Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!ccu.umanitoba.ca!herald.usask.ca!alberta!ubc-cs!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!bu.edu!telecom-request From: floyd@ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: How do You Hook up a Phone For a Play? Message-ID: Date: 21 Feb 91 08:39:38 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Organization: University of Alaska, Institute of Marine Science Lines: 43 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 143, Message 3 of 10 In reference to using 117 VAC 60 Hz to ring a phone: In article gabe@sirius.ctr.columbia. edu (Gabe Wiener) writes: > The danger isn't necessarily frying the phone (though I'm quite sure > that with the low level of quality of today's telephones, most of them > would fry) as much as it is frying the ACTOR who picks up the phone > while wall current is flowing through it. I posted my view on this subject earlier. Since Pat seems to have missed the essense of what I said, and this article more or less falls in line with Pat's feelings that it is intrinsically and specifically hazardous... One more time: 100 VAC 20 Hz is JUST as dangerous, if not more so, that 117 VAC 60 Hz. Using house current to ring the phone is no more, and no less, dangerous, than ANY other reasonable way you can make the ringer work. In fact 60 Hz current may be less dangerous than 20 Hz. 60 Hz current can cause all the normal damage everyone is familiar with if you get a shock, but 20 Hz does something that perhaps most people are not aware of: Your muscles can and will go into clonic-tonic jerks at the 20 Hz rate. They cannot respond that way to 60 Hz current as it is too fast. Hence, in one way, it might be said that 20 Hz current is MORE of a problem than 60 Hz. 20 Hz current will certainly hurt more and usually will be harder to get loose from, than 60 Hz. The difference between having 90-100 VAC and 105-120 VAC (ringing voltage vs. house current voltage) is insignificant. Hence what I am saying is that using 60 Hz is a viable way to ring the phone, just as 20 Hz is, IF WHOEVER HOOKS IT UP KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING. If they don't it is just as hazardous either way. If the phone is well enough insulated for the normal ring voltage, it is well enough insulated for house current. And it certainly is. Floyd L. Davidson | floyd@ims.alaska.edu | Alascom, Inc. pays me Salcha, AK 99714 | Univ. of Alaska | but not for opinions.