Posted on 04/20/2016 4:41:31 PM PDT by Morgana
Authorities have identified a 15-year-old Ohio boy who they say was electrocuted while attempting to conduct an experiment he saw on YouTube.
An Erie County sheriff's deputy confirmed Wednesday that Morgan Wojciechowski's parents found him Tuesday in the garage of their Vermilion Township home. Chief Deputy Jared Oliver says authorities weren't sure whether the parents heard something or just went to check on their son.
Emergency crews were called and took the boy to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
(Excerpt) Read more at tristateupdate.com ...
I’m lucky too. When I was that age I had the brilliant idea to conduct an experiment of my own. I wanted to do a little electrolysis and separate out sodium and chlorine from table salt.
I saw it done with distilled water in chem class, separating oxygen and hydrogen so I thought I’d just add some salt to some water and presto!
So I cut open an extension chord and put the two wires in the salt solution, plugged it in and...bam!!! A huge yellow spark popped right above the cup of water in a very loud POP, and then half the house went dark.
Haha that was stupid! I was really lucky the only thing that happened was a few circuit breakers tripped.
Prayers for everyone involved in this tragedy. I can’t imagine his parents grief.
It's a miracle anyone ever lives to adulthood.
We used an ice chest full of saltwater and ice and a home thermometer to keep the temperature below freezing while mixing.
Like I said, I never should have survived to adulthood.
Soaking wet, with perspiration as electrolyte, has been implicated in some accidents attributed as low voltage electrocution. The lowest threshold for concern is 5mA.
Funny thing is that TENS medical therapy units often pulse well above this threshold.
My boat was driven up on the shore in a storm by the waves. I tried to disconnect the battery that was totally submerged in salt water. It lit me up so bad, I just let it be. I’ve been shocked a lot before, but nothing like that.
I guess you did your research and got lucky.
115 Volts - Your Deadly Shipmate
I remember it well some number of decades later. :=)
All true, I used a neon sign transformer that put out 9000 volts but only a few ma. But I also had a ham radio license and knew what I was doing.
The worst shock I have ever had was from an old Vivitar electronic flash. The battery had gotten weak and I took it apart to see if I could replace it.
The next thing I knew, the flash had been thrown against a wall and destroyed. I later read that they are potentially very dangerous.
My 11th grade science fair experiment involved a hugh and serius transformer we got from the train yard, an 8 foot Jacob’s ladder and a tesla coil that lit up over half the fluorescent lights in the cafeteria when we turned it on.
We were mostly careful.
My 12th grade chemistry teacher made nitroglycerine for us and we blew a 2 foot hole in the end zone of the football field.
Still you did reasonably well-—Alfred and contemporaries learned through hard knocks not to store nitro in bulk quantities in single containers.
The early high explosives factories were surrounded by tall berms shaped like a levee to direct the shock waves skyward when they had a bad day.
I also saw how you could build an arc welder by using nichrome wire coiled up as a wire wound resistor in series with the welding rods. I didn't have any nichrome. I did have some shiny wire. Why not. I wound some up and fabbed a rod holder and ground clamp. Didn't weld worth a damn. Blew the breaker over and over. So I gave up on that project. Gave up on electricity and started on Chemistry. Began buying up jar after jar of Salt Peter and sulfur from the drug store.
You can tell when you’re part of the circuit.
As the old saying goes, it is better to be lucky than smart.
These days the teacher would go to jail.
I dont want to flood the thread with how lucky I am to be alive vs. how stupid I once was, but
5 years old. Dads wire cutters and tape. A couple of old extension cords and in justa short while I was so proud of my freshly repaired double male ended cord I just had to plug it in. Picture the zot kid about to stick a fork in the wall plug-in........POW!
I do remember being more careful after that but it did seem like quite a while before I remember having fun with dads tools.
ohm my. “Conducting” is right.
I was a Radar Tech in the Navy. One time just as we were returning to port, our Nav Radar went down. Another tech and I troubleshot it to a bad connector a trigger cable. Being tube equipment, if you turned it off, you’d have a 5 min or so wait on power up. Just before cutting into the cable with my trusty Case Trapper knife, I asked my lead how bad was I going to get bit. I remember him saying, Triggers, 5 to 50 volt spikes, go ahead. Once that knife blade contacted the center conductor, the knife flew across the room and bounced off the bulkhead right next to shipmate. I retrieved the knife, taped it up good a did the repair.
I was watching a shipmate work on the fathometer that was mounted about chest high on the bulkhead. He got across the 4,000Volt B+ supply. He flew back several feet onto his back. He was shaking like a chicken with his head cut off. Then it stopped as he looked up at everyone watching him. He said, “ I’m going to go get a cup of coffee”. That fool acted like nothing had happened. Not me boy! I get the shakes after getting zotted.
80-81 very rural school. Great Science and Chemistry teachers.
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