ELECTRICITY LESSON

Hi Kyle,

A simple lesson in electricity brought to you by the great MELVIN ZWICK.


In order to be shocked one must make a good electrical connection between the electrical source and the ground. If one is wearing shoes the connection to the ground may not be there as the soles of the shoes act as isolators.


However if the ground is wet things might be a little different. If the electrical potential is great enough the electricity will jump the soles into the ground. That would not happen with normal house voltage but with lightening the electricity will jump the soles.
Now the lesson:


Electricity consists of two things.


Voltage and the current. The voltage is like the water pressure in a hose. The higher the pressure the greater chance it will break the hose. The higher the voltage the greater chance it will jump around an insulating thing like the sole of the shoe.


The current is like the flow of the water in the hose. The flow of current is what can kill one. Low current is not dangerous.


I am sure you have seen the spark between your finger and the door handle when you rub your feet on the carpet. This is static electricity. It is very high in voltage (power) but extremely low in current (flow). The voltage is great enough to jump across the soles of you shoes and jump the air gap between your finger and the door handle but the current is so low all you get is a slight shock.


If one is bare foot standing in wet ground the connection to ground is very good. Even small electrical potential will carry through the body into the feet then into the ground.


Electricity is measured in voltage. A normal battery might only have 1.5 volts. You can taste the voltage in a flashlight battery if you put the battery on you tongue. Do not put higher voltage on your tongue.


House voltage is 120 volts and can be pretty high in current. This is enough to kill you if your body makes a good contact to house voltage through your heart into ground. The electricity has to travel through you heart to kill you. The connection can be through you heart from one hand to the other hand. It is the current that kill a person. The low current in the static electricity in the shock you get from rubbing you feet on the carpet has no current. However if that amount of voltage had a high current (the amount of electricity that will flow) it could kill you.


You will get a very big shock if you touch ground and the house voltage through one hand only. For instance touching a live wire with one finger and ground with the other finger.


The electricity that supplies houses form the main source can be 440 volts or more. The voltage in the main lines from the generating station can be in the thousands of volts.


A fellow here was trying to get a cat down from a power pole. He touched the thousand volt line and a ground. The voltage knocked him down 30 feet to the ground. He died.


NEVER STAND IN WET GROUND WHEN YOU ARE FOOLING WITH A POWER CORD. IT IS NOT WISE TO STAND BAREFOOT AND TURN A LIGHT SWITCH ON OR OFF.


Well enough of the electricity lesson. Kyle it seems so simple when I explain it but I had a difficult time understanding it when in college. You can study electricity for years in college in things like computers to the transmission from the power plant to the lights in your house.
If you have any questions let me know.


And now another story from the great MELVIN ZWICK.


When Grandpa was at a cement plant in Hagerstown, Maryland he was about to test a circuit on a control panel he had designed. He was sitting on the floor underneath the shelf of the control panel and about to put a test probe on a wire in the panel. Now Grandpa did not like electricity and even though the voltage and the current on the wire was very low he was a little hesitant to touch the wire. At the same time Grandpa touched the wire the operators started the grinding mill in the next room. The grinding mill is a massive piece of equipment which shook the whole room when it started. At the sound of the mill starting Grandpa jumped up, hit his head on the shelf of the control panel and looked around the room like a deer looks at the headlights of the car that is about to hit it.


Everyone laughed at poor old Grandpa. After the laughing stopped Grandpa’s boss told the following story:


There was a young actor in New York who wanted very much to be on stage in a major theater production. He had tried for many years to reach his goal. He finally got a very small speaking part in a Civil War play. He was to be standing in a dance hall in a confederate uniform when there was a noise in the background. He was supposed to say, “Hark is that cannon fire I hear?” He practiced those words until he could say them in his sleep.
He was on stage opening night with all sorts of confidence. It was time for his part. Some one fired off a cannon back stage. He was so shocked by the sound he jumped around and said, “What the heck was that?”


From that time on Grandpa was known as the “What the heck was that guy?”


And so ends the “What the heck was that” story.

Grandpa