could not.
I used to think my shocks from touching a shielded but ungrounded network cable was bad, but now I will never complain about those. This was painful to watch, but thanks for opening peoples eyes to the bio-effects of electricity.
I remember watching a TV series where a super soldier from the future had one of these permanantly implanted in their chest and when it detected there was no heart beat it would automatically try to restart their heart. I wonder if we'll actually see something like this in the future
bigclivedotcom seriously? :O I just looked it up and that's pretty amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if people in the future have implants as standard to monitor health from when they're born. if it's passive and doesn't cause issues then why not? technology for self monitorization is already a growing technology for amature fitness fanatics (which relies on your smart phone for the brains). smart phones are a pretty fantistic invention, especially ones that are open source and allow you to use 3rd party hardware peripherals which may otherwise be extremely expensive if they had to come with their own dedicated hardware for processing
+bigclivedotcom Hi Clive, I was just going to write a message and saw this and thought I'd comment on the post. I have an implanted defibrillator, I've been slowly catching up on your videos whilst on the sick recovering since having a cardiac arrest, and having the implant installed. I have a condition called brugada it turns out. Long story I won't bore you with. Not only is the idea of an implanted defibrillator bizarre, but that daily it wirelessly connects to a hub, and sends data via its own cellular network to the hospital. When I go in for a check they can readout the impedance of my heart leads, and the battery charge and all sorts of exciting stuff, wirelessly. Being sped up and down by remote is quite an experience. Anyway, love your channel and your approach. I have a degree in electronics but have spent most of my working time teaching music but try to keep my hand in repairing and modifying equipment. Anyway, apologies for the meandering post of novel proportions. Cheers, Pj, North Wales.
+PoJoWo The defibrillator is probably also logging and sending data about its operation to help the manufacturers evolve the product based on what happens in real life. It's all quite intriguing.
+bigclivedotcom it is indeed. I was shown the lead impedance and charge voltage last time I was plugged in, 11.5v and 6.2ohms if I remember correctly. I'm going again soon so I will try and get a screenshot. In the states they let you have an app to peruse the data. It's possibly just as well as I'd be constantly self diagnosing from Google not healthy.
If you have rubber soled shoes. Good. If you have another person nearby. Good. If you don't have the latter than always try to work with one hand behind your back (not touching anything), in a non-conductive glove of some sort or, if you know what you're doing, just avoid neutral or earth with said hand. If you're holding onto live, you are at a potential of ~230V (in the UK). Earth is at 0V usually and Neutral may have some induced or residual voltage. This potential difference is the amount of energy, Current (in Amperes) has when it passes through a conductor. You can calculate power with P=VI (I = amps, V = volts, P = power in watts). If you are at 240V because you're holding onto live and touch something also at 240V, you will be fine, or even if you touch something at 200V. So as long as you don't touch something significantly different in potential (20V or more either way), then you'll be fine. 50V and lower is also pretty damn safe. It'll give you a painful buzz, especially high current, but otherwise you'll be fine in most cases (unless you have a pacemaker, heart murmur or other cardiac condition). Know your shit, or don't touch it. A little rhyme that you should remember when messing about with electrical stuff as well as gas. Although, people have a lot more respect for the latter.
Just mentioning, as a paramedic in training we were told that an AED is used to cause a flatline so you even have a chance to get the heart started again, because you can't push against a cramping heart. Defibrillators as seen in movies (like, flatline -> charging noise -> "CLEAR!" -> bang -> (repeat 3 times for suspense) -> regular heartbeat) don't really exist… at least that's what we were told.
When I was about 9 years old, I decided to take apart an old computer power supply and obviously, I kept it unplugged. But when I tried to get the fan inside working I was plugging it in and unplugging it and obviously, there was one time I left the whole power supply plugged in. I received a shock from what I now believe was the mains. my legs tensed up to the point I threw myself across the room. I had a bruised bum and I was a little pale for a while but otherwise okay. After this video I release how bloody lucky I was...
There's an Internet story about a kid who was electrocuted by his computer when he touched a capacitor inside while it was unplugged. He was found dead next to the open computer and power supply with the plug lying on the floor. In reality it was more likely a full mains shock he received between the case and a live connection in the PSU, and after the shock he probably did what most people do when they've received a shock from an appliance. Unplug it. But his heart was probably in a state of fibrillation resulting in his death shortly afterwards.
bigclivedotcom When I was 6 I had this idea that my radio would get better reception if the antenna were tied into the power lines. My mother awoke to a loud pop and found me white as a ghost. I swore that nothing had happened and she went back to bed. I had a burn scar on my right for years. Kind of morbid to think about how differently that could have gone.
bigclivedotcom I wish I could say that I did something more with my curiosity. Industrial maintenance with a hard on every time there's an electrical problem is as far as I've gotten career wise. I'm slowly amassing test/play equipment for my spare time.
nodriveknowitall Industrial maintenance sounds just fine to me. (Just make sure your meter has either Cat III or Cat IV rated inputs to avoid any more unfortunate electrical skid-marks on your hands.)
BigClive, I was wondering if you have any videos you can recommend on organizing (labeling) audio/video/electrical cables? My company is currently a DJ service that is moving towards corporate AV..
My brother recently got zapped by a Shure Microphone, hooked through an Alesis mixer. 41v and 14mA when he tested it at the mic's metal screen. After investigation, it turned out that the mixer was the culprit. The mic was not the passive type... all metal too. He explained the issue to me but, I'm not an electronics-headed guy so, I forgot the rest of the particulars. Well Done Clive. Please be careful buddy. Cheers.
The whole time you were touching the knob I was sweating like hell... had a few nasty shocks so far, always been lucky. One mains shock across my wet hand (someone had removed a safety cover at school and I needed to move the overhead projector), and even a fully charged 10kV capacitor for a 200 kV Marx Generator project over heartline (still not sure how I survived that). I needed to move the elektrodes of the spark gap closer together, didn't pay attention, and grabbed both aluminium foil electrodes at the same time. Luckily there weren't any more accidents and we finished the project without any casualties.
Great vid and instructive... but I hope some idiots don't build this as a party toy! Decades ago I was a medical attendant in a hospital intensive care unit. One of the tasks was to rush anywhere in the hospital with a "crash cart" for patients experiencing cardiac arrest. While kneeling on a floor "bagging" a visitor that had collapsed in their own vomit we administered a defibrilating shock. I had taken my hands off the bag of the respirator when "clear" was called but got zapped through the vomit on the floor that had soaked through the knees of my surgical scrubs... knocked me about 3 feet and woke up to a nurse attending to me on the floor!
Passing 6.54 mA at 62 volts AC from one arm to the other must be IMMENSELY painful! I could have plugged a string of 50 LEDs into you! Unbelievable! You're quite a force to be reckoned with.
It's true what you say Clive. I was always taught to not only wear thick rubber boots, but to put one hand in my pocket so nothing was grabbed with both hands.
Another thing to note is that human skin is hygroscopic i.e. it absorbs water, so if you've just come out of a bath, shower or pool your skin acts like a sponge and holds water even after drying yourself making its natural resistance drop significantly, so never attempt to change a light bulb after taking a bath
That's not exactly true. The skin dries off really fast once you dried yourself. I have tested it on myself by measuring my skin resistance before and after a bath. The resistance was more influenced by psychological and neurolgical factors than by taking a bath. And one should never change a light bulb wothout making sure that there is no contact to voltage, or better no voltage at all, while you handle it.
