Man electrocted while climbing Alabama Power transformer, (trying to steal copper wire)

timesdaily.com ^ | 3-22-05 | The Associated Press

[Jimmy Valentine]

"and absolutely no chance of the case "surging" through the courts."

Well of course not. There is no "ground" for prosecution. Jeeze! Don't blow a fuse or anything.

I'm not ashamed.

[MarkL]

I was working at a coal fired power plant about 12 years ago, and was told about a contracter there who made a serious mistake, figuring that he had a few minutes before the control room would "switch on" the gas turbine and start generating electricity. He got hit with over 20,000 amps (not volts... AMPS!) coming directly off the generator (it's nearly a 700MW generator). There wasn't very much left of the guy, certainly not enough to perform an autopsy.

Mark

[MarkL]

Damn... It's too early for me to be posting...

gas turbine and start generating electricity. He got hit with over 20,000

Not gas turbine... Steam turbine. And it was over 15,000 amps, not 20,000.

Sorry.

This is what happens when you can't sleep, and try remembering stuff from 12 years ago.

Mark

[Smokin' Joe]

Should have cooked it out of him, at least in part.

[Professional Engineer]

I got about a 30,000 volt jolt while twisting the distributer on my car that had high performance coil on it and survived quite nicely, although the shock is very un-fun.

The high energy ignition systems since the late '70's have that nasty habbit. I got zapped occasionally while checking the transmission oil level on my vehicle, since the dipstick is very close to the coil. Un-fun is right.

[Professional Engineer]

That's one mean-lookin' bus you've got there...

It's about to come out of service. Unfortunately, the building owner's have some idea of it's value as a 'gee whiz' display piece. Oh well, maybe I can get one or two of the small load centers with Edison base fuse holders mounted on an 8x12 slate backbaord.

[Professional Engineer]

Yup, that some old stuff. Looks like something I have run across while stationed in Korea!

Only the best for Uncle Sam, eh?

[reagan_fanatic]

A good friend of mine is an engineer at the local radio stations in my area. About 30 years ago, he was learning the ropes from the fella he was going to take over from and who was going to retire. One day, this old fella had gone to the remote transmitter site to do some readings and didn't come back when he was expected to.
When my friend went out to check on him, he found him up flat against the grid, nothing more than a blackened corpse. He theorized that the old guy must have gotten spooked by a mouse or rat and fell into the grid.

[RightWhale]

Scrap is $1? Copper futures are $1.44 down 5 cents.

[Kozak]

Probably to determine the blood alcohol level.

Gonna be tough, ethanol has a pretty low boiling point.

[spinestein]

So does blood, for that matter. :^)

[FeliciaCat]

2005 Darwin Award Candidate.

[Cobra64]

Thanks you so much. I printed it out, my friend of mine rehearsed the dialogue, and the wives went crazy when we went through the piece.

Thanks again! Mark from NC.

Is Claude clapped in jail?

[Cobra64]

Was this due to RF, or the electrical power to the transmitter?

[reagan_fanatic]

Was this due to RF, or the electrical power to the transmitter?

Electrical power.