John, (and everyone else)
>This person (todd1814) has NO idea what he is talking about. First, the
>charge on a monitor is NOT lethal (no current) as it is a static electric
>charge. It certainly will give you a healthy shock and that is dangerous
>because you might drop the picture tube (a bomb!), but otherwise not a
>serious (life threatening) situation. I have accidently discharged a few
>monitors through my arms over the years and no ill effects (I think ;-).
>critiques welcome!
I know that we all know that we must pay attention when discharging tubes.
This is nothing new to anyone on vector list, I'm sure. However, John's
comment above made me pause because it is strikingly inaccurate. The fact
that the charge in a monitor is a "static electric" charge has nothing to do
with how lethal it is. (Lightning strikes, anyone?) I design
defibrillators that use precisely this principal to deliver a shock to a
fibrillating heart. We charge a large capacitor up to 2300v and when we
"discharge" the capacitor, we deliver 200J into the patient. This can be
quite lethal if delivered during a T wave segment. We must discharge at
precisely the right time so that the discharge doesn't kill the patient.
Joel-
Received on Thu Dec 9 14:35:32 1999
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