What you did is incredibly dangerous. You might have a sense of adventure, but even Edmund Hillary took Tensing with him in case something happened. I hope you had a buddy in the next room waiting for the bump! By the way I'm a Doctor. I can tell you that you won't know you got the current wrong until you pass out and die. Just feeling it in your hands then biceps is not a good way of working out what is going on in the chest cavity. I'm glad to see you survived. Probably a safer way of having fun is to get the apprentice to hang on to the old megger leads while you wind the handle, DC isn't anywhere near as dangerous to the heart as AC.That's why Edison went around killing elephants with AC to try and scare the public into rejecting Tesla's 3 phase AC system. Edison had the patent on the DC distribution system. Oh and yes, I was that guy holding the leads from the megger. Not pleasant, despite being very amusing to the audience!
oh is also why we were taught in the telco world, to never "hold" back metal enclosures or possible live objects/cables, always push back, with, the back of your hand, so when your muscles force contract you can (hopefully alive) still pull away
When I was a teen, I would occasionally lightly grab 120V between thumb and forefinger on each hand, just for the heck of it! And when I say occasionally, I probably did it on 4 or 5 occasions. Fortunately, none of them were barefoot on a wet tile floor! Really freaked a friend out when I showed him!
Fascinating. But I would have thought a specific mention of the "one hand rule" would have been in order? That is, when poking about with electrickery, keep one hand in your pocket. That means the path a shock takes will be down your leg(s) from your hand - more mass, further from your heart and probably less conductivity (most shoes are non-conductive, and the person who pokes about while standing in a puddle is probably suicidal). Also must note that being electrocuted in Canada or the US is much more final than in the UK. In "American English" electrocution means "death by electricity" (which would have been the origin of the word) whereas in the UK, it's a very flexible term for a "bad shock". Could mean anything.
Until I watched this video I did not even realize that Dementors have hearts! But the diagram was very instructive. I also didn't realize that it was so easy for muggles to build an electronic Dementor! Nice work! I wasn't expecting a self-operated electronic Dementor, though. Be careful not to remove an excessive portion of your soul with that thing! Thank you for doing this! I'll stick to playing with 555's myself...
The whole time watching you turn that knob I kept thinking to myself, ‘surely he has somebody stood off camera in case something goes wrong... surely he has?? Oh gosh I don’t think he has...’
I learned a few things working on broadcast transmitters (3 phase 208 line side, 5-12kv inside) from my mentors first day. Always check the disconnects before opening anything even if you threw the disconnects, use the jesus (ground/discharge) stick early and often, work with one hand in your pocket especially if you got to energize something, don't stand directly in front of whatever you are powering up including circuit breaker and fuse disconnects. It becomes routine and you find yourself standing aside when you turn on a light switch or plug into a wall outlet at home. A lot of times we would be there because of a lightning strike and you never know what else you might not see might be damaged and blow up when you turn the power back on.. if your hair stands up and things start popping just hit the deck.. another storm cloud has come up and your in a building connected to a 450ft lightning rod.
One of my electronics teachers gave me a good way to remember that the black wire in American wiring is the "live" wire. He said that "Black is what you wear to a funeral"
"The live brown bear sat on the green earth and looked up at the neutral blue sky" is what I got in a British physics lesson. Which is odd because I've never thought of a sky as neutral and earth, as in soil, can be brown. It's the planet that is green. I think my physics teacher was a crack head.
When I was 16yo I was practising as an electrician. I was connecting a kitchen bench armature as the mains was disconnected. And someone went and turn on the main! Luckily I was only holding on to one wire, my other hand was leaning against the earthed kitchen sink. So when I felt the chock I just took a step back. Still an experience I do NOT want to repeat. Was shaky for the rest of that day.
When I worked maintenance at a hotel we had to work on live electrical stuff because the managers didn't want to turn off power to people's rooms. It can be done, so long as you aren't stupid.
Got caught by 120v 60Hz once as a child when I reach into the socket area of a light fixture. I can't say it felt anywhere near to good...can't even joke that it felt that way. Years went by and I got caught unaware by an old AA5 tube radio, which evidently had a non-polarized 2-prong plug! I've spent the rest of my life avoiding getting shocked. I think that prepared me for the 35,000V modulators I work with now. I could get as far as building the tickler, but I'd have a hard time grabbing to electrodes and cranking that knob up on purpose.
A few years ago I was fixing an electric hot water heater late a night. I was tired and at one point accidentally left the breaker on while connecting one of the heating elements. When the screwdriver made contact my entire right arm began to spasm for a good half a second before my brain processed things and I let go. What's interesting is that I did actually feel a bit woozy for a short period after, but I didn't think anything of it until watching your video. (And don't worry -- I decided I needed to stop work for the night and go to bed without a shower. I may be stupid, but I'm not an idiot.)
That was one of the most intense videos I've ever seen on You Tube. Even with the certain knowledge that you'd survived, I was feeling anxious as you turned up the current.
I have to admit that I'd probably squirm if I saw someone else do it.
bigclivedotcom It felt a bit like a one-man Milgram experiment or something.
It was pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel..
So that's what I got today. I have burned blisters on both hands... (junction box dangling from a ceiling that was SUPPOSED to be dead, I know, all the rules got broken by me, all my fault including hand to hand..) but that terrifying moment when it grabs you and you CAN'T let go...or talk... or breathe, or see... fuck that, fuck that feeling very much. I've been shocked many times before (as has everyone who's an electrician or even a tinkerer) but this bastard thing wanted to KILL me. :\
I didn't squirm; I discovered a fault in a television, when I received a shock, a very painful shock, and had to step away from my work bench to break the circuit. That happened 47 years ago, and the vivid memory of the event caused me to think that the event we just watched was posted by the executor of Big Clive's estate.
Thank God, Clive has survived his foolishness.
I only found your channel by pure chance! I find it incredibly informative, my father did electrical engineering in 1938 then was a WO/AG in RAF at the start of WWII got medical discharge for nerve damage to one hand in' 41, went on to be involved in the building of the Black network of radio transmitters around Woburn Estate. He had a colleague who went to switch over the broadcasting transmitter at the end of his shift, the old man said don't forget the earth deadman's handle, when there was a bang and a rather charred deadman. I don't recall what the current was but the voltage was massive 1000's of volts.
I also remember him in his his late 70's still repairing the old cathode-ray tube televisions with the live chassis, one day I went into his workshop and he was looking in the back of the TV checking various valves (all live) , he said "I don't know what the issue is" and "I said what that whistle?", he said "what whistle?" I pointed to a part of the TV and said "high pitch, coming for around about there." He stood up quickly with an exclamation of "Oh bugger!" Rubbing his Wrist. On asking what the problem was, I was told oh, nothing just brushed the chassis! So where's that whistle (he had bad tinnitus by then) and went merrily on.
Another occasion I said, I'm getting a tingle of the kettle and the tap, he came over and looked, put his hand on it and told me I was imaging it, neither my bother or mam could feel it either. I said that I wasn't and I'd get his multimeter and show him. He told me to go and get it then and when tested there was a very small current of 240v A/C showing, it turned out to be an earth leakage from the supplier's side and had to call them out to sort it out. I have over the years toucher 240v A/C and always had a good belt from it, whereas the old man would test a wire by touching it and turning around to say you better take the fuse out, don't want to upset your mother. He died in 2019 aged 99 ½ years old!!
