Shocks by gazbo (4.00 / 2) #1 Wed May 25, 2005 at 05:47:33 AM EST I get static all the time - must be my shoes. But most seriously, I used to work at a laser toner factory - taking enormous sacks of toner and dispensing it into refill bottles. This stuff got fucking everywhere. One of the machine types involved filling a massive barrel with toner, fitting the huge dispensing nozzle, then pressing a button that made the machine hoist it while inverting it, ready to be locked in position.
The genius who was working on one of those machines did all of the above steps, except for putting the dispensing nozzle on. A 100Kg barrel of toner emptied on the floor. That is irrelevant to the story, but funny. Anyway. At the end of each day, all of this toner needed vacuuming up. Imagine the PD you can get by vacuuming up kilos of laser toner - I would get sparks coming off me that were up to 12" long. It was fun to start, but after a while you kinda start to fear it. In fact, to this day, I really hate the anticipation of static shocks. Tip: if you do need to discharge a huge static buildup, get someone to chuck you (literally) a length of metal. Maybe your keys would work, thinking about it. Discharge through the metal and you'll not feel a thing, presumably because the discharge from your hand is no longer concentrated on a single point. When I was a kid (8?) I was changing a lightbulb in an angle-poise lamp. I saw the two contacts, and scientific curiosity got the better of me; I turned it on, and stuck my fingers on the contacts. I remember being thrown backwards, and it feeling like being punched in the arm repeatedly (presumably 50 times per second). Some would claim that explains a lot. I did my best to kill myself and 2 other people when I worked as a cleaner at Sainsbury's. I was using the big single-brush floor scrubber - now these things are kinda cool, because they are uncontrollable monsters to even the biggest men, yet after practice you can exhibit precision control with a thumb and little finger only. This obviously led the way to great show-off skills. One of the games I played was to stand on the machine and turn it on, thus creating an impromptue roundabout. I did this once when the entire floor was drenched in water (when else would you use such a machine?) and the cable got caught underneath and severed. Did I mention this plugged into the 440v outlet? Thank God for fuses - I'd have hated that one to go on my epitath and those of the people in the room with me. I think that's enough. My other electrocution stories aren't as good. ------- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