Sounds like a remarkable man. I had a friend tell me his grandad was an electricial engineer and he could touch a live wire and tell you how much current, voltage etc was going through. I’m talking the wires you get in the ceiling for the lights. I never believed him until I just read this. I thought how could a person touch live wires like that and be fine?!
Am I the only one who was cringing at watching this? Half a bloody world away and I felt your pain! :)
man im 6 years away and it was rough watching it
@@ex5080 me too and 6 years later as well :) be safe mate!
@@RichardT2112 oh! Cool to see the commenter come back after a while. Stay safe friend!
This was probably the most intense and educational video I've seen.
It would save lives If students was shown this in class. (in sharp contrast to the
spectacular demonstration "how to heat hot-dogs by applying live mains to each end of them",
like my teacher did)
Watching this makes me appreciate how luck I am. I was working on an industrial glass washer with a colleague when an 'isolated' faulty drain pump circuit went live. From the index finger on my right arm to my left elbow got full 230V as the pump was running. I was in between two machines so I couldn't fall away. I was live for around 45s. I was conscious throughout. I even remember thinking that I was dead. Couldn't move, couldn't breath. Somehow I managed to fall away but I had real muscle damage across my shoulders and back and my finger was smoking like the end of a cigarette. Easily my most unpleasant experience yet. I'm a very lucky boy indeed, though. I can't understand how I wasn't killed.
Catering equipment is a huge hazard to work on live because of the large amount of grounded metalwork and steamy environment. It probably wasn't as long as 45 seconds. Time stands still when you're getting a shock. Glad you survived.
40 years ago as a Power Electronics apprentice I was taught a phrase. "It's the Volts that jolts, it's the Mills that KILLS" - worth remembering, so I have for 40 years...
One of my first lessons from my apprenticeship said exactly the same. Once heard never forgotten.
+Stuart Hatto Also, "know your shit or don't touch it". Don't know if anyone else has said that but I have heard a few gas appliance technicians say something along those lines.
Difference between gas and electricity is that, people have respect for gas, they don't for electricity. And you can't smell, see or hear electricity...until it's too late.
i thought it was the volts that jumps, not jolts?
Damnit man. I never even thought about the danger of holding the door while checking a flipped breaker. So glad I binge watch your old videos. You may have prevented my accidental demise
Why do drugs, when you can do electricity?
nails s bender the robot
When I was a teenager I was fixing a friend's television, which had a broken power switch, and after a few rounds of testing I got sloppy with the steps and didn't unplug it. That was of course the exact moment that I managed to fix the switch, and get a nice shock. Only 120V here, thankfully. Also luckily, I didn't have my fingers gripped around the switch, I was pressing it together with two hands so my fingers contracted away from the connection.
For about an hour I had a mild whole-body tingling sensation and was sitting on the couch staring at white noise on the TV screen, saying, "Dude, that was so trippy!"
My friend said, "Hey, was that fun?"
"Yeah, totally man"
"You gonna do it again?"
"No, I think I feel pretty good already!"
railspony You're lucky to be alive O_O
120v is just as deadly.
I once had 240V from one arm to the other and it felt great but I resist the temptation to do it again.
Chuckiele i also know how it feels i was lucky it was a spring contact because boy did it feel good.
Boy, that's dedication to bringing safety to the masses.
Way to go Clive.
I remember my first electrical shock at the age of 6 when I put my thumb up into an empty light socket, reaching it by climbing onto a bed then onto a window sill. Luckily I fell forward rather than backwards maybe through the bedroom window.
The scar staid with me for years.
My first shock was age 3. I unscrewed a nightlight and stuck my finger in. I’ll NEVER forget it. It was 115V and no ground path but such a powerful and unexpected sensation I’ll always respect AC power.
Well you were a dumbass for doing that, weren't you? Still are.
@@technophant for me age 6. Same for me and i put my finger in a night light in my sister's room while on the bed, so no path to ground, 120 volts but it didn't hurt me it just felt like some ants in my finger and i actually let my finger in it for a full 2 or 3 seconds, i remember not wanting to try it again due to fear of dying but it somehow didn't hurt me
I gave myself an electric shock at age 6-8 or so because I wanted to know what the fuss was about, and I stuck two nails into an electrical outlet. I'm pretty sure I shocked myself from one hand tothe other too, but I only made a very short connection (because with the loose nails, any twitch would disconnect - I think I actually already knew that the real danger was in making a connection by grabbing on tightly, and then being unable to let go of the conductors). I'm not sure how it felt, it mostly put a little hole in my memory, and I found myself having jumped two steps away. I then got wooden sticks for insulation to lift the nails back out of the socket because I was scared. 😅
I was 4 or 5 with a shitty italian extension cord with no collar. Pinched my forefinger and the flap between thumb and forefinger in there. My father saw what had happened as I was flaiiling on the floor and janked that cord out from the wall socket. For long time there was kinda hard bit in the middle of that flap but it's gone now that I'm 62. The white mark on the forefinger though is still there. Finland had 220 then, now it's 230.
My man, as soon as you said "let's go again and see if I can get any further," I had to fast forward. Watching you turn that knob up initially was just sweat-inducing -- I was watching the voltage go down as the current was spread across a larger area, but then I look to the left and I see you're at almost 6 milliamps as the voltage was starting to rise and all I could think of was that you were about to struggle to let the thing go and do actual damage to the muscles in your peripheries. Or worse.
Super scary. I appreciate _why_ you did this, and I honestly believe you've done some good for folks who are watching this and are unaware of exactly how little current it takes to cause major issues internally, but please, _please_ don't ever do anything like this again. You're a brilliant person, and I really enjoy watching your videos because it's rare that I don't _learn something_ while I'm laughing or smirking at how cleverly enjoyable they are. It'd be a major shame if we lost the guy we've all become fond of watching simply because he gave a shit about his viewers, and wanted to show them (for their sake) just how dangerous electricity can be. Even under controlled, educated circumstances, a calculated risk is still a risk.
My best to you and yours, Clive.
--Mitch, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
i'm willing to bet he had someone there watching him, or other fail safes in place.
With all your talk of sensible electric safety, I keep thinking of the warehouse where I used to work. We had a big 1,000-liter mixing tank for liquid fertilizer. Water-based, of course. The water was probably fairly conductive. The salts in the fertilizer were certainly more so. Not long after I started working there, I noticed that, when I touched the fertilizer to check consistency (it was organic, so no worries there), I felt a peculiar nasty tingling in my fingers. I thought it was just my imagination. Then I realized that the mixing-tank was being agitated by a shitty mains-voltage immersion pump, connected to an *unfathomably* shitty power strip which was just cable-tied to the tank and was regularly splashed and soaked with conductive fertilizer. I all but forced my boss to let me drive to the hardware store and get a proper outdoor-rated power strip.
It couldn't have been that much current, since I wasn't connected to ground (and since it didn't kill all three of us who were working with it), but even so, it's a *nasty* sensation. I take my hat off to you for enduring that tingly torture for educational purposes.
p
Pretty much anything liquid is water based.
@@looksirdroids9134 No. Anything can be liquid at the right temperature and pressure. Lava is liquid rock, Mercury is a metal that is liquid at room temperature, etc..
There was a rich businessman here in Australia called Kerry Packer. He had a heart attack and the only reason he survived was because the ambulance that responded to him, happened to have a defibrillator onboard, as not many ambulances did at the time. After this, he paid to have every ambulance in his state fitted with them. They're now also called a "packer whacker"
And this led to cricketers playing in their pajamas!
I picture some bored EMT at two in the morning siting in an abundance taking a Sharpie to change that “a” to an “e”.
@@adamjhuber whecker isn't a word
@@looksirdroids9134 but "pecker" is, dipshit. It's a vulgar slang for penis.
He only went halves with then NSW Premier.
In Packer's best interest obviously.
when i was given nerve conduction test to check for carpal tunnel syndrome , they fire 57 mA between elbow and fingeertips.most people are ok, except electricians, we just can't sit still when we feel current tingling like that, the automatic reaction is to pull away.
Another automatic reaction, is when poking around in a live board with the right hand, the left hand automatically goes behind your back, to avoid dangerous current flow
When I was given nerve conduction tests for the same reason, the doc said I should see somebody as I reacted so much to the sensation. I told him that is fucking unpleasant which is why it is used as a torture method.
57mA? What the hell
@@drteeth7054 doc why don't you try it lol
This reminds me of an electrician who an old landlord sent to fix our sink boiler in 2007 or so. He was a cheerful chap from New Zealand who started unwiring a big red switch on the wall when I asked if he'd wait for me to turn off the mains. His response was "nah, no bother mate". When I pointed out that it was less than a 5 second walk away, he said he'd been shocked before and wasn't worried... which worried me, so I switched it off anyway. Mad bastard.
My friend was in Thailand last summer and he also got a shock from touching a knob
because that happened in Thailand I feel like that was one of those different jokes lol
Take a walk on the wild side.
AND YET, she was the most ... BEAUTIFUL one in the room.
Not earthed properly but i’m 14 and get the joke
i’m bi
just say "no homo" and it'll be fine.
My old physics teacher at school used to say "It's volts what jolts, but it's mills what kills". 50 years later, I still remember that, but have unfortunately forgotten most of the rest that excellent teacher told me.
It needs a "dead mans switch" on the floor. Something that activates when you step on it.
That's what I meant. Thanks.
You're a smart person
Jammit Timmaj no. you need something that activates when you step off of it. perhaps a switch on the table that you hold down with the back of your hand. if you loose control of yourself youll fall and let go of the switch and not die.
We have a small 6DOF robot in a lab that has a dead man switch that has two stages. You must hold it in the middle stage; if you let to or squeeze harder, it stops the robot
The safest way to do this is to let the apprentice try it
whilst you stand by with the defibrillator.
For a non-medical fellow, you did a superb job of explaining defibrillation.
It isn't hard
Many years ago in the early 1970's I was a play-leader ( glorified helper ) in a council sponsored Playcentre for kids, to help them to stay off the streets. Basically we had events which the kids took part in while us 'play-leaders' would help with the organising etc. To cut a long story short, we had organised a fashion show with a beauty pageant. I was the guy in charge of the microphone and record player ( with a real turntable ). After one particular girl had walked on to the music and was done introducing herself with the microphone I had the microphone ( steel outer body ) and was changing the record on the turntable, I accidentally touched the centre spindle on the record player with my left hand while gripping the microphone in my right hand. The record player apparently came up with my hand and the microphone would not let my hand let go. It was over in a flash, quite literally as the record player fell to the floor closely followed by the microphone, both were mains powered from separate 220/240 volt sockets. I was dazed ( and shocked, too cliched ! and as with all things British, I had a cup of tea handed to me with about 5 teaspoons of sugar. After the mandatory trip to the hospital where they made me strip down to my underpants (clean) and was checked over. the blisters on my hands were quite bad but what surprised me were the blisters, on my skin, going down my spine. I don't recall any other injuries that day. some months later the play-leaders all over 16, were chopping wood for the OAP's in the district when I came close to losing the top of my thumb. It was held on by about two to three millimetres of skin. It was stitched back on by the same nurse that had been involved with the shock episode. She suggested that I get a season ticket for the hospital ! As for the Playcentre, I really loved my time there helping the locals.The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Im here looking at second monitor while hearing "Well im bad at drawing" thinking "It cant be that bad. And then... a ghost.
What?
No shit, he means what does it mean?
english sentences, ever heard of it?
shlibber I love you, lol
The best advice I got when an apprentice was. “Presume every wire is live and you won’t get a shock.”
Still words to live by.
as an electrical technician i enjoyed the "introductory" bit. we're trained to keep a hand behind our back if working on particularly dangerous equipment because of the very reason of risk of shock through your chest. we've even had someone die because an electrical fan in the door touched their lower back and went up through their arm. only a few years back and something a normal tech would never even think about. its crazy how easy it is to die in industry especially when youre working on things that arent operating properly. definitely made a subscriber out of me even though this is four years old yesterday. cheers
put the back of your hand on the copper pipe, that way if your muscles contract beyond your control you pull away from the pipe, always touch anything that might be live with the back of your hand first
+james hallas Back of a finger is even better - if you get a shock it'll curl your finger automatically disconnecting you from the source. I'd use a non-contact pen first though, just in case. But that trick's useful in case your pen gave a false-negative.
+pmailkeey no s##t Sherlock, I take it you carry an earthed wire around with you at all times?
Who doesn't?! I usually have a coil in my pocket and I drag a stake on the ground...
Mike44449 You have just won the internet. xD
I used to just pinch a long blade of green grass between my thumb and pointer finger and touch it to electric fences to see if they were on or off.. When on, you could just feel a weak pulsation
I dont know if something like this would work for other things or not.?
THE DEATH GRIP... I have been shocked in the past so bad, that my HANDS LOCKED UP ONTO THE WIRE at 120 volts. Luckily, I thought fast. I intentionaly fell off a low ladder. The fall forced the wire from my hand. I think that saved my life that day.
I'd like to see you do this with DC and talk about how DC feels different to AC
I'm thinking about that with AC, unsmoothed DC and smoothed DC.
bigclivedotcom Or push ot even further. Different frequencies or even waveforms. Get an amplifier, connect it to your phone with a frequency/function generator installed and touch the output. even a shitty 12v ebay amp will work. You can get extremely high muscle contractions and even nerve stimulation. I've done it at a similar way back in school when I've talked about electricity and it's effects to the human body. It's quite interesting to see that higher frequencies "penetrate" extremely deep without high voltage and current.
@@DrakkarCalethiel Well your dumb because the higher the frequency the higher the skin effect so it’s actually opposite of penetrate. dumbass
@@WELLINGTON20 You saw how I said "penetrated"? This has a reason. Our body is most sensitive in a frequency range of about 50-100Hz. If you grab a conductor at 30DC you most likely feel fuckall, change it to AC 50Hz at the same voltage (30DC becomes 30AC peak to peak) and you feel the current much, much stronger.
Now that was very interesting and informative, well done
I wouldn't try it myself,
But hay it is something we should all think about, electricity kills
Thank you that was fantastic
I appreciate your straightforwardness
It is so nice to watch video's from someone who researches and knows his trade. I've learned alot from this video. I went to first aid training but your explanation covered much more subjects about the AED, even decided to buy one myself.
Keep up the video's, they're awesome and informative.
Technically it's only electrocution if the subject dies.
electro execution
Wow !!! Thank you bro. You deserve a big pat on yours back for all the things you do for us. Hats off to you 👍🏼😊
You might have a future in modern art, Clive.
Dayne Close savage😂😂😂
I must admit over the years i've had a few wallops from electricity and i find it quite refreshing actually, there's a bit of a buzz afterwards which is quite exhilarating.
I find it more nerve-wracking as the slightest sense of dizziness or palpitations and I'm convinced my heart is fibrillating and I have to take a seat and wait to see if I die or it goes away.
Once I got shocked by 110 AC. My hand clamped shut and i felt the 60 Hz, current travelling up my arm (or the muscles contracting further and further up my arm) as I attempted a sort of scream (lol). I was lucky enough to lean back and fall away to break the connection! Whew! I'd never intentionally shock myself like you though bigclive! Thanks for being a little crazy! :)
you must see electroBOOM channel, he shock him self in every video
I managed to cut the wire of my desk lamp once ...
230 or 240 Volts at 50 Hz aint pleasing, I can tell you that much.
Video title says: "Avoiding electrocution". Big Clive proceeds to electrocute himself (in a controlled manner of course). Glad you know what you're doing, big fella.
Do a "what's inside a " defibrillator video
I don't think it's worth 1,000 pounds
See mikeselectricstuff video with an AED teardown
Chris aka Schulbus If you're lucky, you can find a refurbished one for around $650 but no. Those things are expensive and are rightfully so
he could just buy a broken one, its still good enough to see whats going on.
@@johnathonwaymire9483 Yes it’s only 454kg
The shortage of old, bold, electrical engineers springs to mind. Surgeons can sew tiny arteries together whilst wearing gloves - so there is really no excuse not to slip on a pair whilst working on live equipment. *In* addition to all the other steps to avoid electrocution that Clive talks about.
Plus safety glasses when there is a lot of stored, or potential, electrical energy about. Those little "harmless" spark that fly around from time to time may look pretty and innocent - but have a blob of white hot liquid metal in their core. If they land on glass, they will melt their way in and be there for ever. If they land on your eye...
You.....are......a.......legend! I love your vids! Twenty five years a sparks, but you've taught me so much I never knew!
Your art teacher should be fired.
+Robert Herberg Or electrocuted.
+Robert Herberg *fried
I genuinely lolled
All art teachers should be fired. They're supposed to be starving.
@@rogerborg i agree, i hate art... 2 or 3 years ago my art teacher wrote some kind of appeal to my main class teacher that i was cursing in class. i haven't said anything that bad, just in what we call "home/farm language
" i said something like "i shitted it"(ik it sounds weird, it's not direct translate but closest word i know) and my parents took all of my electronics away for 1 week because they thought i was cursing with F words multiple times.... she left her job like 4 months later xD
WOW, I never knew that about defibrillators, that's really interesting that it won't shock a health heart. I always thought they just chucked out the same charge and jumped-started them. This is obviously why they now have them available for emergency use in small villages.
+Higgypop That's true for AEDs (Automated External Defibrillators) that are made for use by untrained civilians. That's why they have voice instructions and pictures on every possible part of the device & ECG monitoring with computer algorithm checking if there's v-fib, so it's perfectly safe for use for everyone. Things made for trained professionals (ER guy or doctor) like for example LifePak (defibrillator & cardiomonitor in handy case) will deliver anything you want, but they assume you know what you're doing.
I recently had the mains supply cables to my house replaced by the distribution guys working for my power supplier. I have to say they were great, really chatty regarding what they do and showed me what equipment they used for working on what they referred to as low voltage ie 240v UK mains. I wish I'd remembered to ask if UK linesmen carry defibrillators. The head guy, Rob, showed me a RUclips video of a transformer on a pole he'd been working on. He felt instinctively there was a problem when he closed the fuse and legged it. Seconds later the internal short caused to transformer to explode in a most impressive and spectacular manner. He said, if he'd lashed himself to the ladders in the h&s manner he'd be fried. Sometimes common sense is the best h&s. Transformer Explosion Mid Wales.
I've seen that one in the past. It might have been posted on a linework forum.
@@bigclivedotcom Even Mr Electroboom would be impressed 😁 They were really nice guys. I asked Rob if they had any jobs but it takes 3 years to train and I'm too old 😔
30mA RCD while a potential life saver must deliver an unmerciful shock. great video and should be shown to all maintenance workers as you say, always sickened when live panels are opened and left open with a bunch of lockout tags sitting inside a tool box never used.
Lockout Tagout isn't so much to save you from a shock, it's to save you from getting crushed, sliced, blended, battered, or otherwise mechanically fucked up.
Exactly, I wasn't even aware LOTO disconnected power to a piece of equipment, I just thought it disengaged the controls and held any moving parts in place.
One time I was holding a 120 Vdc motor. The case was grounded and a wire hair was sticking out from the live side. I’m glad to be alive!
Big Clive I love your demo. I also like your Fluke 23 Meter as I also have one. I am a electrician who has been shocked a few times and not enjoyed the experience at all. It is always interesting to see how very little current and voltage it takes to kill you and yet some do not RESPECT THE POWER. Thanks for taking the time to make the video.
me watching this video on my phone and there is an ad under named..."are you brave enough?" and i said to myself. well he sure is...
I'll give you props for having the balls to do this. Maybe I would try at 120V, but I've been shocked quite bad from 240V twice now. Even touching live 120V without a path to ground you can still feel a strong shock due to the body's natural capacitance. I cant tell you how many times i've worked on live circuits in homes in order to figure out how the previous guy did it, and gotten quite a shock in just one hand directly to the mains. Thankfully I never made the mistake of being earthed through one hand and live at the other or I might not be here. 50Hz is slightly less painful in the twitching aspect, but that 240V must be killer on your rig. I've only hand cross body shock a few times, and it knocked me off my ass, thankfully I never died, I consider myself lucky.
I dont have the balls to grab that thing and take a shock arm to arm.
That was definitely taking one for the team! I'd always thought defibrillators just stopped the heart, nice to know they're selective about which hearts they stop:)
Damn! This guy has some balls! I don't even like putting my tongue on a 9v battery to check it.
If you think a 9V battery is to strong on the tongue. You can lick your finger and put the battery against that and then your tongue just close to it :)
Joni Larsen-Haikarainen It's not about my weakness to the 9v, it's about his bollocks to the jolt he sustained! I want to give him a bear hug and I have a dimmer I want to send him too.
Heh. When I was a a kid, I'd take apart old CRT monitors and TVs to re-focus and tweak the colour. This has to be done live so that you can see the effect. I could usually give them a slightly longer lease on life, though I did have one actually blow while I was tweaking it.
I've only zapped myself once on a CRT, and it was when the thing was off. I had it apart to replace a broken button on the front panel, but nobody had yet taught me to bleed the capacitors. I did have access to some high current resistors that I could have used to bleed it safely, but I didn't know at the time that this was something that you could actually do.
Best time to learn is when you're a kid. The lessons hard learned stick around.
BlackEpyon I just got a nasty shock from a CRT yesterday... Safe to say I'm taking more precautions.
Or you could just umplug it and press the power button. It will bleed itself...
Clive's playin with the dark magic again! 😬😬😬
Great video mate. Ironically I was watching it while running tests on an amplifier with 750 VDC, Absolutely agree that those of us trained in such things can safely work on live circuits but that being said, you reminded me to take just that extra bit of care.
One of the biggest surprise always is induction. You've killed the place you work but some live wire goes nearby and bam! It's not full mains but when mains is 230V it can be deadly.
At school we were given a tingle from a Van de Graf generator. That was enough for me. Some played with trying to light the gas taps from the static and the multiplying effect of joining hands, with the last person in the chain touching the door handle waiting for an unsuspecting visitor to come in ! Since then I've had a healthy respect for the invisible stuff.
I got questioned once why I keep one hand in my pocket when I'm in a sub station. If I do anciently touch something the current should go down my leg and not go directly across my heart.
Anciently touch 😂
Re the defib. Even if someone goes into cardiac arrest and you do not have a defib, 100% start proper chest compressions and keep it up until paramedics/emts arrive. I always encourage everyone take a CPR course every so often as this can help pump the blood around and prolong irreversible damage. This includes flat line, if caught as close to immediately as possible. Mouth to mouth is no longer deemed necessary, even in choking victims etc, so long as help is on the way. Also, if there are multiple people standing around, be sure to rotate whos performing CPR every two minutes or when you get tired. If you've never done it properly, you don't realize just how tiring it is and if there is 1 person who knows how to do it correctly, you can easily teach someone on the spot to take over. excellent video Clive, That was uh electrifying, actually had me a bit worried there.
See my video called The unofficial guide to electrocution.
From this point on, Clive is youtubing from the grave.
The biggest shock I've got to date was the capacitor in the back of my old Philips CRT TV (ironic that you showed a picture of a Philips defib too!!), the plastic round the flyback had degraded and allowed electricity to arc out of it, and as you descried, I was poking about in it idly, hand on an earthed device and bang, that discharge went up my right arm, across my chest and out my left arm via my old laptop (metal cased Toshiba Portégé M300, which does feel like it's negative rail is referenced to mains!! Always getting tingles and buzzes of that thing), and I was crapping myself afterwards thinking my heart may have gone into fibrillation, but thankfully it hadn't, and that was the last CRT TV I ever owned, considering it owned me!!! :S
( singing). I feel it in my fingers
I feel it in my .... toes
Glad you got away with it Clive. Most interesting
Ahh yes, the wonders of the Electricians morning pick me up. Works better than a cup of coffee on a brisk fall morning. Nothing like being in a ceiling space tracing cabling, brush up against some conduit, get the zing of the day and realize that there is a short somewhere and the entire metal ceiling grid you are on could very well be energized. Now that makes for an interesting time. :)
Just one thing to note, a defibrillator doesn't start the heart, it actually STOPS it and allows the heart to restart itself, which is why it doesn't always 'fix' the heart on the first attempt.
Don't know how universal this is but in Finland I've worked in three different electric workshop and eachs had a wooden oar with words "newbie extractor" written on them. Of course not in english but in finnish with the same meaning. Although I've never seen a newbie to test if wire is live by hand they've always been veterans. Taught me how to do it, even though I've never done it. Use back of your hand.
Big C, youre the man!
That was INTESNSE !
I got electrocuted in the past, but not for that long.
You are brave...
Shlomi Vinny Electrocution means death by electric shock...
Oh shit, i meant i got electroshocked? :D
Shlomi Vinny Shocked would suffice (without the electro bit).
justquant Cool, now i know. thanks!
Shlomi Vinny NP
I have a LifePak 15. This is a machine used by ambulance and in hospitals. It is a very sophisticated life monitor and a defibrillator in one unit. To use this thing you need proper training. It is semi automatic but you can override it. It also has to be tested weekly.
To test you turn it on and in the menu select the self test option. It will test the sensitivity and then charge the caps a few times and dump it across a beast of a power resistor and a low value power resistor used as a shunt. It then gives you a extensive report of the test. Also you replace the caps every year, they are in their own module so it is very easy. I had the capacitor bank apart and it uses giant EATON caps. The higher value has huge Panasonic electrolytic caps
im an electrician and was working on a device which is relatively safe ( 240into a power module and +-15v out, after an hour of calibrating said device i went to unplug it, WHACK, i got the 50hz shake the person that had done the plug had run the screw through the live making the screw live, as i lent over to unplug it placing one hand on the devices grounded chassis and the other on the electrified screw.... man did it give me a kick. Being a electronic lab i was protected by a local RCD which tripped, now thinking of an isolation transformer. lesson learned hand in pocket rule hopefully my thick rubber boots would help.
phillrullzXBL wow... you were lucky! i just bought a 500VA isolation transformer a few days ago just because of this and it's also quite useful if you hook up a grounded oscilloscope.
im not an electrician an in my INFINITE WISDOM i didnt get a sparky to help replace a RCBO an i was of course holding the lid open an i grabed something an i could feel the 60hz go through my body an then i blacked out apparently i was dead for abit an then i woke up in hospital
so yea
i is lucky
Dangerous Electronics, Flaming Bibles, chocolate sausages and now snuff films your a youtuber who just keeps on giving!
I know it’s an old video but to make this a tad safer could you add a timer to the system that only allows for say 10 seconds of on time before killing the circuit? Something like the twist knobs on some building lights but set much lower? Seems like an excellent device to impress upon people how little current is necessary to effect the human body.
I remember as a kid, 14 years old. I was playing with my light collection and had an unfortunate run in with a lamp holder. straight 120v to the hand. Ran up my arm. Left me immobile on my bed for 30 minutes. I recovered, never told my mom. 27 now, never been bit since, and i tend to keep it that way. please be mindful of mains. It is not fun to be a resistor.
No offense, but I really wish I hadn't made this video. Now I'm extremely paranoid of electricity.
But I'm glad for the warning. It's a very good think that you made this video, you might have saved a lot of lives because of this.
You shouldn't be paranoid about electricity. Just treat it with respect and know how to reduce the risk of an accident greatly by avoiding scenarios where the current can flow through you.
bigclivedotcom Would a ground strap on my wrists help prevent electrocution? I'm not exactly an electrician, but I do know my fair share about electronics, especially with some substantial help from your channel.
A grounding strap as used in electronics to avoid static discharge is a hazard in its own right unless fitted with a suitable current limiting resistor. Most are fitted with 1 Megohm resistors in series to limit current in case of accidental contact. The concept of trying to prevent current flowing through the body by bonding the wrists and ankles is flawed, because there are a multitude of resistances involved between the inner core of your bady and any external contact. So significant current could still flow through your body.
bigclivedotcom Thanks for the explanation!
what would you say is the smallest amount that will kill you? i got shoked by x2 245ma batterys and i was wondering if that could of been bad
The high frequency start of a TIG welder when the earth clamp falls off the bench and instead earths through your hand is unbelievably tingly...
I shocked myself once on 230 volts. Luckily, i was careful so the current only went through one finger. Still it did hurt like hell. Can't really recommend it to anybody.
Another time i hot shocked from the worst camera in history.
I tried to repair a small digital canon camera with stuck optics for a friend.
I unscrewed all the screws, and the moment i pressed onto the case to open it up, i got zapped by a giant motherfucking capacitor. The battery was not switch able, it was soldered in. And they had no way to discharge that capacitor inside, except for the flash itself.
+djteac These camera flash caps, making the life of tinkering people colourful since introduction of photography:)
Yes, that's how I got my first uncontrolled shock too. By messing about with instant/ flash cameras, trying to create a ring flash by joining them. It was rated at 330V and had a 1000uF capacity.
You will find that most camera flashes are like that.
What a guy. He risked his life to save us all.
We once did an experiment in physics when learning about capacitance and capacitors where we charged up the class (standing on plastic trays) in a line of 10 people with linked arms using a van der graf generator, and then discharged the line from one end through another person touching an earthed tap. We were all expecting a small shock but it was strong enough to cause strong spasms in our arms. Fun stuff xD
+Debated Nothing We used to do something similar in computer class. A line of people would lift their feet off the ground and touch the staticy CRT monitor with one hand, and the next person in the chain with the other. Person at the end of the chain got touched on the ear, and a nice static shock. VDG generator's would be way more powerful but we never got to play with them :(
I remember my friend getting electrocuted using 6 C cells and a huge coil, when the circuit was turned off a huge >90V was shot down the line via Faraday thingy. He had to keep his eyebrows down. He could not.
Just FYI, if your friend had been electrocuted, they would be dead, electrocution means being killed by electricity.
+Nickillik or injured...
No, electrocution means death by electric shock.
Nickillik Oxford would disagree at this point in time.
+RealLuckless what do you think where the word "..cuted" comes from? as in.. "executed".. Executed by electricity = electr(i/o)cuted
I used to think my shocks from touching a shielded but ungrounded network cable was bad, but now I will never complain about those. This was painful to watch, but thanks for opening peoples eyes to the bio-effects of electricity.
I remember watching a TV series where a super soldier from the future had one of these permanantly implanted in their chest and when it detected there was no heart beat it would automatically try to restart their heart. I wonder if we'll actually see something like this in the future
+micheals1992 Implanted defibrillators are a reality.
bigclivedotcom
seriously? :O
I just looked it up and that's pretty amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if people in the future have implants as standard to monitor health from when they're born. if it's passive and doesn't cause issues then why not? technology for self monitorization is already a growing technology for amature fitness fanatics (which relies on your smart phone for the brains).
smart phones are a pretty fantistic invention, especially ones that are open source and allow you to use 3rd party hardware peripherals which may otherwise be extremely expensive if they had to come with their own dedicated hardware for processing
+bigclivedotcom Hi Clive, I was just going to write a message and saw this and thought I'd comment on the post. I have an implanted defibrillator, I've been slowly catching up on your videos whilst on the sick recovering since having a cardiac arrest, and having the implant installed. I have a condition called brugada it turns out. Long story I won't bore you with. Not only is the idea of an implanted defibrillator bizarre, but that daily it wirelessly connects to a hub, and sends data via its own cellular network to the hospital. When I go in for a check they can readout the impedance of my heart leads, and the battery charge and all sorts of exciting stuff, wirelessly. Being sped up and down by remote is quite an experience. Anyway, love your channel and your approach. I have a degree in electronics but have spent most of my working time teaching music but try to keep my hand in repairing and modifying equipment. Anyway, apologies for the meandering post of novel proportions. Cheers, Pj, North Wales.
+PoJoWo The defibrillator is probably also logging and sending data about its operation to help the manufacturers evolve the product based on what happens in real life. It's all quite intriguing.
+bigclivedotcom it is indeed. I was shown the lead impedance and charge voltage last time I was plugged in, 11.5v and 6.2ohms if I remember correctly. I'm going again soon so I will try and get a screenshot. In the states they let you have an app to peruse the data. It's possibly just as well as I'd be constantly self diagnosing from Google not healthy.
My muscles are twitching just from watching this...
If you have rubber soled shoes. Good. If you have another person nearby. Good. If you don't have the latter than always try to work with one hand behind your back (not touching anything), in a non-conductive glove of some sort or, if you know what you're doing, just avoid neutral or earth with said hand. If you're holding onto live, you are at a potential of ~230V (in the UK). Earth is at 0V usually and Neutral may have some induced or residual voltage. This potential difference is the amount of energy, Current (in Amperes) has when it passes through a conductor. You can calculate power with P=VI (I = amps, V = volts, P = power in watts).
If you are at 240V because you're holding onto live and touch something also at 240V, you will be fine, or even if you touch something at 200V. So as long as you don't touch something significantly different in potential (20V or more either way), then you'll be fine.
50V and lower is also pretty damn safe. It'll give you a painful buzz, especially high current, but otherwise you'll be fine in most cases (unless you have a pacemaker, heart murmur or other cardiac condition).
Know your shit, or don't touch it. A little rhyme that you should remember when messing about with electrical stuff as well as gas. Although, people have a lot more respect for the latter.
Hi Uncle Joe!
+Joseph Stalin no offence but I don't think you are in the position to give out health and safety advice
DrEko2012 Off to the Gulag with you!
Just mentioning, as a paramedic in training we were told that an AED is used to cause a flatline so you even have a chance to get the heart started again, because you can't push against a cramping heart. Defibrillators as seen in movies (like, flatline -> charging noise -> "CLEAR!" -> bang -> (repeat 3 times for suspense) -> regular heartbeat) don't really exist… at least that's what we were told.
That's true. A defibrillator is designed to bring your heart muscles into a known state so external compression can be applied.
When I was about 9 years old, I decided to take apart an old computer power supply and obviously, I kept it unplugged. But when I tried to get the fan inside working I was plugging it in and unplugging it and obviously, there was one time I left the whole power supply plugged in. I received a shock from what I now believe was the mains. my legs tensed up to the point I threw myself across the room. I had a bruised bum and I was a little pale for a while but otherwise okay. After this video I release how bloody lucky I was...
There's an Internet story about a kid who was electrocuted by his computer when he touched a capacitor inside while it was unplugged. He was found dead next to the open computer and power supply with the plug lying on the floor. In reality it was more likely a full mains shock he received between the case and a live connection in the PSU, and after the shock he probably did what most people do when they've received a shock from an appliance. Unplug it. But his heart was probably in a state of fibrillation resulting in his death shortly afterwards.
bigclivedotcom When I was 6 I had this idea that my radio would get better reception if the antenna were tied into the power lines. My mother awoke to a loud pop and found me white as a ghost. I swore that nothing had happened and she went back to bed. I had a burn scar on my right for years. Kind of morbid to think about how differently that could have gone.
nodriveknowitall Awesome. Did you by any chance end up working in an associated area of technology?
bigclivedotcom I wish I could say that I did something more with my curiosity. Industrial maintenance with a hard on every time there's an electrical problem is as far as I've gotten career wise. I'm slowly amassing test/play equipment for my spare time.
nodriveknowitall Industrial maintenance sounds just fine to me. (Just make sure your meter has either Cat III or Cat IV rated inputs to avoid any more unfortunate electrical skid-marks on your hands.)
Sending much respect from Toronto Ontario Canada.
BigClive, I was wondering if you have any videos you can recommend on organizing (labeling) audio/video/electrical cables? My company is currently a DJ service that is moving towards corporate AV..
My brother recently got zapped by a Shure Microphone, hooked through an Alesis mixer. 41v and 14mA when he tested it at the mic's metal screen. After investigation, it turned out that the mixer was the culprit. The mic was not the passive type... all metal too. He explained the issue to me but, I'm not an electronics-headed guy so, I forgot the rest of the particulars.
Well Done Clive. Please be careful buddy. Cheers.
I love how he tried to draw an anatomically-accurate figure of a person's chest, but it ended up looking like a very weird hoodie. Lol
The whole time you were touching the knob I was sweating like hell...
had a few nasty shocks so far, always been lucky. One mains shock across my wet hand (someone had removed a safety cover at school and I needed to move the overhead projector), and even a fully charged 10kV capacitor for a 200 kV Marx Generator project over heartline (still not sure how I survived that). I needed to move the elektrodes of the spark gap closer together, didn't pay attention, and grabbed both aluminium foil electrodes at the same time. Luckily there weren't any more accidents and we finished the project without any casualties.
Great vid and instructive... but I hope some idiots don't build this as a party toy! Decades ago I was a medical attendant in a hospital intensive care unit. One of the tasks was to rush anywhere in the hospital with a "crash cart" for patients experiencing cardiac arrest. While kneeling on a floor "bagging" a visitor that had collapsed in their own vomit we administered a defibrilating shock. I had taken my hands off the bag of the respirator when "clear" was called but got zapped through the vomit on the floor that had soaked through the knees of my surgical scrubs... knocked me about 3 feet and woke up to a nurse attending to me on the floor!
Passing 6.54 mA at 62 volts AC from one arm to the other must be IMMENSELY painful! I could have plugged a string of 50 LEDs into you! Unbelievable! You're quite a force to be reckoned with.
There is a picture of me in series with a one-metre section of the first LED Xmas ropelight. It was INTENSE.
bigclivedotcom I'd love to see that! Where can I find it?
Just be careful, man!
It's true what you say Clive. I was always taught to not only wear thick rubber boots, but to put one hand in my pocket so nothing was grabbed with both hands.
Another thing to note is that human skin is hygroscopic i.e. it absorbs water, so if you've just come out of a bath, shower or pool your skin acts like a sponge and holds water even after drying yourself making its natural resistance drop significantly, so never attempt to change a light bulb after taking a bath
That's not exactly true. The skin dries off really fast once you dried yourself. I have tested it on myself by measuring my skin resistance before and after a bath. The resistance was more influenced by psychological and neurolgical factors than by taking a bath. And one should never change a light bulb wothout making sure that there is no contact to voltage, or better no voltage at all, while you handle it.
I have watched quite a few of your videos, this one is truely inportant, demonstrating safety is so inportant
What you did is incredibly dangerous. You might have a sense of adventure, but even Edmund Hillary took Tensing with him in case something happened. I hope you had a buddy in the next room waiting for the bump!
By the way I'm a Doctor. I can tell you that you won't know you got the current wrong until you pass out and die. Just feeling it in your hands then biceps is not a good way of working out what is going on in the chest cavity. I'm glad to see you survived.
Probably a safer way of having fun is to get the apprentice to hang on to the old megger leads while you wind the handle, DC isn't anywhere near as dangerous to the heart as AC.That's why Edison went around killing elephants with AC to try and scare the public into rejecting Tesla's 3 phase AC system. Edison had the patent on the DC distribution system.
Oh and yes, I was that guy holding the leads from the megger. Not pleasant, despite being very amusing to the audience!
Not just elephants, the sick $$$$ killed lots of animals including stray dogs, that man really was a cruel piece of shit.
oh is also why we were taught in the telco world, to never "hold" back metal enclosures or possible live objects/cables, always push back, with, the back of your hand, so when your muscles force contract you can (hopefully alive) still pull away
had to check the channel name to make sure i didn't end up on electroboom lol
When I was a teen, I would occasionally lightly grab 120V between thumb and forefinger on each hand, just for the heck of it! And when I say occasionally, I probably did it on 4 or 5 occasions. Fortunately, none of them were barefoot on a wet tile floor! Really freaked a friend out when I showed him!
Fascinating. But I would have thought a specific mention of the "one hand rule" would have been in order? That is, when poking about with electrickery, keep one hand in your pocket. That means the path a shock takes will be down your leg(s) from your hand - more mass, further from your heart and probably less conductivity (most shoes are non-conductive, and the person who pokes about while standing in a puddle is probably suicidal).
Also must note that being electrocuted in Canada or the US is much more final than in the UK. In "American English" electrocution means "death by electricity" (which would have been the origin of the word) whereas in the UK, it's a very flexible term for a "bad shock". Could mean anything.
Until I watched this video I did not even realize that Dementors have hearts! But the diagram was very instructive.
I also didn't realize that it was so easy for muggles to build an electronic Dementor! Nice work! I wasn't expecting a self-operated electronic Dementor, though. Be careful not to remove an excessive portion of your soul with that thing!
Thank you for doing this! I'll stick to playing with 555's myself...
The whole time watching you turn that knob I kept thinking to myself, ‘surely he has somebody stood off camera in case something goes wrong... surely he has?? Oh gosh I don’t think he has...’
Just wait until you see the one where I deliberately passed 10mA.
The "tingletron". Good. Very good.
I learned a few things working on broadcast transmitters (3 phase 208 line side, 5-12kv inside) from my mentors first day. Always check the disconnects before opening anything even if you threw the disconnects, use the jesus (ground/discharge) stick early and often, work with one hand in your pocket especially if you got to energize something, don't stand directly in front of whatever you are powering up including circuit breaker and fuse disconnects. It becomes routine and you find yourself standing aside when you turn on a light switch or plug into a wall outlet at home. A lot of times we would be there because of a lightning strike and you never know what else you might not see might be damaged and blow up when you turn the power back on.. if your hair stands up and things start popping just hit the deck.. another storm cloud has come up and your in a building connected to a 450ft lightning rod.
One of my electronics teachers gave me a good way to remember that the black wire in American wiring is the "live" wire. He said that "Black is what you wear to a funeral"
"The live brown bear sat on the green earth and looked up at the neutral blue sky" is what I got in a British physics lesson. Which is odd because I've never thought of a sky as neutral and earth, as in soil, can be brown. It's the planet that is green. I think my physics teacher was a crack head.
When I was 16yo I was practising as an electrician. I was connecting a kitchen bench armature as the mains was disconnected. And someone went and turn on the main! Luckily I was only holding on to one wire, my other hand was leaning against the earthed kitchen sink. So when I felt the chock I just took a step back. Still an experience I do NOT want to repeat. Was shaky for the rest of that day.
You say you suck at drawing, but I say you're great at designing cryptids.
When I worked maintenance at a hotel we had to work on live electrical stuff because the managers didn't want to turn off power to people's rooms. It can be done, so long as you aren't stupid.
Got caught by 120v 60Hz once as a child when I reach into the socket area of a light fixture. I can't say it felt anywhere near to good...can't even joke that it felt that way. Years went by and I got caught unaware by an old AA5 tube radio, which evidently had a non-polarized 2-prong plug! I've spent the rest of my life avoiding getting shocked. I think that prepared me for the 35,000V modulators I work with now. I could get as far as building the tickler, but I'd have a hard time grabbing to electrodes and cranking that knob up on purpose.
A few years ago I was fixing an electric hot water heater late a night. I was tired and at one point accidentally left the breaker on while connecting one of the heating elements. When the screwdriver made contact my entire right arm began to spasm for a good half a second before my brain processed things and I let go. What's interesting is that I did actually feel a bit woozy for a short period after, but I didn't think anything of it until watching your video.
(And don't worry -- I decided I needed to stop work for the night and go to bed without a shower. I may be stupid, but I'm not an idiot.)